Supreme Court to decide on IQ testing for death penalty

Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday will consider how states decide if a death penalty candidate is intellectually disabled.

At issue is the case against Joseph Clifton Smith of Alabama. He was sentenced to death after being convicted of murdering Durk Van Dam in 1997. Smith killed Van Dam with a hammer during a robbery.

Smith took five IQ tests, before and after the murder, and scored from 72 to 78. While the cutoff in Alabama is generally 70, a judge said that 72 could be below 70 because the test has a margin of error.

Medical and disability groups say that the test-focused method conflicts with past Supreme Court rulings and could mean that more people with intellectual disabilities would be executed.

Related

• 'So help me God': S.C. atheist calls oath requirement unconstitutional
• Florida executes man for fatal 1989 home invasion
• Supreme Court to hear arguments in campaign spending case
• Alina Habba steps down as U.S. attorney in N.J., becomes Pam Bondi adviser
• Supreme Court's birthright citizenship choice hinges on 'jurisdiction'

Smith's lawyer, former solicitor general Seth P. Waxman, said in filings that if an IQ score is "inconclusive, courts must consider other evidence regarding intellectual functioning."

In the United States, 27 states allow the death penalty. But they have different standards for deciding if a defendant is intellectually disabled.

The Supreme Court decided 6-3 in Atkins v. Virginia in 2002 that a person who is intellectually disabled can't be executed because it's a violation of the Eighth Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall argues that when Smith's tests are viewed together, it shows that he is not intellectually disabled.

The Trump administration is supporting the state in the case. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer has said that past decisions by the Supreme Court do not require states to ignore the range of test scores.

"Similar to polling in an election, multiple IQ test scores often produce a more accurate image than any single test score does in isolation," the administration said in a court filing.

Alabama's law says that defendants must show "significant subaverage intellectual functioning at the time the crime was committed, to show significant deficits in adaptive behavior at the time the crime was committed, and to show that these problems manifested themselves before the defendant reached the age of 18."

The Court is expected to release the decision by next summer.