politics
Supreme Court declines to weigh IQ standards in Alabama death row case
Key takeaways
- In an unsigned opinion, the court said Joseph Clifton Smith s appeal was improvidently granted, meaning the justices made a mistake by agreeing to take it up.
- Smith was convicted in the 1997 death of Durk Van Dam, who was beaten and killed with a hammer during a robbery.
- Smith s results are what a lower judge amounted to a close case before vacating his death sentence in 2021, determining that the error range of his lowest test score could place his actual IQ below 70.
Why this matters: political developments that affect policy direction and public trust.
Link copied by Ella Lee - 05/21/26 10:28 AM ET Link copied NOW PLAYING The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed an Alabama death row inmate s appeal to the justices, declining to weigh how multiple IQ scores should be evaluated in capital cases for now.
In an unsigned opinion, the court said Joseph Clifton Smith s appeal was improvidently granted, meaning the justices made a mistake by agreeing to take it up.
Smith was convicted in the 1997 death of Durk Van Dam, who was beaten and killed with a hammer during a robbery. He has taken five IQ tests, four of which placed his IQ in the low-to-mid 70s.
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