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Status:
Executed
by lethal injection in Arkansas on January 6,
2004
Summary:
The victim, Mary Lou York, was murdered in York’s Grocery Store at
Hamburg on June 1, 1979. She died from loss of blood as a result of
two stab wounds in her neck.
A customer, Patti Franklin, saw her relative Charles Singleton enter
York’s Grocery at approximately 7:30 p.m. on the day of the crime.
Shortly after he entered, Patti heard Mrs. York scream, “Patti go
get help, Charles Singleton is killing me.” Patti then ran for help.
Another witness, Lenora Howard, observed Singleton exit the store
and shortly thereafter witnessed Mary Lou, who was “crying and had
blood on her,” come to the front door. 19 year old York, the owner
of the store, identified Singleton to responding police officers and
to treating doctors shortly before her death.
Citations:
Singleton v. Arkansas, 124 S.Ct. 74 (2003) (Cert. Denied).
Singleton v. Arkansas, 120 S.Ct. 808 (2000) (Cert. Denied).
Singleton v. Arkansas, 118 S.Ct. 118 (1997) (Cert. Denied).
Singleton v. Arkansas, 115 S.Ct. 419 (1994) (Cert. Denied).
Singleton v. Arkansas, 110 S.Ct. 207 (1989) (Cert. Denied).
Singleton v. Arkansas, 103 S.Ct. 184 (1982) (Cert. Denied).
Singleton v. Arkansas, 102 S.Ct. 1996 (1982) (Cert. Denied).
Singleton v. Norris, 319 F.3d 1018 (8th Cir. 2003) (Habeas-Competency).
Singleton v. Norris, 267 F.3d 859 (8th Cir. 2001) (Habeas-Competency).
Singleton v. Norris, 108 F.3d 872 (8th Cir. 1997) (Habeas).
Singleton v. Lockhart, 871 F.2d 1395 (8th Cir. 1989) (Habeas
- Sentence Reinstated). Singleton v. Lockhart, 653 F.Supp. 1114 (E.D.Ark. 1986)
(Habeas Granted). Singleton v. Endell, 992 S.W.2d 768 (Ark. 1999) (Competency).
Singleton v. Endell, 964 S.W.2d 366 (Ark. 1998) (Competency).
Singleton v. Endell, 870 S.W.2d 742 (Ark. 1994) (Competency).
Singleton v. State, 623 S.W.2d 180 (Ark. 1981) (Direct
Appeal).
Final Meal:
Cheeseburgers, fried eggplant, green tomatoes and sweet potatoes,
baked beans, potato salad, doughnuts and two vanilla milkshakes.
Final Words:
His final statement was released in written form and it was a long
tract, with several religious references, prison officials said.
ClarkProsecutor.org
Arkansas Department of
Corrections
ADC Number: SK874
Name: Singleton, Charles
Race: BLACK
Sex: MALE
Birth Date: 10/24/79
Sentencing Date: 10/24/79
County of Conviction: Ashley
Charles Laverne
Singleton (March 29, 1959
– January 6, 2004) was executed by the State of
Arkansas for the June 1, 1979 murder of Hamburg
store owner Mary Lou York, age 19, after having been
on death row longer than any other Arkansas inmate.
The
murder
Mary Lou York was murdered in
York’s Grocery Store, of which she was the owner.
She died from loss of blood as a result of two stab
wounds in her neck. The evidence of guilt in his
case was overwhelming. Singleton was identified as
the killer by Patti Franklin (a relative of
Singleton) and Lenora Howard, who both witnessed the
murder.
Prior to her death, en route to
the hospital, York also identified Singleton as the
murderer, by telling Police Officer Strother, first
to arrive at the scene, and her personal physician,
Dr. J.D. Rankin, that she was dying and that
Singleton did it.
Appeals
After his conviction and
imprisonment, Singleton was later diagnosed as
schizophrenic. A 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision,
Ford v. Wainwright, bars execution of the
mentally insane—those who cannot understand the
reality of, or reason for, their punishment.
Singleton's execution drew global attention because
he was considered legally sane only when treated
with medication. His attorney argued that the state
could not alter Singleton's state of being with
medication in order to make him sane enough to be
executed.
Singleton's execution had been
scheduled five times but in his final appeal, the
U.S. Supreme Court decided that he was taking his
medication voluntarily. In the end, Singleton asked
his attorney not to do anything that would block his
execution.
