Vernon Madison was convicted [cert. petition, PDF] in Alabama of murdering a police officer in 1985. He was scheduled to be executed on January 25. Madison's attorneys petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, claiming that Madison is not competent and the execution would violate the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment.
Madison suffers from vascular dementia, "encephalomacia (dead brain tissue), small vessel ischemia, speaks in a dysarthric or slurred manner, is legally blind, can no longer walk independently, and has urinary incontinence as a consequence of damage to his brain."
The Supreme Court previously denied relief to Madison after a 2016 competency hearing ruled Madison was competent. However, the court-appointed expert in that hearing has since had his license to practice psychology suspended after it was found that he had forged prescriptions for illegal pills due to his narcotics addiction. One of the forged prescriptions occurred four days after the 2016 competency hearing. The expert has not yet been convicted of any crimes as charges are pending.
The court granted Madison a stay of execution until a decision on a petition for a writ of certiorari is reached. If the petition for a writ of certiorari is denied, then the stay of execution will be automatically terminated.
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