Executing the artificially sane in Ark.

On Tuesday night, the state of Arkansas miscarried justice in an irrevocable way.

Charles… On Tuesday night, the state of Arkansas miscarried justice in an irrevocable way.

Charles Singleton, a 44-year-old schizophrenic man, was executed by lethal injection after being forced to take enough anti-psychotic medication to render him sane enough to be killed.

The Supreme Court has stated that it is unconstitutional to execute the mentally ill if they are not capable of comprehending what is about to happen and why. A lower court ruled that forcing medication on Singleton was appropriate and allowed for his execution, and the Supreme Court let that ruling stand.

Essentially, Singleton has been kept artificially sane while on death row. Without the drugs, he had reported demons and demon blood in his cell. These are not the notions of a sane man, a man fit to be executed by established Constitutional precedent.

While the ideological argument on the morality of the death penalty rages, there can be little doubt from either side that the execution of the profoundly mentally ill is a barbaric practice. It is inhumane by any standard. If Singleton required forced administration of psychotropic drugs to render him “sane enough” for execution, he clearly belonged in a state hospital, not on death row.

Singleton was a murderer. He stabbed his victim to death. There is no doubt that he was incapable of functioning in normal society. He belonged someplace where he would be unable to hurt himself or anyone else, and he deserved health care. The care he got, being forced to be a candidate for execution, was a travesty.

The mentally ill are misunderstood in American culture. Few people can comprehend what it is like to be schizophrenic, to have torments come from inside. The American public often fears and loathes those who are different. Singleton’s execution could further fuel misconceptions of the mentally ill as dangerous elements of society that must be disposed of. Disposal of “different” people echoes the most loathsome chapters of human history.

On the positive side, perhaps Singleton needn’t have died entirely in vain. Perhaps enough people will be outraged at the illegal murder of an incompetent person that a great hue and cry will be raised. Perhaps this unfortunate event need not be repeated.