Execution delayed for Alabama inmate in ’85 officer killing

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday halted the execution of Alabama inmate Vernon Madison after attorneys argued that dementia had left the 67-year-old unable to remember killing a police officer three decades ago.

Justices issued the stay on the same evening that Madison was scheduled to receive a lethal injection at a southwest Alabama prison. The court delayed the execution to consider whether to further review the case and claims that Madison is mentally incompetent.

Madison was sentenced to death for the 1985 killing of Mobile police Officer Julius Schulte. Schulte had responded to a call about a missing child made by Madison’s then-girlfriend. Prosecutors say that Madison crept up and shot Schulte in the back of the head as he sat in his police car.

Madison’s attorneys argued that strokes and dementia had left Madison unable to remember killing Schulte or fully understand his looming execution. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that condemned inmates must have a “rational understanding” that they are about to be executed.

“We are thrilled that the court stopped this execution tonight. Killing a fragile man suffering from dementia is unnecessary and cruel,” attorney Bryan Stevenson, of the Equal Justice Initiative, said.

The Alabama attorney general’s office opposed the stay, arguing a state court has ruled Madison competent and that Madison has presented nothing to reverse that finding.

Appeals courts have been divided over Madison’s case. In 2016, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted Madison’s execution seven hours before he was scheduled for a lethal injection. The high court later allowed the execution to proceed.