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WASHINGTON (AP) — On Thursday, the Supreme Court, in a split decision, rejected Alabama’s appeal to proceed with the execution of a convicted murderer deemed intellectually disabled by lower courts.
This decision upholds rulings that favor Joseph Clifton Smith, now 55, who has spent nearly half of his life on death row following his conviction for a 1997 murder where he fatally beat a man.
In a pivotal 2002 decision, the Supreme Court banned the execution of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Moreover, in subsequent rulings in 2014 and 2017, the justices emphasized that states should consider additional evidence in close cases due to potential inaccuracies in IQ testing.
Smith’s case centers around the interpretation of multiple IQ scores that hover slightly above 70, a number often used to identify intellectual disability. His five IQ tests resulted in scores between 72 and 78. According to his attorneys, Smith was enrolled in classes for learning disabilities and left school after the seventh grade. At the time of his crime, he was performing math at a kindergarten level, spelling at a third-grade level, and reading at a fourth-grade level.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case to address how courts should assess such borderline cases of intellectual disability, with arguments having been presented in December.
Rather than issue a decision, though, the high court dismissed the appeal, an unusuaI action that leaves the last lower-court ruling in place.
The three liberal justices along with Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett formed the majority to dismiss the case.
The other four conservative justices dissented, faulting the federal appeals court in Atlanta for improperly analyzing the case and complaining that their colleagues should have ordered the appeals court to reexamine Smith’s case.
The case is Hamm v. Smith, 24-872. The full opinion from the court can be read here.