Execution
After 24 years in the appeal
process due to his diagnosis, Arkansas Attorney
General Mike Beebe told Governor Mike Huckabee that
Singleton has been taking anti-psychotic drugs that
make him sane enough to be executed. Beebe told
Huckabee that Singleton has no appeals pending and
that nothing should prevent Singleton from being
executed.
His final words were written (not
spoken) and included many religious references. A
part of his final statement read, "I am Charles
Singleton, anointed by God, Victor Ra Hakim". In
part he wrote, "The blind think I’m playing a game.
They deny me, refusing me existence. But everybody
takes the place of another. You have taught me what
you want done — and I will not let you down. God
bless."
His final meal included two
double-soy patty sandwiches, fried eggplant, fried
green tomatoes, and fried sweet potato slices, which
he ate while he visited for the last time with his
lawyer, Jeff Rosenzweig.
After much public debate on the
issue of clemency, Singleton was executed by lethal
injection at 8:02 p.m. at the Cummins unit of the
Arkansas Department of Correction on Tuesday,
January 6, 2004. Singleton was the 26th person
executed by the state of Arkansas since Furman v.
Georgia, 408
U.S. 238 (1972), after new capital punishment
laws were passed in Arkansas and that came into
force on March 23, 1973.
Singleton put to death
By Scott Loftis -
Pine Bluff Commercial
January 7, 2004
VARNER -- More than 24 years after he was sent to
Arkansas' death row, convicted murderer Charles Singleton was
executed Tuesday night.
Singleton, who had been Arkansas' longest-serving
death row inmate, was pronounced dead at 8:06 p.m., four minutes
after a lethal injection was administered into his veins. The
execution took place inside the death chamber at the Arkansas
Department of Correction Cummins Unit.
Singleton's last words referred to a written
statement he left with prison officials. "I was going to speak, but
I wrote it down," he said. "I'll leave it up to the warden." Prison
officials later released a typed copy of Singleton's statement.
Singleton, 44, was convicted in 1979 for the
stabbing death of Mary Lou York, a Hamburg grocer who had befriended
him. York identified Singleton as her killer before she bled to
death.
Singleton's execution had been scheduled five
times before Tuesday, most recently in March 2000. His case drew
widespread attention because he suffered from schizophrenia, a
mental illness that rendered him legally insane without medication.
Singleton's attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock, had argued
that the state could not forcibly medicate Singleton to keep him
sane enough to be executed. But the U.S. Supreme Court declined to
hear Singleton's final appeal in October and after reviewing the
inmate's medical records last week, Rosenzweig said it was clear
that Singleton had been taking his medicine voluntarily.
In the end, Singleton met his fate calmly,
according to Rosenzweig and other witnesses. Jason Friedman, a
reporter for Little Rock television station KARK-TV Channel 4 who
witnessed the execution, said Singleton "coughed briefly, kind of
clearing his throat," after the lethal dose was administered, then
closed his eyes and never opened them again.
Earlier Tuesday, Gov.
Mike Huckabee denied a request for clemency filed by Rosenzweig. In
a statement announcing his decision, Huckabee's office pointed out
that Singleton himself did not ask the governor to intervene.
Rosenzweig visited Singleton in his cell adjacent to the death
chamber Tuesday afternoon and said Singleton wanted to proceed with
the execution. "He essentially begged us not to do anything ... that
would stop the execution," Rosenzweig said.
Rosenzweig said he had
sent "draft motions" to various courts that might have intervened on
Singleton's behalf, leaving blank spaces that could be filled in if
Singleton exhibited any psychotic behavior Tuesday. "He was rational,
sane and really at peace," the attorney said. "... There wasn't
anything from his behavior that gave us anything to fill in the
blanks with."
Rosenzweig said that in the days leading up to
the execution, he and Singleton had several discussions about the
inmate's legal options -- which included arguing that lethal
injection was unconstitutional.
That argument might only have served
to change the method of Singleton's death to electrocution,
Rosenzweig said. "He was adamantly against creating any possibility
that he could be electrocuted," Rosenzweig said. In the hours before
his death, Singleton visited with Rosenzweig and another attorney,
ate a last meal that included two double-soy patty sandwiches, fried
eggplant, fried green tomatoes and fried sweet potato slices, and
took a shower. "He was really at peace with what he wanted to do,"
Rosenzweig said.
