Smoke Rising

And now he's dead.

They killed him just as he insisted they should.  The way he wanted them to.  This is the punishment I want you to give me, that I insist you give me.  I'm a very bad man, so do what I want.

And since he's a very bad man, he got his way.

He smiled to the room full of witnesses as soon as he stepped into the execution chamber and winked at his spiritual advisor, who was sitting in the crowd. He gave a thumbs up as he sat in the chair.

Eight minutes later,

with fists partially clinched and smoke rising from his body,

Robert Gleason was dead.  His last words:

Well, I hope Percy ain’t going to  wet the sponge. Put me on the highway to Jackson and call my Irish buddies. Pog mo thoin. God bless.

The Irishman from Lowell, Massachusetts, killed in the electric chair in Jarratt, Virginia. 

As he insisted.  As he wanted.

Thumbs up and fists clenched.  Smoke rising.

Feel better?

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Inset quotes are from coverage by Michael Owens at TriCities.com.

It's So Much Easier To Kill than Be Competent

So it looks like Robert Gleason will finally get his wish.

He wants his lower right leg to be shaved and also his head.  He wants to have a metal cap strapped onto his head and an electrode strapped to the shaved part of his leg.  He wants to have a strap across his chest and a couple more holding down his arms.  And then he wants some designated killer to flip a switch or press a button or whatever they do there in the Old Dominion State in order to get the electricity flowing.

He could have chosen to be tied down to a gurney or a table or whatever they use and have the killers pump poison into him, but he figures that'll hurt more.  So the chair it is.  His choice.

Just as it's been his choice to be killed.  

I'm not going to write at length about the stories.  I've parsed them in some detail here and here and here.

Gleason was doing LWOP in maximum security for the May 8, 2007 murder of Michael Kent Jamerson when, on May 8, 2009* he killed Harvey Watson, his cellmate.  He'd begged the guards to move Watson, but they wouldn't.  So while the guards were off abusing some prisoner or masturbating or shooting dice or maybe betting on how long it would take or whatever, they screwed up the count and didn't notice that Watson had been bound, gagged, beaten and strangled until 15 hours later.  And then when he was going to be tried he insisted on a plea and begged for death warning everyone that if they didn't order him killed, he'd choose to kill again.

Gleason was due to be sentenced on August 31, 2010.  But just to make sure, to prove that he'd carry out his threat, on July 28 he slipped torn strips of a towel through a chain-link-fenced wall of an exercise cage at the Mother State's supermax prison and strangle Aaron Alexander Cooper who was exercising in the next cage.  Despite security camera and a watchtower, Cooper was dead for an hour before anyone apparently noticed.  Since, I suppose, the prison guards who should have been watching were apparently off abusing some other prisoners or masturbating or shooting dice or maybe betting on how long it would take Cooper to die.

And now it's Gleason's time. 

Not that long as these things go, but this is Virginia where the timeline tends to be particularly swift and of course it gets helped along when the guy they want to kill insists that he wants to be killed.  And that if they take their time, he''ll keep killing.

While the guards keep abusing some prisoner or masturbating or shooting dice or maybe betting on how long it will take the next guy to die or whatever.

They're going to kill him Wednesday.  The judge said he won't stop it.  The governor said he won't stop it. Gleason, of course, doesn't want them to stop it.

One of Gleason's former lawyers says that Gleason once told him he didn't want to die.  Maybe.  But he's told an awful lot of people, including judges and jurors, and as recently as last week, that he wants to be killed.

I suppose it will happen.  Unless the prison guards are too busy abusing some prisoner or masturbating or shooting dice or maybe betting on how long it will take to remember to pull the switch.

Because here's the dirty secret nobody's talking about.  If the prison guards at Virginia's maximum and supermaximum prisons actually did their jobs, Harvey Watson and Aaron Cooper would never have been murdered.  And Gleason would be punished in a way he didn't want - by serving out his sentence of death in prison.

According to Sarah Favot, in the Lowell Sun (Gleason's from Lowell), his family has already arranged for a paid obit in the Sun on Thursday.

Gleason's best attribute was the love he had for his family, according to the obituary. Gleason will leave behind four children and two grandchildren.

What the obit presumably won't say is that he'll also leave behind a couple of dead men because the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia would rather be in the business of killing people like Gleason than of running their prisons competently.

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*Really, two years to the day later.

