Vernon Madison, one of the longest serving inmates on Alabama's Death Row, was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Thursday, but 30 minutes before the scheduled execution the U.S. Supreme Court issued a temporary stay. The stay was later granted, and Madison's execution called off.

Madison, 67, has been on death row for over 30 years after being convicted in April 1985 of killing Mobile police Cpl. Julius Schulte. He was set to die by lethal injection at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore Thursday night, but escaped execution for the second time via an U.S. Supreme Court order issuing a stay.

Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement Friday morning in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's issuance of the stay.

"After prior rulings that Vernon Madison is competent to face execution for the murder of a Mobile police officer 32 years ago - a cold blooded crime for which there is no doubt he is guilty - it is disappointing that justice is again delayed for the victim's family," Marshall said. "The State opposes Madison's delay tactics and will continue to pursue the execution of his death sentence."

The U.S. Supreme Court about 30 minutes prior to the execution issued a temporary stay, then was extended at 8:10 p.m., causing the execution to be called off for Thursday night.

The Supreme Court's order states the stay is in place until the justices decide whether they will grant Madison's writ of certiorari - request for a review of the case. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch would deny the application for stay, the order said.

If a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review the case, then the stay will automatically be lifted and the Attorney General can then request a new execution date for Madison from the state supreme court.

In the certiorari request by Madison's attorneys at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), they say Madison is not competent to be executed.

The EJI asks that the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution and grant his petition for certiorari. The court should address the "substantial question of whether executing Mr. Madison, whose severe cognitive dysfunction leaves him without memory of his commission of the capital offense or ability to understand the circumstances of his scheduled execution, violates evolving standards of decency and the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment."

"It is undisputed that Mr. Madison suffers from vascular dementia as a

result of multiple serious strokes in the last two years and no longer has a

memory of the commission of the crime for which he is to be executed," according to the EJI request. "His mind and body are failing: he suffers from encephalomacia (dead brain tissue), small vessel ischemia, speaks in a dysarthric or slurred manner, is legally blind, can no longer walk independently, and has urinary incontinence as a consequence of damage to his brain."

Madison was 34 when he was charged Schulte's death, who was responding to a domestic disturbance call. Madison also was charged with shooting the woman he lived with at the time, 37-year-old Cheryl Ann Greene. She survived her injuries.

According to court records filed by the Alabama Attorney General, here's a police account of what happened that night: Madison's neighbor's had called police, and Schulte was assigned to protect Greene and her 11-year-old daughter as Madison moved out of their house. After pretending to leave the property, Madison retrieved a pistol, crept behind the police car Schulte was sitting in, and fired two shots into the back of the officer's head. After shooting Schulte, Madison then shot Greene as she tried to flee. There were three eye witnesses.

Madison's first trial took place in September 1985. He was convicted, but a state appellate court sent the case back for a violation involving race-based jury selection.

His second trial took place in 1990. Prosecutors presented a similar case, and defense attorneys again argued that Madison suffered from a mental illness. They did not dispute the fact that Madison shot Schulte, but said he did not know that Schulte - dressed in plain clothes and driving an unmarked police cruiser - was a police officer.

He was again convicted, and a jury recommended a death sentence by a 10-2 vote. An appellate court again sent the case back to Mobile County for a retrial, this time based on improper testimony from an expert witness for the prosecution.

His third and final trial took place in April 1994. He was convicted, and the jury recommended a life sentence after both Madison and his mother, Aldonia McMillan, asked for mercy. Mobile County Circuit Judge Ferrill McRae sentenced Madison to death-- this time overriding the jury's recommendation.

In April 2017, Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law a bill that says juries, not judges, have the final say on whether to impose the death penalty. That law officially ended Alabama's judicial override policy, as Alabama was the last state to allow it.

Late Wednesday, Madison's attorneys filed two more petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court-- an application for a stay of execution, and a petition for a writ of certiorari focused on the issue of judicial override. Madison's attorneys argued that since he was sent to death under the judicial override statue, he is entitled to a stay and a review of his case. Attorneys filed similar motions to the Alabama Supreme Court, but they denied the request earlier Wednesday.

"Because a death sentence is no longer permissible in cases where the jury has returned a sentence of life, Mr. Madison filed a challenge to his death sentence and scheduled execution in the Alabama Supreme Court. He contended that this execution would be arbitrary and capricious and constitute a violation of the Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment," the petition states. "The judicial override in this case resulted in a death sentence that is arbitrary, disproportionate, and unconstitutional..."

The Alabama Attorney General's Office, which opposes a delay, said in a Thursday response that Madison's attorneys waited too late to file their appeal based on the judicial override issue. "Madison's inequitable conduct in delaying the filing of his most recent legal claim until the day before his scheduled execution should be sufficient to warrant denial of the requested stay of execution," the attorney general's office stated in its brief to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Madison was first scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in May 2016, but there was a temporary delay. Hours after that execution's scheduled time, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling upholding an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals stay of execution. The AG's Office filed responses in opposition to those petitions.

In November 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed that decision, paving the way for Madison to be executed.

Last month, Madison's attorneys from the Equal Justice Initiative filed a petition in Mobile County court to stay Madison's execution, but after a hearing the judge in that case denied the request for a stay of execution. Bryan Stevenson, founder of the EJI and one of Madison's attorneys, then filed two new petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court: One for a stay of execution, and one asking the court to review the case. The AG's Office alos filed responses to those requests.

Alabama Department of Corrections spokesperson Bob Horton said Madison was visited yesterday by his sister, two friends, two attorneys, and a minister. Today, he was visited by his brother, attorney, and a minister.

Horton said in the past day, Madison has made phone calls to several attorneys, his daughter-in-law, several friends, and his spiritual advisor. His last phone call was at 8:25 p.m. yesterday to his daughter-in-law.

Thursday morning, Madison had breakfast of orange juice, eggs, two biscuits, jelly, grits, and prunes. His last meal was two oranges. He had no other special requests.

No family from either the victim's family or Madison's family were to witness the execution. One of Madison's attorneys was to be present.