The Supreme Court vacated a federal appeals court’s decision blocking a death row inmate’s execution because he says he’s intellectually disabled, ordering the lower court to issue a clearer ruling.
After sitting on Alabama’s appeal of the decision for months – an unusual move for the court – the justices issued a per curiam ruling ordering the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to clarify how multiple IQ scores should be evaluated in cases like Joseph Clifton Smith’s.
Smith, who was convicted of capital murder for the 1997 beating death of Durk Van Dam, has taken five IQ tests, four of which placed his IQ in the low-to-mid 70s.
A person with an IQ of 70 or lower is generally considered to be intellectually disabled,........