Robert Gleason is scheduled to be the first person executed in the U.S. in 2013 on the night of January 16 in Virginia. At his trial, he told the court he wanted the death penalty and has waived all his appeals since his conviction. He has chosen to be executed by electrocution. Gleason’s lawyers maintain he is severely mentally ill and his mental capacity has deteriorated during his time on death row. He suffers from extreme paranoia, delusional thinking, severe anxiety and other mental afflictions. Attorney Jon Sheldon stated that Gleason’s “mental illness is causing him to be suicidal, and he is enlisting the government’s help to end his life.” His life was described as “profoundly disturbed and traumatic,” marked by abuse as a child, with depression and other mental health problems as an adult. Virginia had no executions and no death sentences in 2012.

(D. Potter, “Robert Gleason, Inmate Who Asked to Die, Will be Executed,” Huffington Post (Associated Press), January 15, 2013. See Executions and Mental Illness.