Overview
- The justices heard arguments in Hamm v. Smith, an Alabama appeal seeking to reinstate the death sentence of Joseph Clifton Smith after lower courts found him intellectually disabled.
- Smith has five IQ scores from 72 to 78, and the lower courts applied test error ranges and adaptive-functioning evidence to conclude he is exempt from execution.
- Alabama, backed by the Justice Department and 20 states, urged clearer rules that regard multiple scores above 70 as defeating an intellectual-disability claim.
- Medical and disability groups pressed for a clinically grounded approach that considers margins of error and adaptive deficits rather than relying on a single numeric cutoff.
- Several justices probed how to handle conflicting scores, and reporting indicated Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito seemed receptive to Alabama’s position, with a decision expected by June 2026.