Even though Singleton asked Rosenzweig not to
intervene Tuesday, the attorney said the execution left him saddened
and frustrated. "What happened here will be seen as a shameful mark
on the state of Arkansas," he said.
Arkansas executes mentally ill
inmate
By Brian Cabell - CNN.com
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
VARNER, Arkansas (CNN) -- Charles Singleton, a
convicted murderer with a history of severe mental illness who had
been on Arkansas' death row longer than any other inmate, was put to
death Tuesday by lethal injection for killing a woman during a
robbery.
Witnesses described Singleton convulsing slightly
and coughing after the drugs were administered.
According to a statement read by Dinah Tyler,
spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Correction, the injection
was administered at 8:02 p.m. (9:02 p.m. ET) and Singleton was
pronounced dead at 8:06 p.m. at Cummins Prison, about 70 miles south
of Little Rock.
Singleton's attorney, Jeffrey Rosenzweig,
described himself as "frustrated, disappointed, saddened" by the
execution.
Before the execution, when asked if he wanted to
make a final statement, Singleton, 44, said, "I was going to speak,
but I wrote it down. I'll leave it up to the warden."
Tyler later read Singleton's written statement,
which was a largely rambling missive peppered with Biblical
references.
"As it is written, I will come forth as you will
go," part of the statement said. "I too am going to take someone's
place. You've taught me what you want done and I will not let you
down. God bless, Charles Singleton," the statement concluded.
Singleton's last meal, eaten Tuesday evening, was
mostly vegetarian, prison officials said. He also consumed a
milkshake and a few soft drinks. Singleton had met with family
members and his spiritual adviser earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, the scheduled execution of another
Arkansas inmate Tuesday night was uncertain.
Karl Roberts, convicted of the 1999 kidnapping,
rape and murder of his 12-year-old niece, filed a motion just hours
before the scheduled 9 p.m. (10 p.m. ET) execution by lethal
injection. Roberts has not exhausted the appeals in his case but has
never before made a move to avoid the death penalty.
His stay was granted Tuesday by the 8th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals. State Attorney General Mike Beebe filed an
appeal of the stay, which was rejected. His office is now
considering whether to appeal to the Supreme Court, spokesman Matt
DeCample said.
Roberts' warrant for execution expires at
midnight.
Singleton case subject of legal controversy
Prison doctors diagnosed Singleton, who was
sentenced to death in 1979, with paranoid schizophrenia, and his
condition has worsened over the years, Rosenzweig said.
Singleton's case had attracted the attention of
mental health organizations and death penalty opponents, who point
to a 1986 Supreme Court decision barring executing the insane. A
1990 Supreme Court decision allows the forced medication of inmates
in certain cases.
In February 2003, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals ruled that states may forcibly administer anti-psychotic
medication to control a prisoner's behavior, even if doing so
renders the prisoner eligible for execution.
The prosecutor in the Singleton case said he
believes the defendant was sane at the time of the crime and
therefore unaffected by Supreme Court rulings.
"I do not feel he is being medicated in order to
put him to death," said John Frank Gibson, who hasn't dealt with the
Singleton case in recent years. "He's being medicated to ... keep
him healthy, to control him."
Singleton was 19 when he stabbed Mary Lou York to
death while robbing a small grocery store in Hamburg. She identified
him before she died.
In a recent interview with CNN, Singleton said he
hears voices. Asked what they were saying, the inmate said, "They
talk about, for example, 'Let's hold him and see when his father
come. We'll have him and his father.' They talk about ruling the
world and finding a way to kill me."
Executed mentally ill inmate heard voices until end
By Kevin Drew - CNN.com
Wednesday, January 7,
2004
(CNN) -- The voices inside Charles Singleton's
head varied, in volume and number, regardless of whether he had
taken medication for his schizophrenia. Inside his Arkansas cell, he
said he could often hear voices that speak of killing him.
Singleton was executed by lethal injection
Tuesday night at the Cummins prison unit in Varner, about 70 miles
south of Little Rock.
Singleton's attorney said his 44-year-old client
welcomed his execution because he was tired of living with mental
illness.
Singleton understood that he would be put to
death and why -- the current legal standards to qualify for
execution, said his attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig.
Singleton, however, was rational only when he was
on medication. It was that fact, as well as an 18-year-old Supreme
Court ruling barring executing the insane, that his attorney, some
members of the legal and medical communities and death penalty
critics pointed to in opposing Singleton's execution.
