Dirt bag now taking a dirt nap
Posted on 01/17/2013 9:48:29 AM PST by COBOL2Java
RICHMOND — A man who strangled his prison cellmate and made good on a vow to continue killing if he wasn’t executed was put to death Wednesday in Virginia’s electric chair.
Robert Gleason Jr., 42, was pronounced dead by authorities at 9:08 p.m. at Greensville Correctional Center. He became the first inmate executed in the U.S. this year and the first to choose death by electrocution since 2010. In Virginia and nine other states, death row inmates are allowed to choose between electrocution and lethal injection.
Gleason was serving life in prison for the 2007 fatal shooting of a man when he became frustrated with prison officials because they wouldn’t move out his mentally disturbed cellmate. Gleason hogtied, beat and strangled 63-year-old Harvey Watson Jr. in May 2009 and remained with the inmate’s body for more than 15 hours before the crime was discovered.
“Someone needs to stop it,” he told The Associated Press after Watson’s death. “The only way to stop me is put me on death row.”
While awaiting sentencing at a highly secure prison for the state’s most dangerous inmates, Gleason strangled 26-year-old Aaron Cooper through wire fencing that separated their individual cages in a recreation yard in July 2010. As officers tried to resuscitate Cooper — video surveillance shows he was choked on and off for nearly an hour — Gleason told them “you’re going to have to pump a lot harder than that.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Trivia bits:
He was executed by electric chair. Prisoners’ choice in that state, either that or injection.
His last words were “Kiss my ass!”, in Gaelic, not English.
He claimed to have killed many more, but he was different than others on death row, because he exclusively killed criminals.
He was initially convicted and sentenced to life in prison almost entirely based on his confession, since there was little other evidence linking him with the victim.
He strangled his mentally disturbed cellmate after repeatedly asking that he be moved from his cell, requests that were ignored.
He owned and operated a tattoo parlor, and won awards for the quality of his tattoo artistry.
Ole’ sparky wouldn’t be my first choice buy hey let him ride the lightning!
He is now an evangelist
What took so long?
The Commonwealth of Virgina let a real opportunity for good slip through its fingers in its handling of this case.
I feel your pain. I live in MN.
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