Virginia Beach, Va. ? A jury decided Monday that John Allen Muhammad should be executed for taking it upon himself to choose who should live and who should die during the sniper attacks that gripped the Washington area for three terrifying weeks last fall.

Muhammad reacted with the same flinty look he had through most of the trial.

The jury deliberated more than five hours over two days before deciding the fate of Muhammad, a 42-year-old Gulf War veteran who masterminded the attacks and asked police to “Call me God” during the reign of terror.

The jury’s recommendation is not final. Judge Leroy F. Millette Jr. can reduce the punishment to life in prison without parole when Muhammad is formally sentenced on Feb. 12, but Virginia judges rarely take such action.

Some jurors said the lack of any emotion or remorse, combined with the broad scope and violence of the shootings, convinced them that the death penalty was the only option.

“I looked for something in him that might have shown remorse,” juror Robert Elliott said. “And I never saw it the whole time.”

The jury concluded that prosecutors proved both aggravating factors necessary to impose the death penalty: that Muhammad would pose a danger and that his crimes were wantonly vile. Muhammad was sentenced to death on both counts he was convicted of last Monday: committing multiple murders within three years and committing murder as part of a plot to terrorize the public.

“They took pleasure in terrorizing people,” prosecutor Paul Ebert said Monday of Muhammad and fellow suspect Lee Boyd Malvo. “They took pleasure in killing people. That’s the kind of man that doesn’t deserve to be in society.”

Prosecutors had depicted Muhammad as a ruthless murderer who was “captain of a killing team,” and they presented evidence of 16 shootings, including 10 deaths, in Maryland, Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana and Washington, D.C. Muhammad could be prosecuted in those jurisdictions as well.