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.
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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, , after new capital punishment laws were passed in Arkansas and that came into force on March 23, 1973.
See also
References
- January 2004 Executions from ProDeathPenalty.com
- Charles Laverne Singleton from the Office of the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney
- Akransas Arkansas Death Row Inmates from the Arkansas Department of Correction
