Vernon Madison

States cannot execute prisoners who are incapable of rationally understanding the reasons for their punishment, the US Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday, siding with an Alabama man who has suffered strokes and dementia that wiped out his memory of murdering a police officer in 1985.

US Supreme Court justices, delving into the issue of ageing prisoners with dementia, struggled on Tuesday over whether a convicted Alabama murderer should be spared the death penalty because strokes have erased his memory of committing the crime

U.S. Supreme Court justices, delving into the issue of ageing prisoners with dementia, struggled on Tuesday over whether a convicted Alabama murderer should be spared the death penalty because strokes have erased his memory of committing the crime.

States cannot execute prisoners who are incapable of rationally understanding the reasons for their punishment, the US Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday, siding with an Alabama man who has suffered strokes and dementia that wiped out his memory of murdering a police officer in 1985.

US Supreme Court justices, delving into the issue of ageing prisoners with dementia, struggled on Tuesday over whether a convicted Alabama murderer should be spared the death penalty because strokes have erased his memory of committing the crime

U.S. Supreme Court justices, delving into the issue of ageing prisoners with dementia, struggled on Tuesday over whether a convicted Alabama murderer should be spared the death penalty because strokes have erased his memory of committing the crime.