Supreme Court removes obstacle to executing Alabama inmate
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has removed an obstacle to Alabama's efforts to execute a convicted killer who is in declining health.
The justices on Monday unanimously reversed an appellate ruling that had blocked the execution of 67-year-old inmate Vernon Madison, who was convicted of killing a police officer in 1985.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that Madison is incompetent to be executed because he has suffered from strokes and doesn't understand his death sentence or remember what he did.
The Supreme Court said in an unsigned opinion that testimony shows Madison "recognizes that he will be put to death as punishment for the murder he was found to have committed," even if he doesn't remember the killing itself.
The court noted that federal courts' review of Madison's case is constrained because of a 1996 law that was intended to limit federal judges' second-guessing of state court decisions. State courts upheld Madison's death sentence, and the Supreme Court, applying the 1996 law, said those decisions should be respected.
"Under that deferential standard, Madison's claim ... must fail," the court wrote.
The justices have never ruled on whether someone who doesn't remember his crime can be executed.
Madison was convicted of killing Mobile police Officer Julius Schulte, who had responded to a domestic call involving Madison. Prosecutors said Madison crept up and shot Schulte in the back of the head as he sat in his police car.
Madison has been on death row "nearly half his life," Justice Stephen Breyer noted in a separate opinion in which he renewed his call for the court to consider the constitutionality of the death penalty.
Attorneys from the Equal Justice Initiative who are representing Madison argued that his health declined during his decades on death row and that strokes and dementia have left him frequently confused and disoriented.
The appellate court in May halted Madison's execution seven hours before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection. A divided U.S. Supreme Court maintained the stay.
Supreme Court rejects Samsung appeal in Apple patents case
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has rejected Samsung's appeal of court rulings that it impermissibly copied features of Apple's iPhone.
The justices on Monday left in place rulings in favor of Apple involving its patents for smartphone features that include auto-correct and a slide that unlocks the device.
In 2014, a jury awarded Apple $120 million in damages for Samsung's infringement of the patents.
The case is part of a series of disputes between the technology rivals that began in 2011. Last year, the high court ruled in favor of Samsung in a legal fight over the similar appearances of the two companies' smartphones.
Supreme Court passes on taking John Madden Football case
WASHINGTON (AP) - Pass. That's what the Supreme Court has decided to do with a copyright dispute case stemming from a classic football video game.
The court said Monday it won't take up the case involving John Madden Football.
A computer programmer behind the original 1988 hit game for the Apple II computer wanted the court to take up his case. Robin Antonick sued video game company Electronic Arts in 2011 claiming it acted improperly by failing to give him royalties on a version of the game for the Sega Genesis game system which copied his game's computer code. Lower courts ruled against Antonick.
Antonick wanted the Supreme Court to address the issue of expert testimony in the case and whether the games' code had to be introduced as evidence.
Supreme Court rejects bid to halt redistricting lawsuit
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to put on ice a federal lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania's congressional districts approved after the 2010 census.
Justice Samuel Alito on Friday rejected the requested stay of the lawsuit by five Pennsylvania voters against the governor and elections officials, a court official said Saturday.
Republican leaders in Pennsylvania's General Assembly had said in the request filed last week that a trial in the case could occur in about a month, as the justices are considering a Wisconsin gerrymandering case with what they call "substantively identical claims."
House Speaker Mike Turzai and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, who were granted a request to intervene in the federal case, asked the court to impose a halt until a similar Commonwealth Court lawsuit over the districts is resolved - and that case is mostly on hold pending a decision in the Wisconsin lawsuit.
Lawyers for Turzai and Scarnati argued the Wisconsin decision could render the Pennsylvania lawsuit moot, or narrow its issues.
The lawsuit alleges state maps have unfairly given Pennsylvania Republicans an electoral advantage, and it seeks to reshape the state's congressional districts before the 2018 midterm elections.
Republicans won 13 of 18 congressional seats in the 2014 and 2016 elections despite earning a little over 50 percent of the vote.
Published: Tue, Nov 07, 2017
