Inmate who spent 42 years on death row has died

Singleton spent his last three decades in prison in legal limbo after the state Supreme Court ruled he wasn’t competent to be executed View 2 Images Fred Singleton, 81, was sentenced to die in 1983 for raping and strangling a woman and stealing her jewelry

A South Carolina inmate who spent 42 years on death row has died - but not from execution. ‌

Fred Singleton, 81, was sentenced to die in 1983 for raping and strangling a woman in Newberry County and stealing her jewelry, according to court records. He was the state’s longest-serving inmate on death row. ‌

Singleton spent his last three decades in prison in legal limbo after the state Supreme Court ruled he wasn’t competent to be executed because he didn’t understand he could die in the electric chair and only answere