The Supreme Court grappled with a difficult death penalty question Tuesday. Does it violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment to execute a convicted murderer who has such severe dementia that he doesn’t remember the crime he committed?
Vernon Madison committed a terrible crime. In 1985, after leaving his girlfriend’s house, he returned, and shot and killed a police officer who sat outside in his car to provide protection for the woman.
Twice Madison was sentenced to death but the convictions were overturned because of prosecutorial misconduct. The third time he was convicted, the jury recommended life in prison, but Alabama’s unique sentencing rules allow a trial judge to override a jury’s recommendation and Madison’s judge did just that.
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