The Supreme Court said on Friday that it will consider how courts should weigh multiple IQ tests when assessing a death row defendant’s claim of intellectual disability, in a case tied to an Alabama death row inmate.
The court granted Alabama’s petition to clarify whether and how courts should evaluate the “cumulative effect of multiple IQ scores” in assessing an Atkins claim—which prohibits the execution of individuals with intellectual disabilities—according to its website.
Alabama officials sought to execute Joseph Clifton Smith, who was convicted and sentenced to death for a 1997 murder before his sentence was overturned by lower courts due to his intellectual disabilities….