Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Arkansas executes mentally ill inmate
CNN story - "A mentally ill Arkansas man whose lawyers had argued the state couldn't legally execute him was put to death Tuesday night, while another death row inmate in the state won a last-minute stay of execution. ... 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. "