The family of a Gaithersburg man killed in 2002 by Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad at a Manassas, Va., service station plans to attend his execution, scheduled for Nov. 10.
Relatives of Dean H. Meyers want to see Muhammad pay his "debt to society," said Bob Meyers, the shooting victim's brother.
A Virginia judge set the execution date last week during a hearing with prosecution and defense attorneys.
Muhammad was sentenced to death in November 2003 after he was convicted of two capital offenses in Meyers' death — committing multiple murders within a three-year period and committing murder as an act of terrorism.
"We don't really have vengeance in mind or vindictiveness," said Bob Meyers, 56. "We just feel it's an appropriate step in the process because of the choices [Muhammad] made. It provides some closure because of the horrific nature of my brother's murder."
Dean Meyers was gunned down Oct. 9, 2002, as he pumped gasoline on his way home from an engineering firm where he worked.
If Muhammad's appeals for clemency to Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) or to the U.S. Supreme Court are unsuccessful, he is set to be taken to the execution chamber at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt.
Virginia offers the option to the condemned of lethal injection or the electric chair, said Larry Traylor, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Corrections. If an inmate does not decide, the execution is carried out by lethal injection.
About four days before his scheduled execution, Muhammad will be moved from the death row at Sussex I State Prison to Greensville, where he will be housed in one of three cells next to the death chamber, Traylor said.
Dean Meyers, who would have been 60 this year, was among the victims of Muhammad's October 2002 shooting spree, committed with then-teenaged accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, in the Washington region that left 10 dead. Malvo is serving life in prison without parole.
Meyers was the seventh death attributed to the Beltway snipers. He was killed with a single bullet at 8:18 p.m. Oct. 9, after filling up his car at a Sunoco station near Manassas, Va.
"I saw the pictures of the crime scene at the trial," Bob Meyers said. "It was a very horrific sight. This provides some closure in the final chapter of the whole sordid affair. At the same time, we feel we need to be at the execution for my brother. We feel it's the right step."
Dean Meyers was described by family members as a caring and humble man who lived alone in his brick town house, sponsored underprivileged children in Third World countries and took his nephews to baseball games.
Meyers had served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, where he received the Purple Heart when he was shot in the left arm. The wound required multiple surgeries.