The Supreme Court Monday denied John Allen Muhammad’s request to stay his execution, clearing the way for Virginia to put to death the man who terrorized the Washington region as the Beltway Sniper.

Muhammad is scheduled to die by injection at a Virginia prison for the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station during a three-week spree in October 2002 across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Three of the justices wrote a separate statement, not dissenting, but raising concerns about how the state case arrived at the court’s doorstep in an emergency fashion before the Court had fully reviewed any constitutional challenge by Muhammad to his case.

Justices Stevens, joined by Ginsburg and Sotomayor, wrote, “By denying Muhammad’s stay application, we have allowed Virginia to truncate our deliberative process on a matter — involving a death row inmate — that demands the most careful attention. This result is particularly unfortunate in light of the limited time Muhammad was given to make his case in the district court.”

The statement continued, “I do not dissent from the Court’s decision to deny certiorari. I do, however, remain firmly convinced that no state should be allowed to foreshorten this Court’s orderly review of … first-time habeas petitions by executing prisoners before that review can be completed.”

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

Muhammad still has a clemency petition before Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

(Source: USA Today)