"If [Singleton] is artificially made to be
competent, then the situation is an oxymoron," said Ronald Tabak, a
New York-based attorney who has represented clients in death penalty
cases.
But the prosecutor in the Singleton case claimed
the defendant was sane at the time of the crime, and therefore
unaffected by the Supreme Court ruling.
"I do not feel he is being medicated in order to
put him to death," said John Frank Gibson, who hasn't dealt with the
Singleton case in recent years. "He's being medicated to ... keep
him healthy, to control him."
Stay of execution lifted
Singleton was 19 when he stabbed Mary Lou York to
death while robbing a small grocery store in Hamburg, Arkansas. She
identified him before she died. In 1979 he was convicted and
sentenced to death.
A prison psychiatrist in 1997 diagnosed Singleton
as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. That same year, a prison
medication review panel ordered Singleton to take antipsychotic
drugs after finding he posed a danger to himself and to others.
After the medication took effect, Singleton's
psychotic symptoms abated and Arkansas made plans to execute him.
Singleton's attorneys filed a lawsuit arguing the
state could not constitutionally restore his client's mental
competency through the use of forced medication and then execute him.
In October 2001, a panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals ruled that Singleton be sentenced to life in prison
without the possibility of parole.
The state appealed, and last February a sharply
divided full 8th Circuit Court lifted a stay of execution for
Singleton.
The court said at the time that because Singleton
was voluntarily taking his medication and because Arkansas had an
interest in having sane inmates, the side effect of sanity should
not affect Singleton's sentence.
In October, the Supreme Court declined without
comment to hear the Singleton case.
Most Americans have consistently supported the
death penalty since it was reinstated in the 1970s. But polls show
that the issue of mental illness sharply affects public opinion.
The son of the victim in the Singleton case says
the insanity question is just a ploy.
"I don't believe it," Charles York said. "It's
just something they use to prolong things to keep it in the court
system."
ProDeathPenalty.com
The victim, Mary Lou York, was murdered in York’s
Grocery Store at Hamburg on June 1, 1979. She died from loss of
blood as a result of two stab wounds in her neck.
The evidence of
guilt in this case is overwhelming. Patti Franklin saw her relative
Charles Singleton enter York’s Grocery at approximately 7:30 p.m. on
the day of the crime. Shortly after he entered Patti heard Mrs. York
scream, “Patti go get help, Charles Singleton is killing me.” Patti
then ran for help. Another witness, Lenora Howard, observed
Singleton exit the store and shortly thereafter witnessed Mary Lou,
who was “crying and had blood on her,” come to the front door.
Police Officer Strother was the first to arrive
at the scene and found Mary Lou lying in a pool of blood in the rear
of the store. The officer testified Mary Lou York told him that
Charles Singleton “came in the store, said this is a robbery,
grabbed her around the neck, and went to stabbing her.”
She then
told Officer Strother that “there’s no way I can be all right, you
know I’m not going to make it. I’ve lost too much blood.” Mary Lou
was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and was attended by her
personal physician, Dr. J. D. Rankin. While en route to the
hospital, she told Dr. Rankin several times that she was dying and
that Singleton did it. Mary Lou York died before reaching the
emergency room of the hospital.
UPDATE:
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee set an
execution date for convicted Ashley County murderer Charles
Singleton, according to a Friday, November 7, press release from
Tenth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Deen. Huckabee
set a date of January 6 for the execution. "An Ashley County jury
sentenced Singleton to death over 24 years ago, and although long
overdue, his reckoning time is at hand," Deen said in the press
release.
Singleton, who has been on death row longer than
any other Arkansas inmate, was convicted of the 1979 murder of
Hamburg store owner Mary Lou York. Before she died, York identified
Singleton as the man who stabbed her. He has been on death row since
October, 1979.
After his conviction and imprisonment, Singleton
was diagnosed as schizophrenic. He has argued that he has been
taking anti-psychotic drugs that make him sane enough to be executed.
Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe told Huckabee earlier this week
that Singleton has no appeals pending and that nothing should
prevent Huckabee from setting the execution date. State Sen. Jimmy
Jeffress, D-Crossett, wrote Huckabee Tuesday, November 4, urging the
governor to set an execution date. Jeffress said he was friends with
York's daughter while in college. "Please set an execution date for
Charles Singleton," Jeffress wrote. "I feel that it is time for a
conclusion to be composed for this story. You have the power to pick
up your pen and write the final chapter." Singleton was 19 at the
time of the murder. "I'm pleased to know that he has set the date,"
Jeffress said Monday, November 10. "I still have a level of concern
whether he will follow through and let the execution take place.
