Sniper to ask court to block execution

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By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Attorneys for sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad plan to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to stop his execution next week.

Muhammad is scheduled to die by lethal injection next Tuesday at a Virginia prison.

Attorneys for the 48-year-old Muhammad have said they planned to file the appeal Tuesday. They asked Gov. Tim Kaine for clemency last month.

Muhammad is to be executed for the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas, Va., gas station during a three-week killing spree in October 2002 that left 10 dead in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, also were suspected of fatal shootings in other states, including Louisiana and Alabama. Malvo is serving a life sentence in a Virginia prison.