Supreme Court Dismisses Alabama’s Appeal in Intellectual Disability Case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States Supreme Court, in a divided decision, dismissed Alabama’s effort to proceed with the execution of Joseph Clifton Smith, a convicted murderer deemed intellectually disabled by lower courts.
This decision upholds prior rulings that favored Smith, who is 55 years old and has been on death row for over two decades following his conviction for a 1997 murder. Smith was convicted of beating a man to death.
In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled against executing individuals with intellectual disabilities. Further cases in 2014 and 2017 emphasized the importance of considering additional evidence in cases with borderline IQ scores, due to potential errors in IQ testing.
The core issue in Smith’s situation is his multiple IQ test results, which ranged between 72 and 78, slightly above the commonly accepted threshold of 70 for intellectual disability. According to his legal representatives, Smith was placed in special education classes and left school after completing the seventh grade. At the time of his crime, he possessed academic skills at a kindergarten level in math, third grade in spelling, and fourth grade in reading.
The Supreme Court initially agreed to review the procedures for handling such borderline intellectual disability cases, with arguments heard last December. However, rather than delivering a verdict, they dismissed the appeal, which is an uncommon move that leaves the lower court’s decision intact.
The majority, consisting of the three liberal justices alongside Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, supported the dismissal. Conversely, the four other conservative justices dissented, criticizing the federal appeals court in Atlanta for its handling of the case and arguing for a reassessment by the appeals court.
The case is officially known as Hamm v. Smith, 24-872.
