Supreme Court Revisits Execution Case Over Borderline IQ Scores

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will hear arguments this week in a high-stakes case that could limit how defendants with borderline IQ scores contest their eligibility for the death penalty.

Background: The state of Alabama has asked the high court to allow the execution of Joseph Clifton Smith, 55, who lower federal courts concluded is intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for capital punishment under the Court's 2002 precedent that bars executing people with intellectual disability.

The Legal Question: Smith produced five IQ test scores ranging from 72 to 78, slightly above the commonly referenced cutoff of 70. The central issue is how courts should treat multiple, borderline IQ scores and whether lower courts properly used a 'holistic' assessment that combined IQ results with records of adaptive functioning, school history and other evidence.

What The Parties Say

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall argues Smith has not met the burden of proving an IQ of 70 or below and warns that adopting an expansive 'holistic' standard would improperly widen the Court's prior rulings. 'He has multiple scores in the seventies,' Marshall told reporters, framing the dispute as how to treat a continuum of IQ results.

The Trump administration and briefs from 20 states support Alabama, with Solicitor General D. John Sauer writing that Smith 'did not meet his burden of proving his IQ was likely 70 or below.'

Smith's lawyers counter that the federal appeals court correctly applied Supreme Court guidance from 2014 and 2017, which cautioned against rigid reliance on a numerical cutoff because IQ tests have a margin of error. Disability-rights groups filed a brief warning that diagnosing intellectual disability based solely on IQ scores is flawed and unreliable.

Case Details

Smith has spent roughly half his life on death row after his 1997 conviction for the beating death of Durk Van Dam in Mobile County. His defense points to school records showing placement in special classes, an early school exit after seventh grade, and low academic functioning at the time of the offense — performing math at about a kindergarten level, spelling at roughly a third-grade level and reading at about a fourth-grade level.

In 2021 a federal judge vacated Smith's death sentence, calling it a 'close case.' Alabama law defines intellectual disability as an IQ of 70 or below combined with significant deficits in adaptive functioning and onset before age 18.

Why It Matters

The Court's decision could clarify how states may weigh IQ test variability and other evidence in death-penalty cases involving intellectual disability. A ruling narrowing the use of holistic assessments could make it harder for defendants with borderline test scores to avoid execution; a ruling affirming broad consideration of adaptive evidence would preserve a more flexible approach.

Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama.