WASHINGTON, 07 GEN - Nel carcere di Huntsville in Texas e' stata eseguita ieri la prima condanna a morte del 2004 negli Stati Uniti: a ricevere l'iniezione letale e' stato Ynobe Matthews, un uomo originario di Dallas, condannato per avere violentato e ucciso una donna nel suo appartamento di College Station, tre anni e mezzo fa.

Matthews era stato anche condannato per un altro omicidio, ed era stato collegato ad altri tre casi di stupro. L'uomo aveva rinunciato a interporre appello e aveva chiesto di essere messo a morte. 

WASHINGTON, 07 GEN - Nella notte che ha segnato il ritorno al lavoro del boia negli Stati Uniti quest'anno, l'Arkansas ha messo a morte Charles Singleton, un ammalato di schizofrenia che, secondo i suoi legali, non poteva essere legalmente sottoposto all'iniezione letale.

Ma lo Stato dell'Arkansas ha deciso in modo diverso: Singleton, il cui caso aveva acquistato rilievo nazionale, e' stato condannato a morte per l'assassinio di un negoziante nel 1979.

Insieme a Singleton avrebbe dovuto subire l'iniezione letale anche un altro assassino, che uccise la nipotina di 12 anni. Ma un giudice federale gli ha riconosciuto, poche ore prima dell'esecuzione, il diritto a interporre un appello.

Gli avvocati di Singleton avevano sostenuto che l'uomo non poteva essere obbligato a curare la sua schizofrenia solo per essere abbastanza sano da essere messo legalmente a morte: la legge, infatti, vieta di eseguire la sentenza capitale se il condannato non capisce perche' viene ucciso.

Ma una corte dello Stato aveva ordinato che Singleton fosse curato, cosi' da essere cosciente di quanto stava avvenendo. E cosi' e' stato.

Dallas man Texas' 1st execution of 2004

A Dallas man described by authorities as a serial rapist was executed Tuesday night for raping and strangling a woman at her College Station apartment 3 1/2 years ago.

Ynobe Matthews declined to make a final statement before he was put to death, but mouthed "I love you" several times to a sister and cousin who were watching him through a window.

As the drugs began taking effect, he gasped a couple of times, sputtered and let out a long wheeze before becoming unconscious. 8 minutes later, at 6:18 p.m., he was pronounced dead.

A half-dozen members of his victims' families watched through another window, but Matthews ignored them.

Matthews, 27, was condemned for the death of Carolyn Casey, 21, 1 of 2 women he was convicted of killing. Testimony at his trial also linked him to at least 3 other rapes and 2 other attempted rapes.

Matthews waived appeals and asked that his execution, the 1st of the year in Texas, be carried out.

"Plenty of guys say 'You can beat this,'" he said in a recent death row interview. "I respect their fight. We all have to choose. ... We all have whole different paths to take."

Anita Casey, whose daughter, a day care center teacher, was killed in the 2000 attack, said Matthews was getting what he deserved.

"I am glad he got caught so he couldn't take another life," she said before the execution.

Brazos County District Attorney Bill Turner was surprised that Matthews, a man he worked to send to death row, was following through on his desire to be executed.

"He took that position from the time he got the death penalty," Turner said. "I believed that would be short-lived."

Evidence showed that he set fire to Casey's body after strangling her to try to cover up the crime.

Firefighters responding to a call from Casey's apartment complex found a small blaze smoldering around her body. She had been propped up in a seated position against a bed. Paper, pens and makeup brushes had been set on fire near her.

Matthews, who grew up in Dallas and dropped out of Lake Highlands High School in the 11th grade, has four children ranging in age from 3 to 10. At the time of the slaying, he was working as a night stocker at a College Station supermarket and living with a friend at the same complex where Casey lived. He and Casey had attended a party at the complex the previous evening.

Matthews' DNA was found in scrapings taken from under Casey's fingernails and other forensics evidence tied him to the murder scene.

He acknowledged being at her apartment but contended the sex was consensual. He later told detectives there had been a fight, that he strangled Casey and set fire to her to eliminate evidence and cut a window screen to give the appearance of a burglary.

"I spent the whole week getting drunk," he said from death row, adding that he also had been on a drug binge leading up to the woman's death. "But that's not an excuse."

DNA evidence and fingerprints connected Matthews to the 1999 rape and slaying of Jamie Hart, 21. Her death went unsolved for 14 months after her nude body was discovered on a rural Brazos County road, 9 miles from where her abandoned car was left running with the lights on.

Matthews, whose 1st name is "Ebony" spelled backward, confessed to forcing his way into her car and raping her. A month after he was condemned for Casey's slaying, he pleaded guilty to Hart's death.

A rape victim at his murder trial testified how he "would strangle her until almost unconscious and then let up. It would happen again and again," Turner recalled.

Authorities found marks of repeated choking on his other victims.

