US carries out first electrocution since 2010

An American who murdered two fellow inmates while serving a life sentence was put to death by electric chair, a first such execution since 2010, authorities said. Robert Gleason, a 42-year-old former tatoo artist, was declared dead at 9:08 pm local time (0208 GMT), said Larry Traylor, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections in the state of Virginia. Gleason was serving a life sentence for a 2007 murder when he strangled a 63-year-old prisoner in 2009 and another, aged 26, while he awaited sentencing. "Gleason has expressed no remorse for these horrific murders. He has not sought to appeal his convictions and has not filed a petition for clemency," Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell said in a statement earlier. He added that he "found no compelling reason to intercede." In press interviews, Gleason even asked to be executed quickly to keep from killing and, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, told the court at his trial that he wanted the death penalty. His defense team, however, had sought to save his life, highlighting his traumatic childhood, psychiatric woes, and history of drug and alcohol abuse. Gleason, whose only visitor Wednesday was a chaplain, chose death by electrocution instead of lethal injection, according to Traylor. His execution was the first by electric chair in the United States since that of Paul Powell in Virginia on March 18, 2010, according to the DPIC. It said 157 executions out of 1,320, including 30 in Virginia, have been by electrocution since the United States reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Gleason's execution also marks the first of 2013 and the first in Virginia since August 2011. In 2012, 43 inmates were executed in the United States, the DPIC said.