Disability rights organizations followed the case closely because of its potential impact on people with disabilities outside the criminal justice system.
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WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on May 21 refused to reconsider the standard for when intellectual disability precludes the death penalty, ruling that Alabama should not have litigated whether the state of Alabama could execute a convicted murderer whose intellectual disability was in dispute.
Their rejection would leave in place a lower court’s ruling that Joseph Smith, 55, was cognitively impaired to the point that he was not eligible for the death penalty for bludgeoning a man to death in 1997, according to a short, unsigned opinion.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissent that the court ignored its obligation to provide “workable rules for capital cases.” Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Neil Gorsuch, and Justices Clarence Thomas agreed.
Thomas went further, saying the court should overturn a landmark 2002 case that prohibited the death penalty for individuals with intellectual disabilities. The decision “only created confusion and absurdity,” he wrote.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in an opinion concurring with the majority’s decision not to reconsider the death penalty standard, said alternative approaches to intelligence evaluation had not been tested before the case went to the high court.
“Without the benefit of the evidentiary record and the judgments below trained on the specific theories now advanced by the parties, this court is justified in concluding that our case should not provide further detailed guidance beyond what we have previously stated.”
Disability rights groups were closely monitoring the case because of its potential implications beyond the criminal context.
People diagnosed with an intellectual disability may be eligible for a variety of government support services, including special education, medical care, and income support.
Advocates worry that courts could move toward relying solely on IQ tests for diagnosis without taking into account other information about a person’s ability to perform daily activities or the age at which a person’s developmental problems became apparent.
Judges often hear contradictory testimony
According to disability rights groups, death penalty cases are only “a small part of the world of intellectual disability assessment.”
But in these cases, judges often hear competing testimony from experts about whether a death row inmate has an intellectual disability severe enough to preclude execution under the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
Smith, who has been on death row for more than 20 years, was tested on five different IQ scores ranging from 72 to 78.
Because IQ tests have a margin of error, the lower court said Smith’s IQ could be below 70, a commonly used indicator of intellectual disability.
However, the state argued in Hamm v. Smith that it could not prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Smith was disabled because all five test scores were above 70.
Trump administration supports executions
The Trump administration, which lifted a moratorium on the federal death penalty, supported Alabama’s right to execute Smith. The Justice Department argued that states have significant discretion in defining what it means to be mentally disabled and what a defendant must do to prove that he or she is disabled.
Mr. Smith’s lawyers argued that the multiple IQ scores should be evaluated “comprehensively,” including considering expert testimony about their validity. And he told the court that if IQ scores alone are not conclusive, defendants can submit additional evidence.
Smith was physically abused as a child, struggled academically and emotionally, and was diagnosed with “educable mental retardation” (a term used at the time to describe people with mild intellectual disabilities) in the seventh grade.
After dropping out of school, Smith was sent to prison for robbery. He was out on a work release when he and an accomplice bludgeoned Dirk Van Dam to death in 1997. According to court records, Smith stole Van Damme’s boots, tools and $140 in cash.
U.S. District Judge Curry v. Granade wrote that while the evaluation of Smith’s mental functioning was a “close case,” “the evidence shows that Smith’s intelligence and adaptive functioning were deficient throughout his life.”
The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
Mental health-related groups participate
Mental health groups told the Supreme Court there is “broad scientific and professional consensus” on how to determine intellectual functioning, which includes considering more than test scores.
“Diagnosis of intellectual disability based solely on IQ test scores is false and invalid,” the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association said in a brief supporting Smith.
Since the Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that people with intellectual disabilities cannot be put to death, 144 people have had their death sentences canceled on that basis, according to the National Death Penalty Information Center, a national nonprofit organization.
