State Supreme Court upholds death sentence

By Dena Potter Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- A man who strangled his cellmate and another inmate at the state's most secure prisons and vowed to keep killing unless he was put to death got one step closer to his execution on Thursday when the Virginia Supreme Court upheld his death sentence. Robert Gleason Jr., 42, is not appealing his punishment, but state law requires the Supreme Court to review all death sentences to ensure that they are not disproportionate or imposed under influence of passion or prejudice. During an unusually brief hearing in April, justices had no questions for Gleason's attorneys, who had been directed by him not to argue against his death sentence. Gleason told The Associated Press he will not appeal his case at the federal level. If he doesn't, he could be executed later this year. "He really kind of tied our hands just a little bit," said Walt Rivers, one of Gleason's attorneys. "It's a strange case, a frustrating case." Gleason was serving a life prison term for murder at Wallens Ridge State Prison in May 2009 when he killed his cellmate, Harvey Watson Jr. He told the AP then that he would continue killing unless given the death penalty. He repeated those threats in court. After being transferred to Red Onion State Prison, the state's only supermax facility, Gleason strangled inmate Aaron Cooper in an adjoining outdoor recreation cage in July 2010. Cooper was dead more than an hour before he was discovered by corrections officers, despite security cameras and a watch tower overlooking the individual cages. Katherine Burnette, senior assistant attorney general, told the Supreme Court in April that Gleason sarcastically told officers trying to resuscitate Cooper that "you're going to have to pump a lot harder than that." Burnette said in court that Gleason's actions, as well his comment that killing a person was "like tying a shoe," overwhelmingly demonstrate that he should be executed. Gleason was sentenced to death in September. Published: Fri, Jun 8, 2012