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Joe Elton Nixon v. Florida
Paid petition · Supreme Court of Florida, No. 20-48 · judgment August 26, 2021
Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.
Questions presented
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In Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), this Court held that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments preclude the execution of defendants with intellectual disability. This case presents the question whether the decision in Hall v. Florida, 572 U.S. 701 (2014) (determining that defendants with intellectual disability include those whose IQ scores are within the standard error of measurement), announced a new rule of constitutional law within the meaning of Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288 (1989) (denying retroactive application to most new rules of constitutional law), as the court below and the Eleventh Circuit have held, or was instead simply an application of the rule of Atkins to particular facts, as Petitioner contends and all other Circuit decisions conclude.
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This case also presents the question whether it is consistent with the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments for a State to impose on a capital defendant the burden of proving intellectual disability by clear and convincing evidence, as only Florida does.1 1 As described in the pending certiorari petition in Young v. Georgia (No. 21-782), that State imposes on a capital defendant the burden of proving intellectual disability beyond a reasonable doubt.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Eric M. Freedman
Hofstra University School of Law
For respondent
Henry Charles Whitaker
Florida Office of the Attorney General
Proceedings
- Jun 21 2022Petition DENIED.
- May 31 2022DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/16/2022.
- May 26 2022Reply of petitioner Joe Elton Nixon filed. (Distributed)
- May 11 2022Brief of respondent Florida in opposition filed.
- Apr 26 2022Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including May 11, 2022.
- Apr 25 2022Motion to extend the time to file a response from April 27, 2022 to May 11, 2022, submitted to The Clerk.
- Mar 28 2022Brief amici curiae of The National Disability Rights Network and Disability Rights Florida filed.
- Mar 22 2022Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including April 27, 2022.
- Mar 21 2022Motion to extend the time to file a response from March 28, 2022 to April 27, 2022, submitted to The Clerk.
- Feb 24 2022Blanket Consent filed by Petitioner, Joe Elton Nixon
- Feb 22 2022Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due March 28, 2022)
- Dec 15 2021Application (21A229) granted by Justice Thomas extending the time to file until February 24, 2022.
- Dec 13 2021Application (21A229) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from January 25, 2022 to March 26, 2022, submitted to Justice Thomas.