RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia prisoner who killed his cellmate and strangled another inmate in the state’s highest security prisons, and vowed to keep killing unless put to death, will be executed in January.

A Wise County judge on Tuesday set a Jan. 16 execution for 42-year-old Robert Gleason Jr.

Gleason has refused all state and federal appeals in his case.

Gleason was serving a life term for murder at Wallens Ridge State Prison in May 2009 when he killed his cellmate, Harvey Watson Jr. After being transferred to the supermax Red Onion State Prison, Gleason strangled inmate Aaron Cooper in an adjoining outdoor recreation cage in July 2010.

Gleason tells the AP he will die by electrocution instead of lethal injection. Condemned inmates in Virginia get to choose between the two methods.

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