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| Court Rules Out Arkansas Execution |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 10/22/2001 |
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A federal appeals court panel has ruled that Arkansas cannot execute a death row inmate who is delusional when not forced to take anti-psychotic medication. In a split decision last week, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said it's not sure Charles Singleton would understand his punishment even when he's medicated. 'In short, there is no way for us to know whether Singleton will be competent on the day he is executed,'' the appeals panel concluded. Singleton was convicted of stabbing to death grocer Mary Lou York during a robbery in 1979. The appeals court, based in St. Louis, ordered that he be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In dissent, Chief Judge Roger L. Wollman wrote that he believed the key question of whether Singleton was currently competent - and therefore eligible to be executed - was never answered. Singleton is a paranoid schizophrenic. The state ordered him to take anti-psychotic medicines after he refused. Singleton's lawyer, Jeff Rosenzweig, had argued that only state-ordered medication made his client eligible to be put to death. Gov. Mike Huckabee set a March 1, 2000, execution date, but the 8th Circuit stayed it and ordered a new competency hearing for Singleton. After the hearing, U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele said last December he could not determine whether Singleton would ever be competent to be executed if the medicine were stopped. The decision was key to the appeals court decision Friday. |
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