US Supreme Court maintains execution stay for Alabama inmate
Source: Associated Press
May 12, 10:12 PM EDT
US Supreme Court maintains execution stay for Alabama inmate
By KIM CHANDLER
Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the execution of an Alabama inmate so a lower court can review claims that strokes and dementia have rendered him incompetent to understand his looming death sentence.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the execution just seven hours before Vernon Madison, 65, was scheduled to die at 6 p.m. by lethal injection at a state prison in Atmore.
The Alabama attorney general's office responded with an emergency motion to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to let the execution proceed before the death warrant expired at midnight, but a divided 4-4 court on Thursday evening maintained the stay ordered by an appellate court.
Madison was convicted in the 1985 killing of Mobile police Officer Julius Schulte. Schulte had responded to a domestic call involving Madison. Prosecutors said Madison crept up and shot Schulte in the back of the head as he sat in his police car.
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