It's still possible for him to review it and stop it.
Singleton can
change his mind and ask for clemency, and the governor said he would
review it if Singleton asks for clemency. "Knowing the governor and
seeing his past performance on giving clemency, I'm still concerned
he would grant it and give him life without parole. The state has
been out between a half million and a million dollars keeping
Singleton on death row. I think it's time to put this behind us and
get on with what needs to be done. I think it's time the penalty is
exacted."
UPDATE:
Mary York Donaldson of Monticello,
daughter of Hamburg store keeper Mary Lou York, who Charles
Singleton murdered in her store in 1979, asked Arkansas citizens for
letters in opposition to clemency for Singleton. Singleton has
applied to the Department of Community Corrections Institutional
Parole Services for executive clemency.
A panel of the Arkansas Post
Prison Transfer Board will interview Singleton at 10 a.m .on
December 12 in the Varner Unit in Grady in regard to the request. In
addition, a protestors' hearing will be held at 2:30 p.m. on
December 12 in the fifth floor office of the Post Prison Transfer
Board, Two Union National Plaza at 105 West Capitol in Little Rock.
After the two sessions, the full board will meet later to review all
of the information and make a recommendation to the governor. Mrs.
Donaldson asked that local citizens who wish to protest the
possibility of executive clemency write letters stating their
opposition. She requests that letters be sent to her at P. O. Box
387, Monticello, AR 71655 in time for her to receive them and take
them to the protestors' hearing with her. Mrs. York identified
Singleton as the man who had stabbed her when police arrived at her
store. With apparently all appeals exhausted for Singleton, Gov.
Mike Huckabee has set an execution date of January 6. Singleton has
been on Death Row since his conviction of capital murder on October
30, 1979.
Singleton dies; 2nd execution stopped
Russellville Courier
AP - January 7, 2004
VARNER (AP) — A mentally ill man who gave up his
fight for life after arguing that the state couldn’t legally execute
him was put to death Tuesday for the 1979 murder of a Hamburg grocer
who befriended him. Charles Singleton, 44, was pronounced dead at
8:06 p.m.
“I was going to speak but I wrote it down,” he
said when asked for his last words. “I’ll leave it up to the warden.”
Prison officials later provided a copy of Singleton’s rambling
statement. “I am Charles Singleton, anointed by God, Victor Ra Hakim,”
Singleton’s statement read in part. “The blind think I’m playing a
game. They deny me, refusing me existence. But everybody takes the
place of another. “You have taught me what you want done — and I
will not let you down. God bless.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a stay
of execution for convicted killer Karl Roberts, who was scheduled to
die after Singleton.
Roberts had waived his rights to appeal but
changed his mind hours before he was scheduled to die. Roberts was
convicted of the 1999 kidnapping, rape and murder of his 12-year-old
niece Andria Nichole Brewer.
His plea in the final hours was granted
by U.S. District Judge George Howard Jr. The Arkansas Attorney
General’s Office then filed an appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals, where it was denied. The attorney general took the
matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, which also turned it down.
Singleton’s attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, said he
spoke to Singleton before the execution and his client begged him
not to do anything more on his behalf. “He appeared to be at peace,”
said Rosenzweig, who was one of 15 people to witness the execution
behind four panes of glass in a small building deep inside the
prison.
After 22 years as Singleton’s lawyer, Rosenzweig said he was
“frustrated, disappointed and saddened” to watch Singleton die. “I
think what we have here will be seen as a shameful mark on the state
of Arkansas,” Rosenzweig said. “He’s not a continuing danger to
anyone and he’s been here 24 years without causing a problem that
was not attributable to his mental illness.”
Within two minutes of receiving an injection, at
8:02 p.m., Singleton had made his final perceivable movement — a
short gasp, a final blink and a slight raising of his chest. For two
more minutes, John Byus, the state’s medical services administrator,
continued to watch a monitor behind Singleton’s head, which peeked
out from all white bed sheets cradled by a yellow restraint. At 8:06
p.m., the Lincoln County coroner entered the all-white room, removed
Singleton’s leather chest plate, listened through a stethoscope and
pronounced him dead.
