Death-row inmate asks for execution

By The Associated Press

An Arkansas death-row inmate is asking the state Supreme Court to allow his execution, saying "death is my only peace in life."

Rickey Dale Newman, 51, sent a handwritten, one-page letter to justices earlier this week. Newman asks the court to stop all hearings in his case, even though it is a move he says his federal public defenders oppose.

Newman wrote that he knows his death "is the only and right thing."

Newman was convicted of capital murder for the mutilation death of Marie Cholette, 46, of Fort Worth, Texas, at a transient camp near Van Buren.

After his 2002 conviction, Newman waived his appeals, but his lawyers stopped his scheduled execution. Newman then changed his mind and said he wanted to appeal.