Muhammad died by injection at 9:11 p.m. at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, prison spokesman Larry Traylor said.

He said that Muhammad had no final statement and that Traylor didn't hear him utter any words during the execution.

Muhammad was executed for killing Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot in the head at a Manassas gas station during a string of shootings that left 10 dead across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

The shootings terrorized the region, as victim after victim was shot down while doing everyday chores: going shopping, pumping gas, mowing the lawn. One child was shot while walking into his middle school.

People stayed indoors. Those who did go outside weaved as they walked or bobbed their heads to make themselves a less easy target.

The reign of terror ended on Oct. 24, 2002, when police captured Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, as they slept at a Maryland rest stop in a car they had outfitted for a shooter to perch in its trunk without being detected.

Muhammad and Malvo also were suspected of fatal shootings in other states, including Louisiana, Alabama and Arizona. Malvo was sentenced to life in prison.

The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Muhammad's final appeal Monday and yesterday Gov. Timothy M. Kaine denied clemency.

Cheryll Witz was one of several victims' family members who traveled to Virginia to watch the execution. Malvo confessed that he shot her father, Jerry Taylor, on a Tucson, Ariz., golf course in March 2002 at Muhammad's direction.

"He basically watched my dad breathe his last breath," she said. "Why shouldn't I watch his last breath?"

The motive for the shootings is murky. Malvo said that Muhammad wanted to use the plot to extort $10 million from the government.

Muhammad had been in and out of the military since he graduated from high school in Louisiana and entered the National Guard. A convert to Islam, John Allen Williams would later change his name to Muhammad.

He joined the Army in 1985 and trained in Washington state as a combat engineer. He did not take special sniper training but earned an expert rating in the M-16 rifle - the military cousin of the .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle used in the sniper shootings.

However, his life was full of failure. He was twice divorced, and after serving in the first Iraq war, he could never find financial stability.

He opened a karate school but it didn't last; neither did his car repair shop. The man who looked for self-discipline in exercise and Islam found himself living in a homeless shelter in 2001 and a few months later was accused of shoplifting food.