If Roberts had been executed it would have been
the fifth time since 1994 that the state put more than one person to
death in a day.
The U.S. Supreme Court has said it is
unconstitutional to execute mentally ill inmates if they don’t
understand why they are to die. Singleton last year lost a bid to
avoid his execution.
By refusing to take up Singleton’s case, the
Supreme Court left intact a federal appeals court decision that said
forced medication was proper because it was an appropriate treatment
of Singleton’s schizophrenia. Singleton said he wanted to die and in
recent years has repeatedly tried to block Rosenzweig from filing
appeals or clemency requests on his behalf.
Singleton prevented Rosenzweig from reviewing his
medical records under a new federal medical privacy law, but finally
relented last week.
After reviewing the records, Rosenzweig said it
was clear Singleton was taking his medication voluntarily.
Rosenzweig said he and Singleton met several times Tuesday afternoon
and briefly discussed final legal options before reminiscing about
their long association. “We discussed his theological beliefs and
religion, about what he’d see after the execution, in other words,
whether he’d go to heaven or not,” the lawyer said. “He was really
at peace.”
Singleton Executed; Second Killer Decides to
Continue Appeals
TheDeathHouse
January 6, 2004
A man who the courts ruled could be forcibly
medicated to make him sane enough to be put to death was executed
Tuesday night. Charles Singleton, 44, who killed a grocer during a
robbery in 1979, was led into the Cummins Unit death chamber just
after 8 p.m. He was prononced dead at 8:06 p.m.
Meanwhile, another condemned prisoner, Karl
Roberts, also scheduled for execution Tuesday, changed his mind and
decided to continue his appeals in the federal courts.
A judge
stopped the execution, but the state's Attorney General was
attempting to get the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Roberts to be
executed. Roberts, 36, raped and murdered his 12-year-old niece. He
decided to continue his appeals five hours before he was scheduled
for execution. He was set to follow Singleton to the death house at
9 p.m. Roberts had previously said he wanted to die.
Forced Medication Issue
Singleton was sentenced to death for the murder
of Mary Lou York, a grocer, in 1979. The victim reportedly
identified Singleton as her attacker before she died. The Singleton
case had garnered national attention. The issue in the case was not
guilt, but whether a death row inmate could be forcibly medicated to
make him sane enough to execute.
A federal district court and the
U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that the drugs could be administered.
Singleton was treated for psychiatric problems in prison for years.
In 1997, he voluntarily stopped taking the medication and became
psychotic again, according to a psychiatrist who was treated him.
Later in 1997, a medical panel at the prison agreed with the
psychiatrist's request to medicate Singleton involuntarily, setting
off a court battle that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Demons Within In the past, Singleton had talked
of believing that his victim was still alive and his cell was
inhabited by demons. The case rose to the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals.
The divided panel, by a 6-5 vote
ruled that medically induced sanity does not prevent
the state from executing him.
Earlier, a panel of the court had
ruled that Singleton be sentenced to life in prison, prompting the
state to appeal to the full federal appeals court. The issue finally
reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that condemned killers
with severe mental health problems could be forced to take drugs to
make them sane enough to be executed.
Roberts: Brain Damaged?
A major issue in the Roberts case is also his
mental health. He had decided to drop his appeals before changing
his mind Tuesday. Roberts suffered damage to the frontal lobes of
his brain when he was hit by a dump truck as a child, and has since
suffered hallucinations, affecting his ability to control his
emotions, a defense neurologist testified. And it was that lack of
emotional control that was responsible for him raping and murdering
the child, doctors have stated.
Dueling Doctors However, a state appointed
neurologist and psychologist did not agree. They found that Roberts
knew what he was doing.
The neurologist opined that the brain injury
did not cause Roberts to kill the child and the Roberts had no
behavioral problems that triggered him to murder his niece. Roberts
knew what he was doing, the neurologist stated.
The psychologist
determined that Roberts had an IQ of 76, above the level for those
considered mildly retarded, graduated high school and could read or
write. Before being arrested for the child's murder, Roberts was
married and had a family. Most importantly, after before and after
the murder, Roberts took steps to hide his crime, the psychologist
found. Roberts drove the child to a remote location to rape and kill
the child; tried to hide the body and later admitted that he killed
the girl because she could have identified him as a rapist.
