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	Courtesy Photo John Allen Muhammad

Muhammad, along with teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, terrorized the region for three weeks in October 2002.

Muhammad is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 9 p.m. this evening at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarrat, Va., for the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas Sunoco station, one of 10 killings in the Washington area.

Muhammad and Malvo were suspected of killings 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.

Beth Panilaitis, executive director of Virginia Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said a vigil is planned for 8:30 p.m. outside the Greensville institution, coordinated with others around the state.

Several family members of victims have said they will witness the execution, including Marion Lewis of Mountain Home, Idaho, and Nelson Rivera of Sacramento, Calif. Lewis said his trip and accommodations are being paid for by the television program "Inside Edition."

Lewis' daughter and Rivera's ex-wife, Lori Lewis Rivera, a 25-year-old mother, was killed Oct. 3, 2002 while vacuuming her car at a Shell gas station near her home in Kensington. Robert Dean, a brother of Dean Harold Meyers, has also said he will be present at the execution.

Larry M. Traylor, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Corrections, declined to say how many victims' family members are expected at the execution.

"Victims' families will be in a separate room from media and state witnesses for their privacy and security," said Traylor, who has been fielding media requests from around the world. "No one can see into that room, but they can see into the execution room."

Traylor said 20 to 25 people will be in the main witness room, which by state law requires a minimum of six residents of the state of Virginia, and includes media representatives. Normally, four members of the media are present at each execution. Those media representatives are chosen by the Associated Press, the Virginia Press Association and Virginia Association of Broadcasters.

Media members are allowed to take notes, but cameras and recording devices are not allowed.

Inmates are given the option of electrocution or lethal injection, Traylor said. Lethal injection is the automatic selection if an inmate chooses not to pick one or the other, as was the case with Muhammad.

Only Texas executes more people than Virginia.

While at Greensville, inmates awaiting execution are housed in one of three cells next to the death chamber.

Muhammad has been allowed visits with attorneys and immediate family members, clergy and spiritual advisers in the days leading up to the execution.

On the day of execution, inmates may have one contact visit with immediate family members. Attorneys, clergy and spiritual advisers are allowed to visit up until the time of execution. Traylor said last week that, as far as he knew, Muhammad had not requested that a spiritual adviser be present.

For their last meal, inmates may select any meal or combination of items from the institution's 28-day cycle menu, but nothing from outside the institution. The meal must be finished four hours before the execution. Whether details of an inmate's last meal are released is up to the inmate, he said.

Muhammad may request a cigarette; smoking will be allowed in Virginia prisons until February 2010. Inmates are allowed to shower about two hours before execution.

A clergy member may accompany the inmate to the death chamber to offer words of comfort or prayer. Muhammad will be allowed a final word, but will not be able to make a speech.

Shackled and dressed in blue denim jeans, a blue denim shirt and flip flops, inmates are escorted into the chamber just prior to the appointed hour. Curtains separating the witness room and the execution chamber remain open until the inmate is restrained to the table, according to a press release from the Virginia Department of Corrections.

Once the inmate is restrained, curtains are closed and remain closed until the IV lines have been placed, normally one in each arm. The curtains are reopened and the order to carry out the sentence of the court follows.

A dark blue curtain behind the inmate remains closed so the administrator injecting the lethal three-chemical dose cannot not be seen, Traylor said. Officials monitoring inmates' vital signs are also hidden.

Condemned people executed by lethal injection are injected first with thiopental sodium, which renders them unconscious. The second injection is pancuronium bromide, which stops breathing. The final injection is potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

The Associated Press contributed to this story