Attorneys for an Alabama inmate have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his Thursday execution for killing a police officer.

Attorneys for 67-year-old Vernon Madison on Wednesday argued a judge should not have sentenced Madison to death when jurors recommended life imprisonment.

Alabama lawmakers last year abolished the practice of allowing judges to override a jury's recommendation in capital cases.

Madison is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection for the 1985 killing of Mobile Police Officer Julius Schulte. Schulte had responded to a domestic disturbance call involving Madison. Prosecutors have said Madison crept up and shot Schulte in the back of the head.

The inmate's attorneys have also argued that the execution should be halted because Madison, who has dementia, no longer remembers killing Schulte.