Mentally Ill Inmate Has Clemency Hearing
KATV
December 12, 2003
Varner (AP) - A mentally ill death row inmate
went to the state parole board Friday in a hearing at Varner.
Charles Singleton is to be executed January 6th as part of a double-execution.
Attorney Jeff Rosenzweig argued before the Post
Prison Transfer Board that it should recommend a life sentence for
Singleton, who was convicted of killing a Hamburg grocer in 1979.
A member of Singleton's family says the inmate
fought the hearing because he is attempting to commit state-assisted
suicide.
The inmate told the board that his sister was
conspiring with his lawyer as part of a money-making scheme.
Singleton tried to have the board cancel the hearing, but Rosenzweig
said he pursued it anyway because state law doesn't require that
only the inmate can make the request.
The board is scheduled to meet Friday in Little
Rock to hear from those supporting Singleton's execution.
Arkansas Executes Man with Severe Mental Illness
Reuters News
January 6, 2004
LITTLE ROCK (Reuters) - Arkansas on Tuesday
executed a man with a severe mental illness who was forcibly
medicated with anti-psychotic drugs, which made him lucid enough
under court guidelines to be put to death.
Charles Singleton, 44, a diagnosed schizophrenic
was given a lethal injection in the state's death chamber in Varner,
about 70 miles southeast of Little Rock for stabbing grocery store
clerk Mary Lou York to death in the neck in 1979.
Another prisoner
Karl Roberts, 35, was scheduled to be put to death after Singleton
for raping and killing his 12-year-old niece. Lawyers for Roberts
filed a last-minute appeal requesting a temporary stay of execution,
which was granted by a federal court.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he would not
issue a stay for Singleton, who had run out of appeals. Several
groups such as the European Union and Amnesty International
petitioned the governor to commute the death sentence, saying it was
morally reprehensible to execute a person with a severe mental
illness.
While in prison, Singleton's mental condition
worsened and he was forcibly given powerful drugs to curtail his
psychotic episodes under a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision that
allows states to forcibly medicate a prisoner if that person is a
danger to himself or others, and the treatment is in that person's
medical interest.
Lawyers for Singleton appealed to have the
medication stopped, saying that it was not in their client's medical
interest to be declared mentally competent enough to be executed.
Last year, the Eighth Circuit federal court ruled
that Arkansas could forcibly medicate Singleton. In the decision,
the court said that "eligibility for execution is the only unwanted
consequence of the medication." The U.S. Supreme Court refused to
hear an appeal of the lower court's decision.
The Supreme Court has
ruled that states cannot execute mentally retarded prisoners or
those whose mental illness makes it impossible for them to
understand that they are going to be put to death.
Singleton's last meal was cheeseburgers, fried
eggplant, green tomatoes and sweet potatoes, baked beans, potato
salad, doughnuts and two vanilla milkshakes.
Singleton is the first person Arkansas has
executed this year and the 26th since the state reinstated the death
penalty about 20 years ago. His final statement was released in
written form and it was a long tract, with several religious
references, prison officials said.
Earlier on Tuesday evening, Texas executed Ynobe
Matthews, 27, who raped and murdered a woman in 2000 and then burned
her body.
Singleton v. State,
623 S.W.2d 180 (Ark. 1981) (Direct Appeal).
Defendant was convicted in the Circuit Court,
Ashley County, Paul K. Roberts, J., of capital felony-murder and
aggravated robbery and was sentenced to death by electrocution for
murder and life imprisonment for aggravated robbery and he appealed.
The Supreme Court, Adkisson, C. J., held that: (1) defendant failed
to show the trial court committed reversible error by failing to
excuse for cause three veniremen, where he exercised peremptory
challenge on each of the three, but made no showing of record that
he would have struck any other juror who actually sat on the trial
of the case had he had a peremptory challenge remaining, and (2)
murder victim's statements relating to defendant's cutting her
throat and, her victim's dying fell under the excited utterance
exception to rule against hearsay, since they were made under the
stress of the event. Affirmed in part; reversed in part. Hickman,
J., dissented in part and filed opinion in which Dudley, J., joined.
On October 30, 1979, after a trial by jury,
appellant, Charles L. Singleton, was sentenced to death by
electrocution for capital felony murder, and life imprisonment for
aggravated robbery.
We affirm the conviction and sentence for capital
felony murder, but set aside the lesser included offense of
aggravated robbery. Ark.Stat.Ann. s 41-105(1) (a), (2)(a)
(Repl.1977) prohibits the entry of a judgment of conviction on
capital felony murder and the underlying specified felony.
