Washington (AP) – Supreme Court is considering measures that could make it harder for convicted murderers to argue that their intellectual disabilities should spare them from execution.
This judicial action comes in response to Alabama’s request to execute Joseph Clifton Smith, who was sentenced to death in 1997 for murder. Lower Federal Court has deemed Smith to be intellectually disabled, which complicates the execution process.
The case, discussed last fall, may be the first to challenge a 23-year-old landmark ruling that prohibits the death penalty for individuals with intellectual disabilities.
The central issue revolves around borderline cases where IQ test scores are just above 70, a widely recognized threshold for determining intellectual disability.
In both 2014 and 2017, courts made it easier to demonstrate intellectual disability in such cases.
This incident marks the second time in about a year that an online error has resulted in an early announcement from the High Court. An abortion incident saw opinions mistakenly posted on the website on June 1, 2024. That landmark case, which overturned abortion as a constitutional right, was leaked, making it a different situation today.
Currently, the court has revealed a series of orders scheduled for Monday following an “apparent software malfunction” that prematurely disseminated the announcement.
Source: apnews.com