Ohio executes Robert Van Hook

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upon surviving the Lucasville prison riot in 1997,

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after a death-penalty conviction for what now could be considered a hate crime

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he lured Self into a vulnerable position and strangled him into unconsciousness.

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Prosecutors have refuted his claims saying Van Hook admitted to making a habit of luring and robbing homosexual men, the Associated Press reported. They also note that Van Hook has continued to be violent while incarcerated, stabbing a fellow inmate to death in November.

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"It was gruesome, gruesome murder," Mathews said. "The brutality of it all was why we tried it to a three-judge panel instead of a jury."

During the trial, Van Hook and his lawyers argued that he went "berserk" and thought Self was a Viet Cong soldier.

County court psychologist Nancy Schmidtgoessling said Van Hook suffered from a personality disorder and had both heterosexual and homosexual identities. However, she and another psychiatrist agreed Van Hook knew what he was doing was wrong, and was therefore not insane during the attack.

The judges did not accept that Van Hook was insane and convicted him on July 30, 1985.

After the conviction, Van Hook's defense team also argued that Self knowingly put himself in lethal danger.

“There’s no question but that David Self facilitated his own death,” Mathews said. According to reports at the time, Mathews said by being at a bar that caters to homosexuals and taking Van Hook home, Self accepted the risk.

The judges acknowledged that Van Hook had a bad childhood filled with abuse and neglect, but said that did not excuse what he did. In their opinion, they called Van Hook "a parasite on society preying on homosexuals for a livelihood."

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