His execution was the 1st of 4 scheduled this month in Texas, where 24 executions were carried out last year. The total was the highest in the nation but average for the state over the last decade.

Matthews becomes the 314th condemned prisoner to be put to death since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982. He is the 75th individual put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in January, 2001.

Matthews becomes the 886th condemned prisoner to be put to death in the USA since executions resumed on January 17, 1977.

Arkansas executes mentally ill inmate - Other man set to die tonight wins stay

Charles Singleton, a convicted murderer with a history of severe mental illness who had been on Arkansas' death row longer than any other inmate, was put to death Tuesday by lethal injection for killing a woman during a robbery.

Witnesses described Singleton convulsing slightly and coughing after the drugs were administered.

According to a statement read by Dinah Tyler, spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Correction, the injection was administered at 8:02 p.m. (9:02 p.m. ET) and Singleton was pronounced dead at 8:06 p.m. at Cummins Prison, about 70 miles south of Little Rock.

Singleton's attorney, Jeffrey Rosenzweig, described himself as "frustrated, disappointed, saddened" by the execution.

Before the execution, when asked if he wanted to make a final statement, Singleton, 44, said, "I was going to speak, but I wrote it down. I'll leave it up to the warden."

Tyler later read Singleton's written statement, which was a largely rambling missive peppered with Biblical references.

"As it is written, I will come forth as you will go," part of the statement said. "I too am going to take someone's place. You've taught me what you want done and I will not let you down. God bless, Charles Singleton," the statement concluded.

Singleton's last meal, eaten Tuesday evening, was mostly vegetarian, prison officials said. Singleton had met with family members and his spiritual adviser earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, the scheduled execution of another Arkansas inmate Tuesday night was uncertain.

Karl Roberts, convicted of the 1999 kidnapping, rape and murder of his 12-year-old niece, filed a motion just hours before the scheduled 9 p.m. (10 p.m. ET) execution by lethal injection. Roberts has not exhausted the appeals in his case but has never before made a move to avoid the death penalty.

His stay was granted Tuesday by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. State Attorney General Mike Beebe filed an appeal of the stay, which was rejected. His office is now considering whether to appeal to the Supreme Court, spokesman Matt DeCample said.

Roberts' warrant for execution expires at midnight.

Executed mentally ill inmate heard voices until end

Charles Singleton was executed by lethal injection Tuesday night.

The voices inside Charles Singleton's head varied, in volume and number, regardless of whether he had taken medication for his schizophrenia. Inside his Arkansas cell, he said he could often hear voices that speak of killing him.

Singleton was executed by lethal injection Tuesday night at the Cummins prison unit in Varner, about 70 miles south of Little Rock.

Singleton's attorney said his 44-year-old client welcomed his execution because he was tired of living with mental illness.

Singleton understood that he would be put to death and why -- the current legal standards to qualify for execution, said his attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig.

Singleton, however, was rational only when he was on medication. It was that fact, as well as an 18-year-old Supreme Court ruling barring executing the insane, that his attorney, some members of the legal and medical communities and death penalty critics pointed to in opposing Singleton's execution.

"If [Singleton] is artificially made to be competent, then the situation is an oxymoron," said Ronald Tabak, a New York-based attorney who has represented clients in death penalty cases.

But the prosecutor in the Singleton case claimed the defendant was sane at the time of the crime, and therefore unaffected by the Supreme Court ruling.

"I do not feel he is being medicated in order to put him to death," said John Frank Gibson, who hasn't dealt with the Singleton case in recent years. "He's being medicated to ... keep him healthy, to control him."

Stay of execution lifted

Singleton was 19 when he stabbed Mary Lou York to death while robbing a small grocery store in Hamburg, Arkansas. She identified him before she died. In 1979 he was convicted and sentenced to death.

A prison psychiatrist in 1997 diagnosed Singleton as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. That same year, a prison medication review panel ordered Singleton to take antipsychotic drugs after finding he posed a danger to himself and to others.

After the medication took effect, Singleton's psychotic symptoms abated and Arkansas made plans to execute him.

Singleton's attorneys filed a lawsuit arguing the state could not constitutionally restore his client's mental competency through the use of forced medication and then execute him.

In October 2001, a panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Singleton be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The state appealed, and last February a sharply divided full 8th Circuit Court lifted a stay of execution for Singleton.

The court said at the time that because Singleton was voluntarily taking his medication and because Arkansas had an interest in having sane inmates, the side effect of sanity should not affect Singleton's sentence.

In October, the Supreme Court declined without comment to hear the Singleton case.

Most Americans have consistently supported the death penalty since it was reinstated in the 1970s. But polls show that the issue of mental illness sharply affects public opinion.

The son of the victim in the Singleton case says the insanity question is just a ploy.

"I don't believe it," Charles York said. "It's just something they use to prolong things to keep it in the court system."

Singleton becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Arkansas and the 26th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990.

Singleton becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 887th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.