"It closes a chapter but it doesn't close the book. We know he wasn't the only person involved," Frank Dugan, president of the group Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, said from Alexandria, Va.
To the end, al-Megrahi insisted he had nothing to do with the bombing. Those who believe him got a boost in 2007 when a three-year investigation by a Scottish tribunal found that new evidence — and old evidence with fashionbuybags.com held from trial — suggested that al-Megrahi "may have suffered a miscarriage of justice." Its 800-page report prompted an appeal on al-Megrahi's behalf, but by then his fate was in the hands of politicians in London, Tripoli and Edinburgh, all of whom jockeyed for position as Libya rebuilt its ties with Britain and al-Megrahi's health deteriorated.
Still protesting his innocence, al-Megrahi dropped the appeal in a bid to clear the path for his release on compassionate grounds. He flew home to a hero's welcome in 2009.
He should have died in prison, said Susan Cohen of Cape May Court House, N.J., whose daughter was among the Syracuse University students on the flight.
"The fact that he was able to get out and live with his family these past few years is an appalling miscarriage of justice. There was no excuse for that," Cohen said Sunday. "He should have died in the Scottish prison. He should have been tried in the United States and faced capital punishment."
Al-Megrahi's death should not be an excuse to stop trying to find out who was behind the bombing, she added. She called on U.S. and British officials to "dig even deeper" into the case.