Victims' families see Beltway Sniper die by lethal injection

The Washington sniper was executed as relatives of his victims watched the man who brought terror to the city in a three-week shooting campaign take his final breath.

John Allen Muhammad protested his innocence to the end as he was put to death by lethal injection, seven years after his killing spree.

Eyewitnesses said the 48-year-old former soldier looked calm as he entered the execution chamber.

As the mix of lethal chemicals began flowing into his body via IV lines he began twitching and blinking. He was declared dead at 2.11am UK time.

Muhammad did not utter any words of remorse before he was executed for at least 10 killings in 2002 that almost paralysed the US capital.

Victims' families sat behind glass watching the execution. A further 27 people witnessed his final moments.

Nelson Rivera, whose wife, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, was gunned down as she cleaned her van at a Maryland gas station, said when he watched Muhammad's chest moving for the last time, he was glad. "I feel better. I think I can breathe better and I'm happy he's gone. Because he's not going to hurt anyone else," he said.

Hours before the execution at Greensville Correctional Centre, near Richmond, Virginia, Muhammad had met his son Lindbergh, 27.

He refused to see his first wife, Carol. She said her husband had left her a letter in which he protested his innocence.

Muhammad and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, 17, terrorised the US capital as victim after victim was shot dead while going about their chores. One was gunned down at a petrol station, another mowing the lawn and another leaving a supermarket.

The campaign ended on 24 October 2002, when police captured Muhammad and his accomplice as they slept at a Maryland rest stop in a car which they had modified to allow a gunman to fire from its boot without being detected.

Malvo, now 24, was too young to face the death penalty and is serving life. He gave evidence against Muhammad.