Political Article on The “Silent Dc Sniper Mastermind Muhammad Executed”

11/12/09

Political Article

Silent DC sniper mastermind Muhammad executed — Dena Potter, Steve Szkotak, and Bob Lewis — AOL News — November 10,2009

John Allen Muhammad, a 48 year old man formerly know as John Allen Williams before he became Islamic and changed his name, was recently executed for masterminding the killing of 10 people in October 2002. John Allen Muhammad was finally captured by police while he was sleeping on October 24, 2002 in a car that he had outfitted for a shooter to perch in its trunk without being detected. Muhammad’s accomplice in the shooting was a young 17 year old named Malvo who was sentenced to life in prison. Even in the end, a motive for all the madness was not clear; yet Muhammad’s ex-wife had believed that killings to be part of a larger plot to kill her and gain custody of their three children. Malvo however, had a different explanation. He thought that Muhammad wanted to extort $10 million from the government and set up a terrorist training camp in Canada where homeless children would be trained as terrorists. Before the execution, the warden asked, “Mr. Muhammad, do you have any last words?”. Muhammad, just looked looking calm and stoic, while saying nothing. J. Wyndal Gordon, one of Muhammad’s attorneys, described his client in his final hours as fearless and still insisting he was innocent; “he will die with dignity — dignity to the point of defiance”. The deathly execution of John Allen Muhammad and the life in jail for Malvo was all caused by their stupid acts of murder.

The execution of Muhammad and the deaths of the 10 people in October of 2002 influenced the United States in several ways. First of all, the death of Linda Franklin will negatively impact the United States. Linda was a 47 year old FBI analyst who was killed in one of Muhammad’s planned shootings. The loss of another government worker can only hinder the federal bureaucracy. It also seems as if the United States military is continuously training terrorists and people who are against the United States. Possibly with this realization, the United States military will more carefully select their soldiers before training them (most likely not though). Hopefully with this experience behind us, we will be able to learn from it and learn to anticipate such an action as a gunman in a trunk if it happens again. This article had very little opinion in it and was mainly facts and quotes that illuminate the scene.