JARRATT, Va. (AP) — A man who strangled his prison cellmate and made good on a vow to continue killing if he wasn’t executed was put to death Wednesday in Virginia’s electric chair.

Robert Gleason Jr., 42, was pronounced dead by authorities at 9:08 p.m. at Greensville Correctional Center. He became the first inmate executed in the United States this year and the first to choose death by electrocution since 2010. In Virginia and nine other states, death row inmates are allowed to choose between electrocution and lethal injection.