Convicted murderers with severe mental health problems...

Convicted murderers with severe mental health problems can be forced to take drugs that would make them clinically sane so that they can be executed, the US supreme court has ruled. The case concerns Charles Singleton who, in 1979, killed a grocery shop worker in Arkansas. He was convicted and sentenced to death later that year. While awaiting execution, Singleton's mental health deteriorated to such an extent that he believed his victim was still alive, that the authorities had implanted a device in his ear and that his jail cell was under the control of demons. Because a prisoner has to be technically sane before being executed, the court was asked to decide whether Singleton could be given psychotropic drugs to qualify to be put to death. His lawyers argued that the drugs should not be administered as the only medical purpose of doing so would be to prepare the prisoner for execution. This year an appeals court in St Louis ruled that it was acceptable to give Singleton the drugs, although the decision was not unanimous. In 1986 the supreme court ruled that it was cruel and unusual to execute someone if they did not know why they were being executed or even that they were about to be executed.