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Va. gov clears way for execution of sniper

RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has cleared the way for the execution of sniper John Allen Muhammad.

Kaine denied Muhammad's clemency request Tuesday.

Muhammad is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday night at a Virginia prison for killing Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station during a three-week spree that left 10 people dead in 2002 across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

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

Muhammad's attorney, Jonathan Sheldon, says Virginia will be executing a severely mentally ill man.

Muhammad has exhausted all of his court appeals.

DC snipers began spree in Tacoma

Officials believe the deadly spree that culminated in the D.C. sniper shootings in the fall of 2002 began earlier in the year when John Allen Muhammad and accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo lived in Tacoma.

Malvo has admitted killing Keenya Cook on February 16, 2002, in Tacoma, telling police and psychiatrists the shooting was Muhammad's way of testing him. Prosecutors decided not to charge Malvo, who is serving a life term.

The 21-year-old Cook was shot in the face when she opened the door at the home of her aunt, Isa Nichols. Nichols was friends with Muhammad's ex-wife, Mildred, and had helped Mildred regain custody of her children after a bitter divorce from Muhammad.