On the Other Hand

Today was the day we'd find out if Virginia would give Robert Gleason, Jr. his wish.  

It's the day sentencing was scheduled to be sentenced for the murder of his cellie, Harvey Watson.  It was no ordinary killing.  Gleason had begged the prison authorities to separate the two of them.  After the killing, Gleason managed to keep the fact that Watson was dead a secret through two standing counts and several meals.  The guards lied in their reports about it.

Anyway, Gleason was capitally charged, and he wanted to be executed.  He fired his lawyers when they worked out a plea bargain for life.  He entered a guilty plea and asked for death.  He issued a threat.  If I'm not sentenced to die, he said, I'll kill again.  I wrote about that here.

While waiting for sentencing, he decided (or so it is alleged, and he reportedly conceded the point) to demonstrate that he could carry out his threat by killing Alexander Cooper while they were both in Virginia's supermax prison - you know, the one where inmates are never within touching range unless they're separated by a physical barrier.

Again, it was a bizarre killing that shouldn't have been possible.  (You can read about it here.)   It's almost inconceivable (if the story given to the media is true) that it could have occurred without the acquiescence of the prison guards.  Gleason hasn't been charged with killing Cooper.  That one's still under investigation.

Anyway, today Gleason was to be sentenced.

But things don't always go quite as expected.

Instead of getting sentenced, Gleason withdrew his guilty plea.  The judge gave him new lawyers, and he's heading for a trial.  According to Dena Potter, writing for the AP, Gleason didn't say why he wanted to change his plea, though he's said that he wants to put the prison guards on the witness stand.

What happens now?

It's hard to say.  He could, after all, fire his lawyers and plead guilty again.  He might effect another murder using his mystical skills.  He might demand and get death.

Then again . . . .

Here's what I know.  When he said he wanted to be killed, Watson's sister was against it.  Dena Potter wrote at the time,

Watson's sister, Barbara McLeod of Longmont, Colo., said Gleason should be forced to spend the rest of his life in prison with no privileges.
"He doesn't deserve to be able to control his own destiny at this point. He doesn't deserve to have his death on the conscience of the state of Virginia," she said.

Some things don't change.

Potter spoke with her again.

"I still believe that he needs to spend his life -- his natural life as long as he's intended to live -- he needs to spend it in solitude and isolation with minimum privileges. He doesn't need to live in luxury at the expense of the state," she said. "Yes, it costs more money but it is disgusting that the state of Virginia cannot stop this man from murdering."

The financial thing is tricky, since volunteers, at least, don't generally run up terribly high legal bills after sentencing.  But money aside, and McLeod pretty clearly does put it aside, she's right.  If Gleason's killing folks while he's in prison and the guards are watching, then Virginia's not doing its job.  As for Gleason himself?  The one rule is that the prisoner doesn't get to set the terms.

Trial is scheduled for two weeks, beginning February 21.

Kill Me Now or Kill Me Later - Part 2

Let's assume he did it.

Gleason

Here's the background.  Robert Gleason, Jr. is serving a life sentence for murder.   While in prison he killed his cellmate, Harvey Watson.  The Commonwealth of Virginia charged him with capital murder.  His lawyers worked out a plea deal so he fired them and entered a guilty plea.  He insists that he be put to death.  He threatened to kill again unless he was sentenced to die.  (You can read more about it, including my take on the story here.)

While the judge considers that, Gleason is sitting in the Red Onion State Prison, Virginia's supermax.  And now, it seems, he's done it again.  This time it was Aaron Alexander Cooper, another inmate at Red Onion.

Dena Potter, writing for AP gives some details.

Cooper died Wednesday in the recreation yard for inmates housed in segregation at the maximum security Red Onion State Prison in southwestern Virginia. Elkins is awaiting a report from the medical examiner on Monday, but he said authorities believe Cooper was strangled.
Authorities are trying to figure out how it could have happened, because each inmate is placed in a separate, small caged-in area for recreation. Elkins said authorities believe Cooper was strangled with a piece of clothing, towel or bed sheet that was somehow reached through the chain link fence that separates the inmates on the recreation yard.

