The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in October over whether Alabama can execute an inmate diagnosed with stroke-related dementia who lawyers contend can no longer remember killing a police officer in 1985.

The court set oral arguments for Oct. 2 in the case of Vernon Madison.Madison’s attorneys argue that vascular dementia has rendered the 67-year-old inmate unable to understand his execution or remember killing Mobile Police Officer Julius Schulte.

The state attorney general’s office has argued that a 2016 competency hearing found that Madison understands that he was convicted of killing Schulte and sentenced to death for that crime.

Courts stayed Madison’s last two execution dates. Justices in February agreed to hear the case.
(Associated Press, copyright 2018)

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