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Thread: Vernon Madison - Alabama

  1. #21
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Is Alabama death row inmate competent to be executed? Judge to decide

    By Kelsey Stein
    AL.com

    Attorneys for an Alabama death row inmate convicted of killing a police officer 31 years ago say that several strokes have caused mental decline so severe their client no longer understands why the state plans to execute him.

    Madison's attorney in February filed a motion seeking to stop his execution, saying he suffers "from significant cognitive decline, acute mental health disorders, and severe medical problems that render him incompetent to be executed."

    A competency hearing was held in Vernon Madison's case on April 14 in Mobile County circuit court. Testimony was given by Dr. Karl Kirkland, a clinical and forensic psychologist; Dr. John Goff, a psychologist; and Carter Davenport, the warden at W.C. Holman Correctional Facility.

    The next day, Judge Robert Smith issued an order asking attorneys to submit a brief within one week. Those filings appeared in online court records Thursday evening.

    Madison is represented by attorneys with the Equal Justice Initiative. In a brief filed on his behalf, they argue that executing Madison would violate his constitutional rights because he does not have a rational understanding of the situation.

    In a brief filed by the state attorney general's office, attorneys argue that, based on testimony from both Goff and Kirkland, Madison does understand why the state is moving to execute him.

    Madison, who has been on death row since Nov. 12, 1985, was convicted in September 1985 and sentenced to death in Mobile County in the April 18, 1985 slaying of police Officer Julius Schulte, who was responding to a domestic disturbance call. Madison was on parole at the time.

    Madison had three trials, the last one in 1994. State appellate courts twice had sent the case back to Mobile County, once for a violation based on race-based jury selection and once based on improper testimony for an expert witness for the prosecution. He is one of Alabama's longest-serving death row inmates.

    According to the brief filed by Madison's attorneys, he had a stroke in May 2015 and another in January of this year, causing memory loss and slurred speech, making it difficult for him to move and rendering him legally blind.

    Goff conducted neuropsychological testing and evaluated Madison's competence to be executed. Goff determined that, because of the strokes, Madison has retrograde amnesia and dementia, and his IQ score has declined significantly to 72 from previous scores.

    "Mr. Madison cannot independently recall the facts of the offense he is convicted of or the previous legal proceedings in his case," the EJI brief states. "Mr. Goff reported that Mr. Madison was unable to recollect the sequence of events from the offense, to his arrest, to his trial and could not recall the name of the victim."

    Madison's attorneys are requesting a stay of execution.

    Representatives from the attorney general's office argue that Madison's contention that he was unjustly convicted demonstrates that he has a rational understanding of the case and his sentence.

    "Madison is aware that he was convicted of murder in Mobile County, has spent thirty years on death row appealing that conviction through numerous appeals, that he is going to be executed for the murder, that the judge sentenced him to death because of who the victim was (a police officer), and that he will die as a result of his execution," the brief states.

    The attorneys also argue that testimony from both experts also shows that he does not suffer from psychosis or delusions, and no mental illness or defect would cause Madison to lack an understanding of reality.

    The Alabama Supreme Court issued an order setting May 12 as the date for execution. Madison was one of three death row inmates for which the Alabama Attorney General's Office had requested the court in February to set execution dates.

    The inmates are being held on death row at Holman Correctional Facility at Atmore where the executions take place.

    http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/201...inmate_co.html

  2. #22
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Judge rules that Alabama death row inmate is competent to be executed May 12

    An Alabama circuit court judge has denied a request to suspend the May 12 execution date of Vernon Madison, who has been on the state's death row for 31 years.

    Madison was convicted in September 1985 and sentenced to death in Mobile County in the April 18, 1985, slaying of police Officer Julius Schulte, who was responding to a domestic disturbance call. Madison was on parole at the time.

    At a competency hearing April 14, testimony was offered by Dr. Karl Kirkland, a court-appointed clinical and forensic psychologist; Dr. John Goff, a psychologist hired by Madison's attorneys; and Carter Davenport, the warden at W.C. Holman Correctional Facility.