Let's think about that.  Gleason is in his exercise cage.  With guards watching (or supposed to be watching), he managed to slip the bedsheet he had with him (Huh?  He had a sheet?) or maybe it was a towel, through the cage slits and got it around Cooper's neck and strangled him.  While the guards just watched.  Maybe he turned himself (and his sheet/towel) invisible?  Maybe he dematerialized from his cage and rematerialized in Cooper's?  ("But Captain, the transporter's been acting up again?"  "I'll take my chances.  Beam me over, Scotty.")  Maybe the guards unlocked the cages so Gleason and Cooper could be together.

I don't know.

Still, let's assume he did it.

What do we do now.

The man wants to die.  He doesn't want to commit suicide. He wants to be killed by the Commonwealth of Virginia.  He insists that if they don't kill him, he'll keep killing.  He's apparently serious about the threat and Virginia is too incompetent to stop him.

So the issue is posed:

We do what he wants, or he keeps killing until we do?

Isn't that the essence of terrorism?  And don't we have a rule that says you don't give terrorists what they want because it just encourages more?  And anyway, why should we give him the satisfaction?  He wants to die.  We want to punish him.  Shouldn't that mean keeping him alive?

So there's the choice:  Killing him might save lives.  Killing him means the terrorists win.

I've got it.

Run the damn prison competently.

Kill Me Now or Kill Me Later: But, Please, Kill Me

Robert Gleason wants to die.

More precisely, he wants to be killed.  By the Commonwealth of Virginia.  This is, sort of, his story.

Gleason, an inmate at Wallens Ridge State Prison was in prison, serving a life sentence for murder when he got a new cellmate, Harvey Watson.  Watson was annoying.  Really, seriously annoying.  Gleason begged the prison authorities to move Watson.  Dena Potter, writing for the AP, tells the story:

For seven days, Robert Gleason Jr. begged correctional officers and counselors at Wallens Ridge State Prison to move his new cellmate. The constant singing, screaming and obnoxious behavior were too much, and Gleason knew he was ready to snap.
On the eighth day -- May 8, 2009 -- correctional officers found Harvey Gray Watson Jr., 63, bound, gagged, beaten and strangled. His death went unnoticed for 15 hours because correctional officers had not followed proper procedure for inmate head counts at the high-security prison in Southwest Virginia.

We'll ignore for the moment the failures of the prison guards since there's nothing Potter's report to suggest that they actually contributed to Watson's death.  But we'll be coming back to them, so remember that they seriously screwed up.

Anyway, Gleason was arrested and charged with capital murder.  Lawyers were appointed, motions were filed.  Last month, while his lawyers were trying to work out a deal to spare him the death penalty (they actually did work out the deal), Gleason fired them.  Then he entered a guilty plea.  

And he's asked for death, promised not to appeal if he gets it.  Actually, he did more than ask.  He's made it a threat.

Kill me or I'll kill again.

He doesn't say he can't control himself.  He told the prosecutor he has no remorse, but he also says he deserves death.

"I did this. I deserve it," he said. "That man, he didn't deserve to die. . . .  He needed help."

So he threatens to kill again.  (And I suppose, again and again, until Virginia kills him.)

What do you do under these circumstances?  Gleason's now at Virginia's supermax prison.  If it's like other supermax places, he's single-celled, confined 23 hours a day, never in the presence of anyone - including the guards - without being bound and shackled.  Ah, but there's that threat.

Ultimately, Gleason's trying to control the process, just as tried to control (and finally did, though in a different way) the situation with Watson.

Watson's sister, Barbara McLeod of Longmont, Colo., said Gleason should be forced to spend the rest of his life in prison with no privileges.
"He doesn't deserve to be able to control his own destiny at this point. He doesn't deserve to have his death on the conscience of the state of Virginia," she said.

Which seems right.  Ah, but there's that threat.
Which brings us back to the incompetent guards. 
How does Gleason make good on his threat if Virginia does a competent job of keeping him in custody?  Remember, single-celled, confined 23 hours a day, never in the presence of anyone - including the guards - without being bound and shackled.  How's he going to kill?  Or is Virginia unable actually to run its most secure prison's so that they're, well, secure?
This is Gleason, not Houdini.
I don't know what will happen.  I don't know Virginia law.   I haven't spoken with anyone who has an interest in the case.  What I know is that Virginia can ensure that the threat is empty.  Or it can bow to his threats and desires and say that Gleason gets to decide how he should be punished.  There are those who claim that the death penalty is a deterrent.  For Gleason, it seems to be a goal.

Who's in charge, anyway?  Who should be?

Sentencing is scheduled for August 31.