WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Supreme Court cleared the path on Monday for John Allen Muhammad to be executed. The justices turned down an eleventh-hour appeal to block the death by injection, which is schedule to take place in a Virginia prison Tuesday evening. They said they saw no reason in Muhammad's case to stop the execution.
The Beltway sniper was convicted of masterminding the random shootings which terrorized the D.C. area in the fall of 2002. Muhammad and partner in crime Lee Boyd Malvo, who was a juvenile at the time of the shootings, went on a three week killing spree across Maryland, Virginia and the D.C. area. Ten people died and sixteen were shot. They were also suspected of fatal shootings in Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana and other states.
Malvo, who is now 24, is serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Muhammad still has a clemency petition before Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.