ATLANTA (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court put on hold Thursday's scheduled execution of a 65-year-old man convicted of murdering a police officer in 1985, ordering a review into his mental competency after his lawyers said he suffers from dementia due to a series of strokes.
Vernon Madison, one of Alabama's longest-serving death row inmates, had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. (2300 GMT) at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.
The stay of execution issued by Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put off what would have been the 15th execution in the United States this year and the second in Alabama.
The state, meanwhile, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Madison's stay so that he can still be executed before his death warrant expires at midnight.
"Witnesses, Alabama Department of Corrections personnel, and other Executive Department personnel continue to prepare for Madison's execution in the event this motion is granted," according to the motion filed by Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange's (R) office.
Madison's lawyers oppose the attorney general's motion to the high court.
Lawyers said that as a result of multiple strokes over the past year and other serious medical conditions, Madison suffers from a condition called vascular dementia that has left him unable to understand why Alabama is seeking to execute him.
"Mr. Madison now speaks in (a) slurred manner, is legally blind, and can no longer walk independently as a consequence of damage to his brain," they said in a statement.
"It is unconstitutional to execute an individual who is mentally incompetent," they added.
A federal court had earlier rejected the argument that Madison was not mentally competent to be executed. The appellate court said it will hear arguments in the case on June 23.
In regard to Madison's particular alleged mental competency issues that stem from dementia, the appellate court cited previous Supreme Court rulings that noted such claims become "ripe for adjudication only when the petitioner’s execution is imminent."
Strange's did not immediately return a phone call to Reuters seeking comment on the stay.
Madison was convicted in the fatal shooting of police officer Julius Schulte in Mobile, Alabama. He shot the officer, who was responding to a domestic call, in the head with a .32 caliber pistol, court records showed.
He faced three trials. Madison's convictions in the first two were overturned on appeal. In the third trial, he was convicted and the jury, in an 8-4 vote, recommended life in prison. The judge overrode the jurors and sentenced Madison to death.
State officials had wanted to proceed with the execution despite a May 2 U.S. Supreme Court order directing the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to reconsider the state's death sentencing law in light of a Jan. 12 high court ruling striking down a similar statute in Florida.
The Supreme Court found that Florida's law had given judges powers that juries should wield in determining a defendant's eligibility for execution, violating the right to an impartial jury guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment.
On Thursday, his lawyers also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a stay of execution.
(Additional reporting by Lawrence Hurley in Washington; Writing by Letitia Stein; Editing by Will Dunham)
Related
Before You Go
