The Supreme Court will soon decide how intellectual disability is legally defined when the justices weigh in on the role of IQ tests in a federal ban on executing people who are intellectually disabled.
In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that a federal ban on cruel and unusual punishment meant that people who are intellectually disabled are not allowed to face execution by the death penalty. Now, the justices are reviewing a new death penalty case and are set to decide whether courts should look at a single, lowest-score IQ test in determining someone’s intellectual disability, or if they should instead take a more holistic approach.
The case, Hamm v. Smith, involves an Alabama death row inmate who was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death. The inmate, Joseph Smith, has sought to overturn his death row conviction on the grounds of an intellectual disability. Smith’s IQ tests revealed multiple scores: 72, 74, 75, 76, and 78. Experts for Smith argued that four of his five scores showed he is intellectually disabled, whereas the state’s expert argued that the scores put him in the range just above intellectual disability.
The U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Alabama granted Smith’s petition and vacated his death sentence. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the decision as well. Earlier this year, the state of Alabama requested that the Supreme Court intervene for the second time. The high court agreed and is now weighing “[w]hether and how courts may consider the cumulative effect of multiple IQ scores in assessing” intellectual disability.
Now, the Supreme Court is set to not only affect the inmate in this case, but will also provide a standard for future death penalty cases involving people who claim to have intellectual disability. Whatever the justices rule could also influence how intellectual disability is defined in other areas, including who may qualify for disability benefits or other services.
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