* * *
The evidence of guilt in this case is
overwhelming. Patti Franklin saw her relative Singleton enter York's
Grocery at approximately 7:30 p. m. on the day of the crime. Shortly
after he entered Patti heard Mrs. York scream, "Patti go get help,
Charles Singleton is killing me." Patti then ran for help. Another
witness, Lenora Howard, observed Singleton exit the store and
shortly thereafter witnessed Mrs. York, who was "crying and had
blood on her," come to the front door. Police Officer Strother was
the first to arrive at the scene and found Mrs. York lying in a pool
of blood in the rear of the store.
The officer testified Mrs. York
told him that Charles Singleton "came in the store, said this is a
robbery, grabbed her around the neck, and went to stabbing her." She
then told Officer Strother that "there's no way I can be all right,
you know I'm not going to make it. I've lost too much blood." Mrs.
York was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and was attended by
her personal physician, Dr. J. D. Rankin. While enroute to the
hospital, she told Dr. Rankin several times that she was dying and
that Singleton did it. Mrs. York died before reaching the emergency
room of the hospital. Officer Strother also testified that during
examination of the premises, he found a money bag on the floor near
the cash register which was empty, except for about $2.00 in change.
He also stated that the cash register had only a small amount of
change in it.
* * *
The victim cried out to Patti Franklin that
Singleton was killing her. She told Officer Strother that she was
not going to make it because she had lost too much blood, and she
repeatedly told her physician, Dr. Rankin, that she was dying. It is
clear that all of her statements were made under the dying
declaration exception to the rule against hearsay. Each of these
statements were made concerning the cause or circumstances of what
she believed to be her impending death.
* * *
We have examined all objections and find no
error.
Singleton v. Lockhart,
653 F.Supp. 1114 (E.D.Ark. 1986) (Habeas Granted).
State prisoner, sentenced to death by
electrocution for capital felony-murder, and life imprisonment for
aggravated robbery, whose conviction and death sentence were
affirmed by the Arkansas Supreme Court, 274 Ark. 126, 623 S.W.2d
180, sought federal habeas corpus relief. The District Court, Eisele,
Chief Judge, held that presence of invalidating aggravating
circumstance required that death sentence be set aside. In
subsequent order, the District Court held that double jeopardy
prevented state from asking jury to reimpose death penalty. Order
accordingly.
On October 30, 1979, petitioner was sentenced to
death by electrocution for capital felony murder, and life
imprisonment for aggravated robbery. The conviction and death
sentence for capital murder were affirmed by the Arkansas Supreme
Court, but the aggravated robbery conviction and sentence were
vacated on double jeopardy grounds. Singleton v. State, 274 Ark.
126, 623 S.W.2d 180 (1981). Certiorari was denied by the United
States Supreme Court. Petitioner then sought permission to proceed
under Rule 37 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Permission was denied by the Arkansas Supreme Court and an execution
date was set for June 4, 1982. The Arkansas Supreme Court denied
petitioner's request for a stay of execution. On June 1, 1982, this
Court granted petitioner a stay of execution and petitioner's first
petition for writ of habeas corpus was filed.
* * *
It is therefore ORDERED that the respondent shall
be, and it is hereby, prohibited from retrying the death penalty
phase of petitioner's case. It is further ORDERED that the
respondent be, and it is hereby, required to reduce the petitioner's
sentence to life without parole.
Singleton v. Endell,
992 S.W.2d 768 (Ark. 1999) (Competency).
Condemned prisoner whose capital felony-murder
conviction and death sentence were affirmed on appeal, 274 Ark. 126,
623 S.W.2d 180, brought declaratory judgment action, seeking to
prohibit his execution as long as his competency to be executed was
being obtained through involuntary medication. Following stay of
execution pending decision, 332 Ark. 196, 964 S.W.2d 366, the
Circuit Court, Jefferson County, Fred D. Davis, denied relief.
Prisoner appealed. The Supreme Court, Arnold, C.J., held that: (1)
state had burden to administer antipsychotic medication as long as
prisoner was alive and was either a potential danger to himself or
others, and (2) collateral effect of the involuntary medication,
which rendered him competent to understand the nature and reason for
his execution, did not violate due proces. Affirmed. Thornton, J.,
filed dissenting opinion.
