Execution Date Set for Alabama Death Row Inmate

Lawyers for an Alabama death row inmate are asking a federal court to stop his execution next week, saying he is incompetent because of mental illness, strokes and dementia.

Attorneys for 65-year-old Vernon Madison filed the emergency stay request Wednesday in federal court in Mobile.

Madison is scheduled to get a lethal injection May 12. He was convicted in the 1985 slaying of Mobile police Officer Julius Schulte.

Madison’s attorneys said he does not remember specific facts of the fatal shooting and “does not have a rational understanding of why the state is seeking to execute him.”

The emergency filing came after a Mobile County judge last month found that Madison was competent and knew why he was being executed.

The state has until Monday to file a response.

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