After receiving the death penalty for the 1985 killing of Mobile police officer Julius Schulte, Vernon Madison still lives on the taxpayers’ dime to this day.
Now, with Madison’s appeal in front of the United States Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on the case on Tuesday, Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran is worried that the latest delay in confirming Judge Brett Kavanaugh to this court will mean that Madison will continue to evade his sentence.
“I will be aggravated to no end if because we have [an] eight-person court that we get an unfavorable ruling that could just be a 4-4 vote,” said Cochran, per NBC 15.
The Associated Press reports that this scenario is indeed possible, and that Chief Justice John Roberts could even side with the four left-leaning associate justices to rule in Madison’s favor.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, as the chief law enforcement officer for the state, traveled to Washington D.C. in support of the fallen victim – who was killed execution-style in the line of duty while protecting Madison’s then-girlfriend and her 11-year-old child – and his family.
Attorney General Steve Marshall spoke about the Vernon Madison capital-murder case after oral arguments today at the United States Supreme Court. Watch ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/W8LhMK1ma1
— AG Steve Marshall (@AGSteveMarshall) October 3, 2018
For members of the Alabama law enforcement community, Madison’s long-running pattern of jumping through legal loopholes has gone far enough already. He was convicted of the heinous crime but got off on technicalities two times before the third conviction stuck in 1994. For 24 years now, his death sentence has gone unfulfilled.
“It was just horrifying to think who would shoot Julius,” Cochran said.
“Absolutely not one ounce of remorse or sadness, not one ounce of, ‘Oh, I made a mistake,’” retired Mobile Police Department Major Wilbur Williams remarked of Madison.
Cochran knew Corporal Schulte well, first meeting him as a cadet and later working hand-in-hand with him as an investigator.
“Everybody knew Julius Schulte. He was a big man. He was jovial. He was gung-ho, loved kids,” the now-sheriff explained.
Now, Madison’s attorneys are arguing that two strokes in 2015 and 2016 mean that he “does not remember the crime for which he has been convicted and does not have a rational understanding of why the state of Alabama seeks to execute him.”
However, the state argues that while Madison’s condition might preclude him from remembering committing the crime, he still understands why he is being put to death. In a written brief, the state advised that Madison’s execution “will serve as an example to others that the intentional murder of a police officer will be punished.”
For more specifics on the appeal, read the Montgomery Advertiser’s article here.
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
