Vernon Madison, one of the longest serving inmates on Alabama’s death row, was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Thursday, but 30 minutes before that, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay, reports Al.com. Madison, 67, has been on death row for over 30 years after his 1985 conviction for killing Mobile police Cpl. Julius Schulte. Madison was 34 when he was charged Schulte’s death, who was responding to a domestic disturbance call. He also was charged with shooting the woman he lived with at the time, 37-year-old Cheryl Ann Greene. She survived.
A state appellate court overturned his first conviction for a violation involving race-based jury selection. At his second trial, in 1990, defense attorneys again argued that Madison suffered from a mental illness. They did not dispute the fact that Madison shot Schulte, but said he did not know that Schulte – dressed in plain clothes and driving an unmarked police cruiser – was a police officer. An appellate court ordered another trial because of improper testimony from an expert witness for the prosecution. In 1994, he was convicted again, but the jury recommended a life sentence. Mobile County Circuit Judge Ferrill McRae sentenced Madison to death, overriding the jury’s recommendation. Last year, Gov. Kay Ivey signed a law that says juries, not judges, have the final say on whether to impose the death penalty. That law officially ended Alabama’s judicial override policy, as Alabama was the last state to allow it. On Wednesday, Madison’s attorneys argued to the Supreme Court that because he was sentenced to death under the judicial override statue, he is entitled to a stay and a review of his case.