a jury recommended a death sentence for a Red Onion State Prison inmate

a jury recommended a death sentence for a Red Onion State Prison inmate convicted of strangling his cellmate 2 years ago. 
Joseph Armstrong, 26, white, had asked the jury to give him the death penalty just hours after he was convicted of capital murder in the May 19, 2002, slaying of 32-year-old Kenneth Boothe Jr.
It was the 1st death sentence handed down in Wise County in more than a century.
Execution would be preferable to going insane in solitary confinement at Red Onion, Armstrong said.
Jurors asked Judge Robert Stump whether Armstrong ever would share a prison cell with another inmate if his behavior improved. The judge did not answer. He said the panel had to rely only on testimony heard during the nine-day trial.
Earlier in the day, the jury deliberated 3½ hours before finding Armstrong guilty of capital murder. Armstrong already had been sentenced to life plus 40 years for a murder and robbery in Norfolk a decade ago.
Boothe, black, was serving 17 years for forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual battery of a child, parole violations and weapons counts.