Madison v. Alabama

Summary

The Court held that the Eighth Amendment’s bar on executing mentally incompetent prisoners does not turn on a prisoner’s memory of the crime or on a diagnosis of psychotic delusions as opposed to dementia. Instead, the inquiry is whether the prisoner can rationally understand the State’s reasons for imposing execution. Because the state court’s judgment relied on evidence and arguments tainted by error on this point, the Court vacated and remanded for renewed competency proceedings.