MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama is preparing to execute an inmate who lawyers contend has developed dementia and can no longer remember killing a police officer three decades ago.
Sixty-seven-year-old Vernon Madison is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at a prison in Alabama.
Madison was sentenced to death for the 1985 killing of Mobile Police Officer Julius Schulte. Schulte had responded to a domestic disturbance call involving Madison. Prosecutors have said that Madison crept up and shot Schulte in the back of the head as he sat in his police car.
Madison’s attorneys say the inmate has suffered several strokes and can’t remember killing Schulte or understand his upcoming execution.
The state attorney general’s office says courts have found that Madison, though in declining health, is competent.