Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 19 april 2018

Aging death row: Is executing old or infirm inmates cruel?

By KIM CHANDLER with Madison, telling him to
Associated Press “just to go on and let things
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — cool down.” According to
Vernon Madison has spent prosecutors, Madison left
decades on Alabama’s but then crept up behind
death row. Now 67, Madi- Schulte as he sat in his po-
son has suffered from lice car, shooting him twice
strokes and dementia and in the head.
his lawyers say he no longer The Supreme Court has
recalls the crime that put ruled inmates must have
him there: the 1985 killing of a rational understanding
a police officer. of why they’re being ex-
His speech is slurred, he suf- ecuted, faculties which
fers from confusion, and Madison’s lawyers say he
once thought he was near doesn’t possess.
release and talked of mov- His attorneys argue strokes
ing to Florida, according have left Madison fre-
to his lawyers. This fall, the These combination of handout photos provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections quently disoriented with no
U.S. Supreme Court is set to shows, from left, Vernon Madison, Walter Leroy Moody Jr., and Doyle Lee Hamm. independent memory of
review the claims by Madi- Associated Press his crime. They also say he
son’s defense team that of them over age 50, the “There is no constitution- Lee Hamm, 61, who has is legally blind, cannot walk
executing someone in his non-profit group said. An al issue from age alone, battled lymphoma. His law- independently and has uri-
condition would violate the Associated Press review though dementia does, yer said Hamm had at least nary incontinence from his
Constitution’s ban on cruel of the group’s data shows of course, become more 11 puncture wounds from brain damage.
and unusual punishment. the median age of an ex- common with age. The attempts to find a vein. The state’s lawyers counter
“Killing a fragile man suf- ecuted inmate in the U.S. underlying question about “It was precisely Doyle’s old that Madison was found
fering from dementia is rose from 34 to 46 between what kind and degree of age and illness that raised competent at a 2016 hear-
unnecessary and cruel,” 1983 and 2017 — a fact ob- mental illness will prevent all the problems. The state ing, hasn’t presented new
Madison’s attorney, Bryan servers attribute to appeals an execution is not new. It of Alabama was not pre- evidence and is aware he
Stevenson of the Equal taking longer — sometimes is ancient.” pared,” Hamm’s attorney, received the death sen-
Justice Initiative, said in decades. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, Bernard Harcourt, wrote in tence — even if he doesn’t
January, when the justices One of the oldest, 83-year- writing in Madison’s case, a March 13 email. remember killing Schulte.
stayed Madison’s execu- old Walter Leroy Moody, is noted the growing number Yet 75-year-old Tommy Ar- “What happened to my
tion the night he was to re- scheduled to be executed of aging prisoners on death thur, who had argued that dad was cruel and unusual
ceive a lethal injection. Thursday in Alabama for row and said, “Given this his cardiovascular disease punishment,” said Schulte’s
The U.S. death row popu- the 1989 package bomb trend, we may face ever would complicate execu- son, Michael. “He was shot
lation is aging, and that killing of a federal judge. If more instances of state ef- tion, was put to death with- twice in the head while he
leaves courts increasingly the sentence is carried out, forts to execute prisoners out obvious incident last was trying to help some-
likely to grapple with ques- Moody would be the oldest suffering the diseases and year in Alabama. body.”
tions of when it becomes person and the first octoge- infirmities of old age.” Madison was convicted of Schulte, 59, has suffered
unconstitutionally cruel to narian put to death since Age by itself isn’t the issue, killing Mobile police officer health problems of his own,
put someone to death who U.S. executions resumed in but rather the illnesses more Julius Schulte. including a stroke and
is mentally frail — or whose the 1970s, Dunham said. common with old age. Schulte responded to a heart attack. Yet he said
medical conditions could “Many of these defendants Take Alva Campbell, 69. missing child report on April Madison’s protracted legal
complicate the execution have done terrible things. He died last month in an 18, 1985. fight has been hard on his
procedure. People are torn between Ohio prison of natural Arriving at a home, he family and doesn’t “do my
“That is going to be an in- wanting to punish severely causes after his 2017 lethal found the child had re- dad justice.”
creasing issue in carrying and the belief it is beneath injection procedure was turned but Madison and his Said Schulte: “Somebody
out the American death us as a nation to kill a frail halted when a usable vein girlfriend were embroiled needs to make a decision.
penalty,” said Robert Dun- person who is already dy- couldn’t be found. Ala- in a domestic dispute. Ac- Either we are going to have
ham, executive director of ing. It’s a challenge to our bama similarly aborted last cording to court records, the death penalty or we’re
the Death Penalty Informa- morality and our sense of month’s execution of Doyle Schulte interacted briefly not.”q
tion Center in Washington. humanity,” Dunham said.
“We are reaching a stage, Kent Scheidegger, legal
as death row inmates age, director of the pro-death
we’ll see this more fre- penalty Criminal Justice
quently.” Legal Foundation, supports
About 2,800 people are on steps to reduce the time
death row in prisons na- between an inmate’s sen-
tionwide, and about 1,200 tencing and execution.