    Madison's attorneys argued that several strokes had caused such significant mental decline that he no longer understood why the state intended to execute him. His attorneys from the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative are seeking a stay of execution.

    http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/201...ama_death.html
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  3. #23
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Lawyers Tell Court Inmate Is Incompetent, Can't Be Executed

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — 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.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/l...cuted-38931746

  4. #24
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Alabama asks judge to allow convicted cop killer's execution to proceed

    Attorneys for the state are asking a federal judge to allow the execution of an Alabama death row inmate to go forward as planned Thursday.

    Last week, Vernon Madison's attorneys filed a request for an emergency stay, claiming that several strokes and serious dementia have left Madison incompetent to be executed. It was filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Alabama.

    The attorney general's office responded on Monday, arguing that Madison did not exhaust his appeals in state court before filing the federal petition and that his attorneys have not proven he lacks a rational understanding of the state's move to execute him.

    "Madison has not cited a single Supreme Court case dealing with dementia and memory deficits in relation to a person's competency to be executed," according to the attorney general's filing.

    They say testimony shows that Madison does not suffer from psychosis or delusions, and no mental illness or defect would cause him to lack an understanding of reality.

    Madison was convicted in September 1985 and sentenced to death in Mobile County in the April 18, 1985, slaying of police Officer Julius Schulte, who was responding to a domestic disturbance call. Madison was on parole at the time.

    Attorneys with the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative have argued that Madison, 65, has suffered significant mental decline, including memory loss and a "profound level of disorientation and confusion." They say "he is in a class of offenders for whom execution is a categorically prohibited punishment" because of his dementia.

    He was most recently hospitalized in January. One of his attorneys has noticed that, since then, he repeatedly asks the same questions, does not indicate that he remembers having the same conversation previously, and speaks nonsensically.

    Madison's attorneys filed the federal request soon after a state circuit court judge denied a similar request based on testimony offered during an April 14 competency hearing.

    Madison, who has been on death row since Nov. 12, 1985, is one of Alabama's longest-serving death row inmates.

    He had three trials, the last one in 1994. State appellate courts twice had sent the case back to Mobile County, once for a violation based on race-based jury selection and once based on improper testimony for an expert witness for the prosecution.

    Over the years since, he has filed numerous state and federal appeals that have been denied, including denials by the Alabama Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

    The Alabama Supreme Court in January issued an order setting May 12 as the date for execution. Madison was one of three death row inmates for which the Alabama Attorney General's Office had requested the court in February to set execution dates.

    The inmates are being held on death row at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, where the executions take place.

    http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/201..._allow_co.html

  5. #25
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Alabama death row inmate Vernon Madison seeks stay of execution

    Attorneys for an Alabama death row inmate are asking a judge to stay his execution set for Thursday and resentence him to life without parole based on recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

    Vernon Madison, now 65, was charged and convicted in the April 18, 1985, slaying of police Officer Julius Schulte, who was responding to a domestic disturbance call.

    He had three trials because state appellate courts twice sent the case back to Mobile County, first for a violation based on race-based jury selection and later based on improper testimony from an expert witness for the prosecution.

    He was convicted in a third trial in 1994. The jury then recommended a sentence of life without parole, but Mobile County Circuit Judge Ferrill McRae overrode the decision and sentenced him to death.

    In January, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hurst v. Florida that Florida's scheme allowing judges to override a jury's sentencing recommendation in death penalty cases was unconstitutional. The decision prompted Florida's legislature to rewrite its capital punishment sentencing law.

    Alabama has a similar sentencing scheme, though the attorney general's office has noted that it was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995.

    In another ruling issued May 2, the Supreme Court granted review of the case of Alabama Death Row inmate Bart Johnson. It was the first Alabama case challenging the state's capital murder sentencing scheme to be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court since Hurst was decided.

