The Beltway Sniper: John Allen Muhammad Executed in Virginia

John Allen Muhummad is dead, paying the ultimate penalty for his killing spree seven years ago.  I have often struggled with the morality of the death penalty, but not in this case.  If ever a case demanded the death penalty, this one did.  Ten people were murdered at random and three others wounded, for no apparent reason.  Islamic Jihad was the stated justification but I believe the killers got a thrill out of the murders, as well as a feeling of power.

I first became aware of the death penalty as a boy, back in 1960 when the state of California executed Caryl Chessman, the so-called "Red Light Bandit."  Chessman was a criminal with a long record.  He never killed anyone, nor did he try to.  What he did do was rob and then rape the female robbery victims.  Back in those days California had its own version of "the Little Lindberg Law," making kidnapping with bodily harm a capital offense.  Chessman moved one of his victims, a 17 year old girl, a short distance before sexually assaulting her and that act alone made him eligible for the gas chamber.

Chessman's victim, one Mary Alice Meza, later went insane and spent the rest of her life in a mental institution.  She wasn't dead, but she may as well have been.  However, various psychiatrists stated that Meza had mental problems before the assault and that her subsequent mental illness was not a result of it.

In 1954, Chessman wrote a book of his memoirs called Cell 2455 Death Row, which was later made into a movie.  The book and the film portrayed Chessman as a victim of mistaken identity and inflamed public opinion in his favor.  However, he was guilty; not only was he a successful robber and rapist, his book proved he was pretty good con man too.    Later, California repealed its Little Lindberg law and commuted related death sentences to life imprisonment.  However, Chessman for some reason wasn't included in those commuted.  Under today's law, he would not have been sentenced to death or even life imprisonment.

Chessman's attorneys filed many appeals, obtaining stays of execution eight times, in some cases by just minutes before the scheduled execution.  His last stay was granted after he had been strapped into the gas chamber, with cyanide gas already filling the death chamber.

Whether or not Chessman deserved to die isn't as clear cut as Muhammad's case, and so I was conflicted about the death penalty for many years.  Killers like Muhammad, however, restore my faith in the rectitude of capital punishment.

You can read more about Chessman here.

Last Practitioner of Jihad, John Allen Muhammad, Dies Tomorrow

John Allen Muhammad, one of the two beltway snipers who randomly murdered 10 people seven years ago, will be executed tomorrow.  Here's another guy with an Arabic name who revered Osama Bin Laden (see his drawing at right), extolled the way of Jihad and praised Allah.  The Religion of Malice was personified in these two cretins, a fact ignored (again) by the mainstream media. (See Lee Malvo's praise of Jihad in the written note below.  Malvo was only 17 at the time so was spared the death penalty.)

Per Wikipedia, Jihad was the reason for the mass murder.  They write:

A series of trial exhibits indicated that Malvo and Muhammad were motivated by an affinity for Islamic Jihad.

Exhibit 65-006: A self-portrait of Malvo in the cross hairs of a gun scope shouting, 'ALLAH AKBAR!' The word 'SALAAM' scrawled vertically. A lyric from Bob Marley's Natural Mystic 'Many more will have to suffer. Many more will have to die. Don't ask me why.'

Exhibit 65-016: A portrait of Saddam Hussein with the words 'INSHALLAH' and 'The Protector,' surrounded by rockets labeled 'chem' and 'nuk.'

Exhibit 65-043: Father and son portrait of Malvo and Muhammad. 'We will kill them all. Jihad.'

Exhibit 65-056: A self-portrait of Malvo as sniper, lying in wait, with his rifle. 'JIHAD' written in bold letters.

Exhibit 65-067: A suicide bomber labeled 'Hamas' walking into a McDonald's restaurant. Another drawing of the Twin Towers burning captioned: '85 percent chance Zionists did this.' More scrawls: 'ALLAH AKBAR,' 'JIHAD' and 'Islam will explode.'

Exhibit 65-103: A lion accompanies chapter and verse from the Koran ('Sura 2:190'): 'Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you and slay them wherever ye catch them.'

Exhibit 65-109: Portrait of Osama bin Laden, captioned 'Servant of Allah.'

Exhibit 65-117: The White House drawn in crosshairs, surrounded by missiles, with a warning: 'Sep. 11 we will ensure will look like a picnic to you' and 'you will bleed to death little by little.'

Exhibit 65-101: Malvo's thought for the day: 'Islam the only true guidance, the way of peace.'"

Tomorrow however, Allah's servant John Allen Muhammad will be strapped to a gurney in a Virginia prison and it will be lights out for the beltway sniper.  For some strange reason, however, Muhammad doesn't appear anxious to reap his 72 virgins and frolic with Allah in the Garden of Erotic Delights:  he has been appealing his conviction and pressing for a stay of execution.  Perhaps he is rethinking this whole martyrdom thing.  If so, it's a bit too late for that, Muhammad.  Salaam!