America’s death row is graying, and that leaves courts increasingly likely to face questions of when it becomes unconstitutionality cruel to execute the elderly and infirm. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case this fall of 67-year old Vernon Madison, who killed an Alabama police officer decades ago but whose lawyers say doesn’t remember the crime because of dementia….
Attorney General Jeff Sessions says the U.S. will give Alabama full custody of a convicted package bomber who killed a federal judge so the state can execute him on Thursday. In a Monday court filing, the Justice Department said it would waive its right to custody of Walter Leroy Moody, Jr. The filing came after Moody argued he should be…
The U.S. Supreme Court has again ruled that Alabama can move forward with the execution of an inmate convicted of killing a convenience store clerk more than two decades ago. The Supreme Court ruled late Thursday that the execution could proceed, after issuing two temporary delays earlier in the night. Ronald Bert Smith Jr. is scheduled to receive a lethal…
An appellate court has refused to stop the execution of Alabama inmate Tommy Arthur. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday denied Arthur’s request for a stay of execution. The court, in a split decision, upheld a federal judge’s decision that dismissed Arthur’s lawsuit challenging Alabama’s death penalty procedure as unconstitutional. Arthur is scheduled to be executed by…
An Alabama inmate who was twice sentenced to die has now been taken off death row. Marcus Benn, 40, on Monday was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the 2010 slayings of three people. Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tracie Todd said she made her ruling in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling striking down Florida’s death…
Alabama is asking an appellate court to let the November execution of an inmate go forward. The state attorney general’s office on Friday asked the 11th U.S. circuit Court of Appeals to reject Tommy Arthur’s request for a stay. The state argues Arthur has used abusive litigation tactics to “escape” execution. Arthur had been scheduled for execution on six previous…
The U.S. Supreme Court says death-row prisoners must have “rational understanding” that they are about to be executed and why, but lawyer for an Alabama inmate say their client fails that test. A lawyer for 65-year-old Vernon Madison on Thursday told a panel of 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges that stroke-induced dementia has made Madison unable to understand…
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…
