State Can Make Inmate Sane Enough to Execute

Tags: Legal
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Read Discussion
Reply to All

State Can Make Inmate Sane Enough to Execute
By ADAM LIPTAK

he federal appeals court in St. Louis ruled yesterday that officials in Arkansas can force a prisoner on death row to take antipsychotic medication to make him sane enough to execute. Without the drugs, the prisoner, Charles Laverne Singleton, could not be put to death under a United States Supreme Court decision that prohibits the execution of the insane.

Fed Appeals Court Ruling

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link/Embed

Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 497 • Replies: 9

I don't understand this one. If this guy was sane enough to understand the charges against him and aid in his own defense (the test as to whether he can be tried in the first place) which he apparently was (or he wouldn't be in jail now) he ought to be sane enough to have his sentence carried out, whatever that sentence is.

(I'm personally against the death penalty, but that's a separate issue.)

0 Replies

What? Why didn't TEXAS think of this?!?

0 Replies

An interesting case.

0 Replies

It is sick and disgusting to these eyes.

0 Replies

IMHO, mental health of the convict may exempt him of punishment only if he was insane at the moment he committed a crime. It does not matter whether he is sane right now or not. If he was insane while committing a crime, he cannot be punished even if by the moment of arrest he became a model of sanity.

0 Replies

http://cagle.slate.msn.com/fiore/

0 Replies

pDiddie, that slate site is sick/sad/wonderful....

0 Replies

State Can Make Inmate Sane Enough to Execute

Related Topics