The US Supreme Court has thrown out a challenge by the state of Alabama to a judicial finding that a death row inmate convicted of a 1997 murder is intellectually disabled, and therefore ineligible for the death penalty under the US constitution.
In a single-sentence, unsigned order, the court dismissed Alabama’s petition in Hamm v Smith without deciding it, effectively undoing its earlier decision to hear the case. The court ruled on procedural grounds that it should not have accepted the case, leaving in place a lower court ruling blocking the execution of Joseph Clifton Smith.
The case centred on how to assess multiple IQ scores and additional evidence of mental capacity. Smith’s five IQ scores range from 78 to 72, all around the bottom fifth percentile. A federal judge noted that his lowest score could be as low as 69 given the standard error of measurement, and allowed him to present evidence of adaptive deficits.
Smith’s school records showed he was classified as “educable mentally retarded” in seventh grade. The court considered his failure to maintain a bank account, difficulties purchasing groceries, and deficits in social and interpersonal skills. It found that his actual functioning was comparable to individuals with lower IQ scores.
Liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson concurred in the dismissal, while conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. Sotomayor wrote that the lower court’s determination was “correct, or at least, very plausible,” and that the court was “not equipped to provide any meaningful guidance” on assessing multiple IQ scores.
