South Carolina’s longest-serving death row inmate dies of natural causes

Fred Singleton couldn’t receive a death warrant because he was considered mentally incompetent

COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s longest-serving death row inmate died this week in a prison infirmary of natural causes, the Department of Corrections said Friday.

Fred Singleton, 81, died Monday, according to an online post by the agency that oversees the state’s prisons. He was one of 25 inmates on death row at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia after executions resumed in September 2024.

The state prisons agency, in its statement, did not explain why it waited four days to notify the public of Singleton’s death.

A jury convicted Singleton in 1983 of raping and strangling 73-year-old widow Elizabeth Lominick to death in Newberry County the year before.

Officers had arrested Singleton in Georgetown County with her car, her diamond and gold jewelry, and about $100 of her money, according to court records.

However, Singleton couldn’t be executed because the state Supreme Court found him mentally incompetent. In the 1993 opinion deciding Singleton’s mental state meant he couldn’t face the death chamber, justices set the standard still used today for what makes a death row inmate able to face execution.

Singleton didn’t understand that he could die in the electric chair, which was the default execution method at the time. He could only respond to attorneys’ questions with a “yes” or “no,” making it difficult to communicate, his appeals lawyers argued to the court.

Although the court agreed Singleton shouldn’t face execution, justices also decided a judge couldn’t reverse Singleton’s sentence because the court couldn’t be sure his condition was permanent, according to the opinion.

Medication might have rendered Singleton competent, but justices decided officials couldn’t force Singleton to take medicine for the sake of his execution, according to court records.

Singleton spent the rest of his life on death row.

The next longest-serving inmate is Jamie Wilson, whose case also remains in legal limbo because of questions over his competence.

Wilson, convicted in 1989 of killing two 8-year-old girls in a school shooting the year prior, pleaded guilty but mentally ill before receiving a death sentence. His attorneys argued during a 2004 hearing that he was incompetent for execution, but a judge has yet to issue a decision.

Six inmates have been put to death since South Carolina resumed executions last year following a 13-year hiatus. Two more received judgments deeming them competent for execution but are appealing the decisions.

Source: scdailygazette.com, Skylar Laird, October 10, 2025

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