    Attorneys from the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative represent both Johnson and Madison.

    They argue that the Johnson decision is critical to Madison's case. That ruling, handed down after Madison's execution date was set, has "raised fundamental questions about the constitutionality of the use of judicial override in Alabama," they argue.

    "This ruling implicates all (capital) cases in Alabama," Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of EJI, said last week. "We have argued that Alabama's statute no longer conforms to current constitutional requirements. The Court's ruling today supports that view."

    The attorney general argues that the Johnson decision "does not strike down or invalidate Alabama's death penalty sentencing scheme," but instead orders a state appellate court to reconsider the facts of that specific case in light of Hurst.

    "Alabama's current death-penalty statute, under which Madison was sentenced, has never been struck down by the United States Supreme Court," state attorneys argue in court documents.

    On May 5, Madison's attorneys asked the Alabama Supreme Court to not only stay his execution but also reconsider the state's death penalty sentencing scheme in light of the decisions.

    The attorney general opposed the stay and argued that Madison's claim must first be made in circuit court, under Alabama law.

    On May 6, the Alabama Supreme Court denied Madison's request.

    His attorneys put forth the same arguments in a petition filed Monday in Mobile County Circuit Court. They say his death sentence is unconstitutional, in light of the Hurst and Johnson rulings, and ask Judge Robert H. Smith to resentence him to life without parole.

    "Because Alabama's death penalty sentencing scheme has exactly the same defect that was declared unconstitutional in Hurst, it is no longer viable," they wrote in the filing. "More specifically, there is a serious question as to whether Alabama's judicial override system can sustain when the very precedent upon which it is based has been overruled by Hurst."

    The attorney general countered with several filings arguing that the appeal was filed outside the one-year window after the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals entered its judgment in July 1998, and that the claim could have been raised on direct appeal.

    Madison, who has been on death row since Nov. 12, 1985, is one of Alabama's longest-serving death row inmates.

    Over the years, he has filed numerous state and federal appeals that have been denied, including denials by the Alabama Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

    During an April 14 competency hearing, testimony showed that Madison has had several strokes and suffers from serious dementia. His severe mental decline rendered him incompetent to be executed, his attorneys argued.

    Smith later issued a ruling denying the stay of execution.

    Last week, Madison's attorneys filed a request for an emergency stay in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Alabama.

    Attorneys for the state filed a response asking the federal court to allow the execution to go forward as scheduled. They say Madison did not exhaust his state appeals before filing the federal petition and that his attorneys have not proven he lacks a rational understanding of the state's move to execute him.

    http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/201...stay_of_e.html

  6. #26
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    I highly doubt Hurst will get him a stay for several reasons. First, the death penalty law will be reviewed like the midazolam protocol. Therefore, Alabama will probably be allowed to execute Madison, and hopefully others, while this is litigated. Alabama was allowed to execute Christopher Brooks during the midazolam litigation. Judges will probably rule that he is procedurally barred from a stay because he waited too long and a date is set. I don't think Johnson is a blanket ruling so it shouldn't apply. And there's the fact that Florida was allowed to execute people during hurst. There's no reason to believe Alabama won't be allowed to as well.

  7. #27
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Alabama judge denies stay of execution for death row inmate Vernon Madison

    In an order issued Monday evening and filed in online court records Tuesday, Mobile County Circuit Judge Robert H. Smith dismissed Madison's petition seeking a stay of execution.

    The judge noted in the order that the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals is currently reviewing the state's death penalty statute, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's Hurst v. Florida decision.

    http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/201...stay_of_e.html
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  8. #28
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    Thank you, Mike, this is very good news. Have a great evening!

  9. #29
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Looks like Alabama will be able to keep executing inmates for now. They need to hurry and execute as many as they can before their statute is inevitably struck down

  10. #30
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Here's a quick video to see a quick history of the murder and case.

    The disturbance call that the Officer responded to was about Madison shooting his girlfriend two times in the back.

    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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