Supreme Court Considers Intellectual Disability in Death Penalty Case
The U.S. Supreme Court is currently deliberating on the case of Joseph Clifton Smith, a death row inmate in Alabama, who claims that his execution would be unconstitutional due to his intellectual disability. The case, Hamm v. Smith, questions whether Smith's intellectual disability exempts him from the death penalty under the precedent set by Atkins v. Virginia, which prohibits the execution of individuals with intellectual disabilities. During oral arguments, several justices, including Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, expressed skepticism towards Alabama's arguments, suggesting a potential openness to Smith's claims. The case hinges on whether Smith's IQ scores, which are slightly above the threshold typically associated with intellectual disability, can be supplemented with additional evidence of adaptive behavioral problems. 
