The Supreme Court has declined to issue a ruling on the role of IQ scores in overturning death sentences, saying that it was wrong to take up the case in the first place.
In a per curiam, or unsigned opinion on May 21, the Supreme Court said it “improvidently granted” an order to consider the dispute.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito penned dissents, the latter of which was partially joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch.
The case, known as Hamm v. Smith, focused on an Alabama man, Joseph Clifton Smith, who said he was too intellectually disabled to receive the death penalty. His case was partially based on the Eighth Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishment….