Supreme Court stays execution of inmate who lawyers say is not competent

The US Supreme Court has granted a stay in the case of an Alabama inmate whose execution had been scheduled for Thursday night.

[Previous story, published at 8:54 p.m. ET]

US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has issued a temporary stay of execution in the case of an Alabama inmate whose dementia, his lawyers say, prevents him from remembering the murder he was convicted of committing decades ago.

Alabama plans to put Vernon Madison, 67, to death on Thursday night, but less than a half hour before the execution was to take place, Thomas issued a temporary stay, writing the execution was held off "pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court."

The state has until midnight to carry out the execution if the stay is lifted, a spokesman for the state's department of corrections said.

Madison has been convicted three times in the shooting of Mobile police Cpl. Julius Schulte, who was responding to a April 1985 domestic disturbance call. Madison, who was on parole, sneaked up behind Schulte and shot him twice in the head, according to court documents. He also shot his girlfriend, who survived her wounds.

At his first and second trials, Madison argued that he was not guilty because he was mentally ill. At his third trial, he argued self-defense.

His attorneys from the Equal Justice Initiative, based in Montgomery, filed a petition Thursday with the Supreme Court, appealing a lower court ruling that would let the execution by lethal injection, originally set for 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET) in Atmore, go ahead.

They argue their client doesn't fully understand why he is being punished because dementia has taken his ability to remember his crime.

In November, the US Supreme Court agreed with a state court ruling that Madison was mentally competent.

"The state court did not unreasonably apply (two prior decisions) when it determined that Madison is competent to be executed because -- notwithstanding his memory loss -- he recognizes that he will be put to death as punishment for the murder he was found to have committed," the justices wrote.

Madison's lawyers also argue the death sentence is unfair because it was imposed by a judge at his third trial who overrode the jury's choice of life in prison. They say a new Alabama law no longer allows that and Madison's sentence should be commuted to life without parole.

Madison's lawyers asked Gov. Kay Ivey for clemency.

"Mr. Madison suffers from vascular dementia as a result of multiple serious strokes in the last several years, and no longer has a memory of the commission of the crime for which he is to be executed," attorneys wrote.

"He does not understand why the state of Alabama is attempting to execute him," they said.

They argue that executing someone with dementia is counter to how society treats vulnerable citizens.

CNN reached out to the governor's office but didn't get an immediate response.

There are 182 inmates on Alabama's death row, three of whom have been there longer than Madison.

Madison had two oranges for his last meal and had not made any statements, officials said.