Posted on 01/07/2004 9:45:51 AM PST by Holly_P
About three hours before convicted killer Karl Roberts was to die, a federal judge halted his execution Tuesday after the inmate sought an appeal for the first time since his conviction.
Until the last-minute change of heart, Roberts had maintained that he wanted to die after he was convicted in 2000 for the kidnapping, rape and murder of his 12-year-old niece, Andi Brewer.
Meanwhile, Charles Singleton, the state’s longest-serving deathrow inmate, was executed as planned Tuesday. He was pronounced dead at 8:06 p.m.
Roberts, 35, signed a paper about 3:30 p.m., authorizing his attorneys to file an appeal, said Dina Tyler, a spokesman for the state prison. "The warden went down to make sure that was the case and indeed it was," Tyler said.
The application for a stay was filed in U.S. District Court in Little Rock. In the filing, federal public defenders Jenniffer Horan and Craig Lambert requested a delay so they could review the case for a possible federal appeal. "It is Mr. Roberts’ sole desire to gather the pertinent facts and then make a well-reasoned decision concerning what — if any — further action should be taken in this case," the application said.
In response, Assistant Attorney General Jeff Weber wrote that Roberts waived his right for relief back in May. Weber also stated that the application only sought time to contemplate whether to appeal, suggesting its purpose was simply to delay.
In an order stamped at 5:55 p.m., U.S. District Judge George Howard Jr. noted that Lambert was appointed to Roberts’ case for "just barely one month" and had arranged for a psychiatrist to evaluate Roberts on Dec. 31. "The record does not reflect the results of that evaluation," Howard wrote.
After Howard’s ruling, the state’s attorney general appealed to the 8 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. Both courts declined to lift the stay. The 8 th Circuit, however, ordered Roberts’ legal team to respond within seven days to a jurisdictional issue raised by the state.
Rebecca DeMauro, Andi’s mother, traveled from Tulsa to watch his execution. After it became clear that Roberts would not be executed Tuesday night, De-Mauro talked about her disappointment. This night was supposed to mark her daughter’s "last business on earth," she said. "I don’t know if he’s done this to re-victimize us," DeMauro said. "I don’t know if this has been a game all along. I just know my family is very upset. We’re hurt."
Roberts’ mother, Peggy Roberts of Cove, said Tuesday morning that any decision to appeal would be her son’s, and she and his father decided not to try influence him one way or the other. "We have peace right now," Peggy Roberts said. "We’re just leaning on the Lord, and he’s guiding and protecting us." When contacted later Tuesday evening, a person who answered the phone said the family had no comment.
SINGLETON EXECUTION Singleton’s lethal injection began at 8:02 p.m. He was pronounced dead by the Lincoln County coroner at 8:06 p.m. His body was later taken to Little Rock to the state medical examiner’s office. For his final words, Singleton said "I was going to speak but I wrote it down. I’ll leave it up to the warden." Witnesses said his lips twitched slightly when the drugs were first administered. Then he closed his eyes and was still. After the execution, prison officials distributed a copy of a two-paragraph statement that they said was written by Singleton.
It said, in part, "The blind think I’m playing a game. They deny me, refusing me existence. But everybody takes the place of another. As it is written, I will come forth as you go."
Singleton, 44, was convicted in October 1979 of stabbing and killing Hamburg grocer, Mary Lou York, 62. He is the 26 th person put to death by the Arkansas since 1976, when states resumed use of the death penalty.
Members of York’s family who watched the execution on closedcircuit television in prison offices declined to speak with the media.
Years after his conviction, Singleton was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He had been taking anti-psychotic medication voluntarily for some time. His attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, had argued that treatment was no longer in his client’s best interest because it made him eligible for execution.
In the fall of 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of Singleton’s sentence. That action left in place a split Feb. 10, 2003, ruling from the 8 th Circuit. In the decision, the court majority said states can administer anti-psychotic drugs to control a prisoner’s behavior, even if doing so renders the prisoner eligible to be executed. "He was generally in the past several months, saner, more stable and more rational than he had been in a long time, as long as I’ve known him," Rosenzweig said, adding that Singleton’s sanity was only the result of medication.
Rosenzweig said executing a clearly mentally ill man "is a shameful mark on the state of Arkansas."
Hours before Singleton’s execution, Gov. Mike Huckabee denied a clemency request that Rosenzweig filed on Singleton’s behalf. The governor’s denial fell in line with a recommendation by the state’s Post Prison Transfer Board.
Tuesday morning, representatives from the Arkansas American Civil Liberties Union and the state office of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill held a news conference in the state Capitol to implore Huckabee to grant Singleton clemency. They also asked that Roberts’ execution be stayed so issues in his case could be explored further.
After the news conference, about a dozen of Singleton’s family went to Huckabee’s office to discuss a clemency request from Singleton’s attorney. They were turned away. Information for this article was contributed by Linda Satter of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Oh the horror.
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