U.S. Supreme Court to hear Alabama’s appeal in bid to execute man found to be intellectually disabled
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider making it harder for convicted murderers to show their lives should be spared because they are intellectually disabled, according an order released yesterday.
The justices’ action comes in an appeal from Alabama, which is seeking to execute Joseph Clifton Smith. He was sentenced to death for killing a man in 1997. Lower federal courts found Smith is intellectually disabled and thus can’t be executed.
Smith was convicted and sentenced to death for the beating death of Durk Van Dam. Van Dam, whose body was found in his pickup truck in Mobile County, died as a result of 35 blunt-force injuries to his body, according to testimony from a forensic pathologist.
When it’s argued in the fall, the case could be the first in which the Supreme Court cuts back on its 23-year-old landmark ruling that barred the death penalty for people who are intellectually disabled.
At issue is what happens in borderline cases, when scores on IQ tests are slightly above 70, which is widely accepted as a marker of intellectual disability.
In 2014 and 2017, the court somewhat eased the burden of showing intellectual disability in those cases.
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