Long story made really short, Singleton became deranged in prison, hearing voices, crazy hallucinations, totally out of his mind. He imagines his victim is stalking him in the dark and wants to marry him.
The Supreme Court ruled 18 years prior to his execution which did occur in 2004 when Singleton was 44, that it was unconstitutional to execute the insane, cruel and inhuman punishment.
A federal appeals court in St. Louis ruled in February of 2003 that it was OK to give an insane inmate, i.e. Singleton, medications to make him sane enough, and then to go ahead and execute him.
And execute him they did on January 7, 2004 with a lethal injection, another drug cocktail. The irony is American in nature, one drug to rouse him to an acceptable level of awareness followed by a second drug to execute him.
Singleton was happy to go. He was tired of living with insanity.
There is an aside to this, in that I search for "signs of life" in our withering democracy. Well I found one such sign.
During the federal appeals court decision making process on whether it was OK to make somebody sort of sane with drugs and then to execute him or her, there was an outstanding dissenting voice.
The voice was that of Judge Gerald W. Heaney.
Source "Judge Gerald W. Heaney, in dissent, said there was a third choice. He would have allowed Mr. Singleton to be medicated without fear of execution.
''I believe,'' he wrote, ''that to execute a man who is severely deranged without treatment, and arguably incompetent when treated, is the pinnacle of what Justice Marshall called 'the barbarity of exacting mindless vengeance.' '' Judge Heaney added that the majority's holding presented doctors with an impossible ethical choice."
I applaud the humanistic side of judicial decision making that is expressed in Heaney's statement.
Source (American Psychiatric Association) President Paul Appelbaum, M.D., thinks the court came to a wrong and troubling conclusion. "Physicians violate their ethical obligations as healers when they treat condemned prisoners for the purpose of restoring competence to be executed," he told Psychiatric News. "The only humane alternative in these situations is for the state to commute the prisoner’s sentence to life in prison, so that treatment can take place without being darkened by the shadow of death."
George Bush bestowed an honor on Judge Heaney on May 8, 2007.
Source On Tuesday, May 8, 2007 the President signed into law:
S. 521, which designates the Federal building and United States courthouse located at 515 West First Street in Duluth, Minnesota, as the Gerald W. Heaney Federal Building and United States Courthouse and Customhouse.
You know there's always a kicker, right. I checked out the composition of the 8th Circuit Court. In 2006, there were 21 judges on the court. First those appointed by Democratic Presidents, a total of 4 (2 by Lyndon Johnson, and 2 by Bill Clinton). Those appointed by Republican Presidents, a total of 17 (1 by Nixon, 6 by Reagan, 3 by George H.W. Bush, and 7 by George W. Bush).
Heaney retired a few years back, he was appointed by Lyndon Johnson. So probably at the time of the decision there were 5 Democratic appointees and 16 Republican appointees. Oh yeah, the vote on "its ok to execute Singleton if given anti-psychotic medications", 6 to 5.
In summation:
The convicted killer goes nuts while awaiting execution.
The Supreme Court decides its unconstitutional to execute a lunatic. Its cruel and inhuman.
An appeals court decides its OK to execute a lunatic as long as they are taking anti-psychotic meds so that they'll know they are being executed.
A humanistic judge says how about giving the lunatic the anti-psychotic meds and then giving him life in prison.
The head of the American Psychiatric Association agrees with the dissenting judge.
The prisoner is executed.
President Bush bestows an honor on the retiring humanistic judge.
The makeup of the appeals court in 2003 - 5 Democratic appointees, 16 Republican appointees.
Further source material: Executed mentally ill inmate heard voices until end
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