JARRATT, Va. -- The state of Virginia has executed the mastermind behind the D.C. sniper shootings that left 10 people dead in 2002.
After six years on death row, John Muhammad was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday night.
There to witness the execution was Marion Lewis of Mountain Home.
Lewis' daughter, Lori Lewis Rivera, was shot and killed at a Maryland gas station when Muhammad went on his killing spree.
"I have confidence that actually seeing him executed will bring a little more closure for myself ," said Marion Lewis. "That same closure will hopefully come for the rest of our family hearing that he's dead."
Muhammad and his teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo went on a bloody rampage -- 23 days of terrorizing communities in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Ten people were killed in the shooting spree and since his arrest, Muhammad has been linked to five additional murders.
Virginia governor Tim Kaine denied his request for clemency and Muhammad, formerly of Tacoma, was executed at 9:11 p.m. EST at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia.
Sniper John Allen Muhammad met with relatives in the hours before his execution and one of his attorneys described the convicted killer as fearless.
Muhammad died by injection Tuesday night at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. His attorneys had asked Kaine to commute his sentence to life in prison because they say he is mentally ill. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down his final appeal.
Attorney J. Wyndal Gordon said Muhammad had no regrets and would die with dignity Tuesday night in Virginia. Gordon also insisted that Muhammad was innocent.
Gordon says Muhammad met with one of his sons before the execution and then reminisced with the attorney about the time he spent with his son before Muhammad went to prison.
A sister of one of Muhammad's ex-wives says Muhammad returned from the first Gulf War a changed man. Sheron Norman says the nation should do a better job of caring for its veterans.
"I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury and then imposed and affirmed by the courts," Kaine, who is known for carefully considering death penalty cases, said in a statement. "Accordingly, I decline to intervene."
Muhammad was sentenced to death for killing Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas gas station during a three-week spree that left 10 dead across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
He and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, also were suspected of fatal shootings in other states, including Louisiana, Alabama and Arizona.
The motive for the shootings remains murky. Malvo said Muhammad wanted to use the plot to extort $10 million from the government to set up a camp in Canada where homeless children would be trained as terrorists. But Muhammad's ex-wife has said she believes the attacks were a smoke screen for his plan to kill her and regain custody of their three children.
For the families of those killed, the day is a long time coming.
Cheryll Witz is one of several victims' relatives who were going to watch the execution. Malvo confessed that, at Muhammad's direction, he shot her father, Jerry Taylor, on a Tucson, Ariz., golf course in March 2002.
"He basically watched my dad breathe his last breath," she said. "Why shouldn't I watch his last breath?"
The shootings terrorized the Washington region, with victims gunned down while doing everyday chores like shopping or pumping gas. People stayed indoors. Those who had to go outside weaved as they walked or bobbed their heads to make themselves less of a target.
The terror ended on Oct. 24, 2002, when police captured Muhammad and Malvo as they slept at a Maryland rest stop in a car they had outfitted so a shooter could hide in the trunk and fire through a hole in the body of the vehicle. Malvo is serving a life sentence in Virginia.
Death penalty opponents planned vigils across the state, and some were headed for Jarratt, about an hour south of Richmond, for the execution.
Beth Panilaitis, executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said those who planned to protest understand the fear that gripped the community, and the nation, during the attacks.
"The greater metro area and the citizens of Virginia have been safe from this crime for seven years," Panilaitis said. "Incarceration has worked and life without the possibility of parole has and will continue to keep the people of Virginia safe."
Comments have been turned off for this article.