TWT reporter recounts sniper’s last moments

This was my first execution.

I was one of four news media witnesses to attend John Allen Muhammad’s execution Tuesday night.

The 48-year-old convict was condemned to die for killing Dean Harold Meyers, the civil engineer who was one of 10 killed during Muhammad’s 2002 shooting rampage.

The day had gone from gorgeous to dark, with sudden downpours.

I and the three other reporters authorized to see the execution walked away from the media armada that assembled at the Greensville Correctional Center for the death of the man who engineered the D.C. sniper attacks.

At 7 p.m., we presented our credentials and were issued yellow identification badges. We were promptly told to return all notepads, pencils and watches to our cars. I left with my pads and pencils and returned with only my driver’s license and the yellow card they had issued to me.

A white van was to take us to another building where David Bass, the Virginia Department of Corrections regional manager for the eastern region, would explain the evening to us and the six official state witnesses.

We filed out, piled in the van and were driven across the prison campus - falling in line behind the van carrying the six witnesses. They were driven to and from the prison from a remote location to protect their privacy.

At our destination, the vans backed in through a secure metal gate and we were ferried inside a minimum security building.

We sat among vending machines and shelves in a room lined with books. It was 7:25 p.m. according to a clock on the wall, and the execution wasn’t scheduled until 9 p.m. We sat around four tables.

Mr. Bass explained to us what to anticipate, where we would go and the responsibilities of state witnesses. He told the six volunteers that while state code mandates their number and existence, it didn’t specify what they do.

“I guess your job is to be there and be present,” he said.

He told us we’d be ferried at 8:30 p.m. to the far side of the facility. The vans would drop us off at the L Unit, the maximum security area where those who aren’t trusted among the general prison population are housed. The death house is part of the building.

The description lasted about 25 minutes, and then he took questions. There weren’t many. Small talk ensued. One man was asked how long he’d been with the border patrol. The chatter eventually returned to death.

Dena Potter of the Associated Press and Frank Green of the Richmond Times-Dispatch had witnessed multiple executions at Greenville. Television reporter Jon Burkett of WTVR CBS 6 in Richmond had seen an inmate die in the electric chair.

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