No. 17-7505October Term 2018Decided Feb 27, 2019
Madison v. Alabama
This case asked whether Alabama could execute Vernon Madison, a death-row prisoner whose strokes and dementia left him unable to remember his crime or fully understand why the state planned to put him to death.
Case status
- Current stage
- Decided
- Latest event
- Decision released Feb 27, 2019
- What it's about
This case asked whether Alabama could execute Vernon Madison, a death-row prisoner whose strokes and dementia left him unable to remember his crime or fully understand why the state planned to put him to death. The Supreme
Question presented
1. Consistent with the Eighth Amendment, and this Court's decisions in Ford and Panetti, may the State execute a prisoner whose mental disability leaves him without memory of his commission of the capital offense? 2. Do evolving standards of decency and the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment bar the execution of a prisoner whose competency has been compromised by vascular dementia and multiple strokes causing severe cognitive dysfunction and a degenerative medical condition which prevents him from remembering the crime for which he was convicted or understanding the circumstances of his scheduled execution?
- Case path
Circuit Court of Alabama, Mobile County / Decision released Feb 27, 2019
- Area
Decided Supreme Court case
Timing
Decided February 27, 2019
The Court released its decision on February 27, 2019 without hearing oral argument.
Related cases
Grounding
- Grounding
- Primary-source trail available.
- Note
- Plain-English explainer. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.
- Checked
- Jul 3, 2026
- Method
- Methodology