A Virginia prison inmate who killed two fellow inmates in Southwest Virginia has been put to death in the electric chair. Robert Gleason Jr. was pronounced dead by authorities at 9:08 p.m. last night. Before being lowered into the chair, Gleason winked and made reference to two songs he liked before he uttered an Irish expletivie and concluded with the last words: “God bless.” The 42-year-old inmate was the first executed in the U.S. this year and the first to choose to die by electrocution since 2010. In Virginia and nine other states, inmates can choose between electrocution and lethal injection. Gleason had fought last-minute attempts by former attorneys to stop the execution. He told The Associated Press he deserved to die for what he did. Gleason was serving life in prison for a 2007 murder when he killed his cellmate in 2009. He strangled another inmate in 2010.
Jan 17