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News Flash
Rights of Mentally Ill Threatened
February 11, 2003
Charles Laverne Singleton of Arkansas who has paranoid schizophrenia faces the death penalty. Mr. Singleton has been on death
row for twenty-three years for the murder of a grocery store clerk in 1979.
During his years of imprisonment, his mental health has deteriorated to the
point that he suffers delusions that demons are in his cell and that his
victim is still alive. Singleton is given antipsychotic medication to
alleviate his affliction. But his “sanity” through drugs is now being used
against him. On February 10, the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit
refused to derail his death sentence. With this ruling, a new precedent has
been set determining who is eligible for capital punishment. As a result of
the availability of new drugs, mental illness will no longer be a factor in
capital punishment sentencing.
Mentally ill citizens deserve compassion and treatment, not death at the
hands of the state.
As this case is appealed to the Supreme Court the AHA will closely watch its
development.
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