A Virginia jury returns a well deserved death sentence

Textbooks have been written on why capital punishment should be abolished, but every once in a while a textbook case for the death penalty comes along.
Such is the case of John Allen Muhammad, the convicted sniper and mastermind of a shooting spree that terrorized the Washington, D.C. area last year.
A jury deliberated a total of 51/2 hours Friday afternoon and Monday morning before delivering its recommendation that Muhammad, 42, receive the death penalty in connection with two murder counts -- one for killing during a terrorist act and another for committing multiple slayings during a three-year period.
Muhammad's young accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo 18, is being tried separately. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Tape recordings of his confession to some of the murders were played during his trial
The toll
Ten people died and three were wounded during a three-week shooting spree in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area in October 2002.
The shootings were methodical. The pair had turned their car into a sniper's nest on wheels. They picked their crime scenes, pinpointed their victims. They killed men, women and children without mercy or any visible signs of remorse.
The motives for the killings, which terrorized the area by their randomness, has never been clear. There is even speculation that Muhammad intended eventually to kill his estranged wife, hoping to make the murder appear as only another in the string of sniper killings.
Whatever the motive, the premeditation involved in carrying out the spree, coupled with Muhammad's utter lack of contrition, made it necessary for the jury to return a recommendation for the death penalty, even though several jurors had obvious misgivings about capital punishment.
A young life ruined
Muhammad not only planned the murders of at least 10 people, but he played on the vulnerability of Malvo, who saw him as a father figure, to carry out the killings. Whether Malvo was so open to Muhammad's manipulation that he can be excused of full culpability for murder will be argued in his trial.
But it is beyond argument that Muhammad not only killed or facilitated the killing of 10 people, but he played a major role in ruining Lee Boyd Malvo's life.
For the murders, Muhammad earned the ultimate punishment. For dragging along Malvo, he's earned a special place in hell.