MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A federal appeals court on Thursday delayed the execution of an Alabama inmate — just hours before it was scheduled — to review lawyers’ arguments that it would be unconstitutional to execute him because he is no longer competent because of strokes and dementia.

The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay about seven hours before Vernon Madison, 65, was scheduled to die at 6 p.m. by lethal injection at a state prison in Atmore. The appellate court said it will hear oral arguments in Madison’s case in June. The Alabama attorney general’s office responded with an emergency motion to the US Supreme Court, asking it to let the execution proceed before the death warrant expired at midnight.

Madison was convicted in the 1985 killing of Mobile police Officer Julius Schulte. Schulte 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.

Attorneys for the Equal Justice Initiative say that strokes and dementia have left Madison frequently confused and disoriented.

Associated Press