Entries tagged with “Vernon Madison”
Nov 06, 2025
Facts About the Death Penalty: Execution of Prisoners with Severe Mental Illness
In 2002, a Gallup poll found that 75% of Americans opposed executing individuals who have severe mental illnesses. Many people believe that the U.S. does not execute people who suffer from serious mental illness. This is only partially true. In fact, the Constitution bars the execution only of people who are legally deemed “insane” or mentally incompetent. But the legal standard for demonstrating mental incompetence is high and exemptions from execution for mental incompetence are rare. Given…
Issues
Feb 25, 2020
Vernon Madison, Whose Case Challenged Execution of Prisoners with Dementia, Dies on Alabama’s Death Row
Vernon Madison, an Alabama death-row prisoner whose severe dementia led to a major Supreme Court decision on competency to be executed, has died in prison at the age of 69. Madison’s case twice reached the U.S. Supreme Court on questions of the limits of federal court review of death-penalty cases and whether Alabama was entitled to execute an aging, infirm prisoner whose cognitive abilities were severely compromised. Madison’s attorneys argued that a series of strokes had left him without a…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Mar 01, 2019
Supreme Court Decides that Executing a Person With Dementia Could Be Unconstitutional
The United States Supreme Court has reversed a decision of the Alabama state courts that would have permitted the execution of Vernon Madison (pictured), a death-row prisoner whose severe dementia has left him with no memory of the crime for which he was sentenced to death and compromised his understanding of why he was to be executed. The Alabama courts had narrowly construed the Supreme Court’s past rulings that prohibited the execution of prisoners who had become mentally incompetent…
Issues
Oct 03, 2018
Justices Appear to Favor Prisoner with Dementia in Case Seeking to Block Alabama Execution
The U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in Madison v. Alabama on October 2, 2018 on whether an Alabama death-row prisoner who has vascular dementia, brain damage, cognitive deficits, and memory loss from two near-fatal strokes is competent to be executed. During oral argument, Bryan Stevenson (pictured), the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, told the justices that, as a result of severe and progressively worsening dementia, Vernon Madison lacks a rational understanding of why…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Feb 26, 2018
U.S. Supreme Court to Decide if Alabama Can Execute Prisoner With Vascular Dementia and No Memory of the Crime
Less than a week after Alabama halted the failed execution of a terminally ill prisoner whose veins were not suitable for intraveneous injection, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear the case of another Alabama prisoner whose medical condition, his lawyers say, make him constitutionally unfit for execution. Strokes have slurred Vernon Madison’s speech and left him legally blind, incontinent, unable to walk independently, and with no memory of the offense for which he was sentenced to…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Jan 27, 2018
U.S. Supreme Court Stays Alabama Execution to Consider Vernon Madison’s Competency to Be Executed
The United States Supreme Court has stayed the execution of Vernon Madison to consider for a second time questions related to his competency to be executed. In a 6 – 3 vote, with Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissenting, the Court halted Alabama’s scheduled January 25 execution of Madison “pending the disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari” he had filed seeking review of his competency to be executed. That petition was based upon new evidence of his deteriorating mental…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Jan 23, 2018
Condemned Alabama Prisoner Seeks Stay Based on Mental Incompetency and Arrest of Court-Appointed Expert
Lawyers for 67-year-old Vernon Madison (pictured), a death-row prisoner whose diagnosis of “irreversible and progressive” vascular dementia has left him with no memory of the crime for which he was sentenced to death, have filed a motion to stay his January 25 execution in Alabama. In a petition for writ of certiorari and motion for stay of execution filed January 18 in the U.S. Supreme Court, Madison’s lawyers argue that the courts wrongly found Madison competent to be executed based upon the…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Nov 08, 2017
Court Rulings Raise Questions of What Constitutes Incompetency and How is it Determined
Two recent high court rulings have raised questions of whether death-row prisoners are sufficiently mentally impaired to be deemed incompetent to be executed and who gets to make that determination. On November 7, the Arkansas Supreme Court issued an order staying the execution of death-row prisoner Jack Greene (pictured, left) to resolve whether that state’s mechanism to determine competency — giving the director of the Arkansas Department of Correction (“ADC”) sole discretion to make the…
Issues
Mar 16, 2017
Federal Appeals Court Finds Alabama Prisoner Incompetent To Be Executed
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled on March 15 that Alabama death-row prisoner Vernon Madison (pictured) — who was spared execution last May when the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked at 4 – 4 on whether to lift a stay — is not mentally competent to be executed. The appeals court overturned an Alabama state court ruling, saying that the state court had unreasonably determined the facts when it concluded that Madison was aware of the reasons for his impending execution. “The only…
Issues
Executions Overview
,May 11, 2016
Alabama Prepares to Execute 65-Year-Old Mentally Ill Prisoner Disabled by Several Strokes
UPDATE: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit stayed Madison’s execution, ordering oral argument on his competency claim. Previously: Alabama is preparing to execute Vernon Madison (pictured) on May 12, as his lawyers continue to press their claim that the 65-year-old prisoner is incompetent to be executed. Defense lawyers say Madison, whom a trial judge sentenced to death despite the jury’s recommendation of a life sentence, suffers from mental illness and has additional…