The Supreme Court of the United States narrowly rejected Alabama’s attempt to execute Joseph Clifton Smith, a convicted murderer whose attorneys argued he is intellectually disabled. The 5-4 decision leaves in place lower court rulings that found Smith ineligible for execution under the Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia, which barred the execution of intellectually disabled individuals.
Smith, now 55, has spent decades on death row following his conviction in the 1997 beating death of a man. Central to the case was whether defendants with IQ scores slightly above 70 can still qualify as intellectually disabled. Smith’s IQ scores ranged from 72 to 78, but his lawyers emphasized evidence of severe learning difficulties and impaired functioning. They noted he attended special education classes, left school after seventh grade, and reportedly functioned academically at elementary-school levels in reading, spelling, and mathematics.
The Supreme Court had previously clarified in later rulings that IQ tests contain a margin of error and that courts must consider broader evidence beyond numerical scores alone. Rather than issuing a major ruling clarifying the standard further, the justices dismissed Alabama’s appeal, effectively preserving the lower court’s judgment in Smith’s favor.
The majority included the court’s three liberal justices along with conservative justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Four conservative justices dissented, arguing the appeals court improperly evaluated Smith’s claims and should have reconsidered the evidence.
Separately, the Supreme Court declined to review a $2.4 billion bankruptcy settlement involving the Boy Scouts of America. The settlement resolves tens of thousands of sexual abuse claims while shielding local scouting councils, churches, and civic groups from future lawsuits. Some abuse victims challenged the arrangement, arguing it improperly blocks litigation against third parties. However, the court’s refusal to hear the case leaves the settlement intact, allowing compensation payments to continue under the organization’s bankruptcy reorganization plan.
