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…
A 74-year-old Alabama inmate scheduled to be executed in November is asking an appellate court to review his claim that Alabama’s lethal injection procedure is inhumane. Lawyers for Thomas Arthur filed the appeal with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Arthur’s attorneys argued a federal judge prematurely dismissed Arthur’s challenge and had misapplied a requirement for inmates to name…
Is the death penalty in America gradually dying? There have been just two executions since May 1. And the total for 2016 probably will hit a 25-year low. Execution drug shortages, errors in death chambers and legal challenges to sentences imposed by judges have contributed to a dramatic decline in the number of states that are carrying out executions. Just…
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…
The Alabama attorney general’s office is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to let the execution of an inmate proceed. The attorney general’s office on Thursday afternoon asked the high court to vacate a stay of execution for Vernon Madison issued hours earlier by the 11th U.S. Court of Criminal Appeals. Three judges on the 11th Circuit said there should be…
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…
The Alabama Supreme Court has set a May execution date for a man convicted of shooting a Mobile police officer in the back of the head 30 years ago. The court set the May 12 execution date for Vernon Madison after the Alabama attorney general’s office said Madison had exhausted his appeals. A federal judge in Alabama last week rejected…
The state of Alabama is seeking execution dates for three death row inmates after carrying out its first lethal injection in more than two years. The attorney general’s office asked the Alabama Supreme Court to set execution dates for Robert Melson, Vernon Madison and Robert Bert Smith. Smith was convicted of the 1995 murder of a Huntsville convenience store clerk….
A man convicted of the 1992 rape and bludgeoning death of a woman is scheduled to be put to death Thursday in Alabama’s first execution in more than two years. Forty-three-year-old Christopher Eugene Brooks is to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. CST. Brooks was condemned for the death of 23-year-old Jo Deann Campbell. Prosecutors said Campbell was beaten…
