The Alabama Supreme Court denied the motion Wednesday. But a divided 4-4 court on Thursday evening maintained the stay ordered by an appellate court.
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Vernon Madison is one of Alabama’s longest-serving death row inmates.
Lawyers for an Alabama inmate are asking an appellate court to halt his upcoming execution.
On Thursday afternoon, Strange’s office contended that granting the stay of execution “is an absolute abuse of discretion” and urged the Supreme Court to vacate the stay.
The court agreed with Madison’s attorneys that more time is needed to review claims that Madison is mentally incompetent because of strokes and dementia.
In 1985, Madison fatally shot police officer Julius Schulte in the back of the head while he was in his police auto. Defense lawyers wrote that Madison is in a, “small category of defendants for whom execution is inappropriate”.
A Mobile County Circuit Court last month found Madison competent to face his execution, based on the testimony of two doctors that Madison understood the nature of the case and the reasons for his execution.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stopped the execution just seven hours before Madison was set to die Thursday night for the shooting death of Mobile police officer Julius Schulte in 1985.
Attorneys for Vernon Madison filed the stay request Wednesday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They said that Judge McRae, who overrode the jury’s life imprisonment sentence in Madison’s case, had overridden six jury verdicts of life without parole – more than any other judge in the state.
Alabama authorities had pushed against a stay and insisted that a state trial court had determined that Madison had a rational understanding that he was facing execution.
On Thursday they appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, filing a motion for a stay of execution based on the constitutionality of judicial override.
Madison knew he was in prison for murder, but indicated that he did not believe he killed anyone and doesn’t remember the name of the name of the man he was convicted of killing, Goff said. Prosecutors said Madison crept up and shot Schulte in the back of the head as he sat in his police vehicle. His attorneys argue that several strokes have diminished Madison’s mental capacity to the point that he no longer understands why the state wants to execute him.
His lawyers say they will argue this before a court in late June.
“As a result of multiple strokes over the past year 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.
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Prosecutors said Madison crept up and shot Schulte in the back of the head as he sat in his police vehicle.
