U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against Executing Death Row Inmates with Dementia

U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that States cannot execute prisoners who are incapable of rationally understanding the reasons for their punishment. A 5-3 opinion handed down by the Court tossed out an Alabama state court ruling that Vernon Madison, 68, was legally eligible to be executed, sending it back down to the lower courts to reconsider the case.

Madison shot Mobile police officer Julius Schulte twice in the back of the head in 1985 while the officer supervised Madison’s move out of his former girlfriend’s house. He was sentenced to death in 1994. But in recent years the inmate has suffered strokes resulting in brain damage, dementia and retrograde amnesia, thus effectively wiping the memory of the murder of Schulte. Madison is now legally blind, speaks with a slur, and can only walk with assistance.

The justices ruled that the United States Constitution’s Eighth Amendment bars cruel and unusual punishment, and thus prohibits capital punishment for those who, because of dementia, mental illness or other disorders, cannot understand why they will be put to death. Justice Elena Kagan said a state is not barred from administering the death penalty if a prisoner merely forgets committing a crime. “The Eighth Amendment requires, and the state must find, that [Madison will] understand why.”

See Andrew Chung, U.S. Top Court Backs Killer who Forgot Crime in Death Penalty Case, MSN, February 27, 2019.