Mobile, Ala., Feb 13, 2018 / 13:48 pm
The U.S. Supreme Court has delayed the execution of an Alabama man who killed a police officer in 1985, on the grounds that the inmate reportedly suffers from dementia.
Vernon Madison, now 67 years old, has been held in solitary confinement for the past 30 years. He was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday.
However, Madison's lawyers have said that he has suffered from a number of strokes, and is now legally blind. They have also claimed that his memory is impaired, potentially due to the onset of dementia, and he cannot walk without the aid of a walker.
"His mind and body are failing," Madison's legal team said, according to the BBC.