Question:  What do some killers know that abolitionists don't?

Answer:  Reality counts.

Thus this Associated Press story from a Virginia prison, where inmate Robert Gleason, already serving 100 years for one murder, encountered a particularly annoying cellmate.  He knew what to do.  He knows what he's going to do next time, too.  Will we listen?

POUND, Va. (AP) -- 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 63-year-old Harvey Gray Watson Jr. bound, gagged, beaten and strangled. His death went unnoticed for 15 hours because correctional officers had falsified inmate counts at the high-security prison in southwestern Virginia.

Now, Gleason says he'll kill again if he isn't put to death for killing Watson, who had a history of mental illness. And he says his next victim won't be an inmate.

"I murdered that man cold-bloodedly. I planned it, and I'm gonna do it again," the 40-year-old Gleason told The Associated Press. "Someone needs to stop it. The only way to stop me is put me on death row."

 

The whole story is here.