Lawyers of Alabama Inmate Ask for Execution to Halt

Lawyers for the state of Alabama are asking an appellate court to allow the execution of a death row inmate this week.

Vernon Madison is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday night for the 1985 murder of Mobile police office Julius Schulte.

The state attorney general’s office told the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday that a lower court decided correctly that Madison is mentally competent and can be executed.

Madison’s lawyers have asked the appeals court to block the execution, arguing that strokes and dementia have left him incapacitated and unable to understand he is facing the death penalty.

The state says the court properly applied the law when it determined Madison had a rational understanding of his impending death.

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