Verdict Still Out in High Court Memory Battle (1)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. could cast the deciding vote for an eight-member court in what he deemed an unusual death penalty case during arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court Oct. 2.

Vernon Madison’s lawyer Bryan A. Stevenson pleaded for the court to save his client from an Alabama death chamber because vascular dementia has robbed Madison of any memory of the murder that landed him on death row. He killed a police officer in 1985 and then suffered a series of strokes as recently as 2016, resulting in severe memory loss and other ailments. Now in ...