Madison’s lawyers claim strokes and dementia have left the prisoner incompetent to face lethal injection for killing Mobile police officer Julius Schulte in 1985.
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“As a result of multiple strokes over the a year ago and other serious medical conditions, Vernon Madison suffers from a major vascular neurological disorder, or vascular dementia, which has resulted in significant memory impairment, a decline in cognitive functioning, and ultimately an inability to rationally understand the reason why the State is seeking to execute him”, attorneys Jennae R. Swiergula and Angela L. Setzer wrote. His attorneys had sought a stay arguing that Madison has been mentally incapacitated by strokes and dementia.
Mobile Circuit Judge Robert H. Smith said that Madison has a rational understanding that he is going to be executed because of the murder he committed and a rational understanding that, “the state is seeking retribution and that he will die when is executed”. She wrote it was not an “unreasonable” conclusion that the lower court reached.
The 22 year veteran of the force was responding to a domestic violence call involving Madison.
In 1985, Madison of shooting Police Officer Julius Schulte in the back of the head while sitting in his police auto after he had attempted to respond to a domestic disturbance call. The jury in Madison’s third trial made an 8-4 recommendation of life in prison, but the trial judge sentenced him to the death penalty.
On Thursday, his lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a stay of execution.
Attorneys for Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange wrote in their response to Madison’s 11th Circuit Court filing that the federal court had to defer to the state court’s ruling and could not go beyond its findings. A judge sentenced him to the death. The attorney general’s office noted that Madison’s death warrant did not expire until midnight on May 12.
A jury convicted Madison of capital murder in September of 1985, but the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new trial because prosecutors excluded blacks from the jury pool.
EJI reports the Mobile County Circuit judge has overridden six life without parole jury verdicts and cites U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent in the Hurst v. Florida case in January.
While awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision, Alabama Department of Corrections personnel and witnesses continued preparing for the execution in the event the stay was overturned.
His execution would be the 15th in the United States this year and the second in Alabama.
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The stay request came after an Alabama circuit judge ruled Madison was competent and a federal judge refused a stay.
