SINGLETON EXECUTED, ROBERTS GRANTED STAY

The execution of Arkansas' longest-serving death row inmate has been carried out. Charles Singleton, whose mental illness was controlled by medication, was pronounced dead at 8:06 Tuesday night at the Cummins Unit prison near Varner. A second condemned man scheduled to die after Singleton won a reprieve from a federal judge. That stay was upheld after being appealed by the state to the U.S. Supreme Court. Singleton, age 44, was put to death for the 1979 death of Hamburg grocer Mary Lou York. Governor Huckabee refused a clemency plea earlier Tuesday. Singleton's last words were that he had written down a statement and given it to the warden. The rambling statement carried religious overtones, saying at one point, "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 suffered from schizophrenia, but his attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, has said his client's mental illness was under control through medication. He says Singleton understood that he was to be executed, and why. Roberts was scheduled to die by lethal injection about an hour after Singleton, but won a last-minute stay of execution from a federal judge. Roberts won the stay by arguing that his lawyers, appointed last month, need time to determine if he has grounds for an appeal. Roberts had not yet taken his case to federal court. The state argued that Roberts had previously waived his right to those appeals and is now seeking to circumvent the state's power to schedule his death. The stay was granted to Roberts by U.S. District Judge George Howard Junior in Little Rock. Howard said it is possible Roberts may have grounds for appeal and gave Roberts 90 days -- three months -- to file.

The Arkansas attorney general's office appealed Judge Howard's stay to the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday evening with the justices upholding the lower court's ruling.