The Case of Charles Laverne Singleton

Charles Laverne Singleton: The Mask of Insanity

Abbigail Bronkema

Chamberlain College of Nursing

Tuesday January 6, 2004, Charles Laverne Singleton was executed by lethal injection at the Arkansas Department of Corrections Cummins Unit for the murder of Mary Lou York on June 1, 1979.  Shortly after his imprisonment, Mr. Singleton’s mental health began to deteriorate and he was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic. The 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision Ford vs. Wainwright rules that the execution of someone who is insane is unconstitutional and inhumane (Ford v. Wainwright, 1986). Charles’s attorney argued that the State of Arkansas could not legally forcibly medicate him to alter his state of mind to make him competent enough for execution. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 6-5 that the State could forcibly medicate Singleton to make him competent enough for execution (Singleton v. Norris, 2001). Should sanity be forced on someone who is incompetent? Regardless of the beneficial effects, antipsychotic medication does not cure a mental disorder; rather they diminish the debilitating manifestation of a mental illness.

In 1978, Charles Singleton began to suffer delusions. He believed his cell was possessed by demons and that his thoughts were being stolen as he read the Bible (Singleton v. Norris, 2001). He was diagnosed as schizophrenic and placed on antipsychotic drugs. Charles took the medication voluntarily at times and other times he was forced to take the medication (Singleton v. Norris, 2001). If Charles ever went off of his medication, his symptoms would reappear, and he would once again undergo hallucinations. Singleton was taken off his medication in 1991 by his treating doctor to determine when the symptoms of his mental illness would resurface. Charles became paranoid and delusional within a few months, and was again forcibly medicated from November 1991 until March 1995; and then again in 1997 (Singleton v. Norris, 2001).

 At times he has...