As someone who has been incarcerated for over 40 years, I was dismayed to learn that in the first two weeks Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s first parole board was in place
Advocates for keeping the death penalty in Virginia for the worst-of-the-worst killers need not look far back in history for examples to illustrate their argument.
There is Robert Charles Gleason Jr., who was executed in 2013. He was sentenced to life without parole in 2008 for a drug-related murder. Gleason was not done killing even after he was sent to a high-security prison.
After tying up, beating and strangling his 63-year-old cellmate to death at Wallens Ridge State Prison in 2009, he left for breakfast. Hours later, he ate both his and his victimâs lunch in their cell with the as-yet-undiscovered body.