Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections v. Joseph Clifton Smith
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 21-14519 · judgment May 19, 2023
Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.
Questions presented
According to Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2003), the Eighth Amendment exempts intellectually disabled offenders from capital punishment. The Court adopted from “the medical community” a threepronged definition of intellectual disability: “[1] significantly subaverage intellectual functioning, [2] deficits in adaptive functioning …, and [3] onset of these deficits during the developmental period.” Hall v. Florida, 572 U.S. 701, 710 (2014). When assessing intellectual functioning, courts must account for an IQ test’s “standard error of measurement” (SEM) and “move on” to the second prong when “the lower end of [the offender’s] score range falls at or below 70.” Moore v. Texas, 581 U.S. 1, 13–14 (2017). Smith scored 78, 75, 74, 74, and 72 on five IQ tests. He did not prove his IQ was 70 or below, so his Atkins claim seemed to fail at step one. But the Eleventh Circuit “moved on” anyway because Smith had a score of 72 with an error range of ± 3. Thus, it sufficed that Smith’s IQ “could be as low as 69” based on his lowest score alone and on the possibility that the test erred maximally in his favor. The questions presented are:
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Whether Hall and Moore mandate that courts deem the intellectual-functioning prong satisfied when an offender’s lowest IQ score, decreased by one standard error of measurement, is 70 or below.
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Whether the Court should overrule Hall and Moore or at least clarify that they permit courts to consider multiple IQ scores and the probability that an offender’s IQ does not fall at the bottom of the lowest IQ score’s error range.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Edmund Gerard LaCour Jr.
Office of the Attorney General
For respondent
Kacey Keeton
Federal Defender, Middle District of Alabama
Case
Conference history
Distributed for 30 conferences
Amicus briefs
1 cert-stage
Proceedings
- Dec 20 2024Record returned to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama (2 boxes).
- Dec 06 2024Judgment Issued.
- Nov 04 2024Motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed by respondent GRANTED.
- Nov 04 2024Petition GRANTED. Judgment VACATED and case REMANDED for further consideration consistent with the opinion of the Court. Opinion per curiam. (Detached Opinion). Justice Thomas and Justice Gorsuch would grant the petition for a writ of certiorari and set the case for argument.
- Oct 28 2024DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 11/1/2024.
- Oct 15 2024DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/18/2024.
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- Jan 16 2024DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/19/2024.
- Jan 09 2024Record received from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama (2 boxes).
- Jan 08 2024DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/12/2024.
- Jan 02 2024DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/5/2024.
- Jan 02 2024Electronic record received from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
- Dec 15 2023Record Requested.
- Dec 01 2023Rescheduled.
- Dec 01 2023DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/8/2023.
- Nov 27 2023DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/1/2023.
- Nov 16 2023Rescheduled.
- Nov 13 2023DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 11/17/2023.
- Nov 08 2023Rescheduled.
- Nov 06 2023DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 11/9/2023.
- Nov 01 2023Rescheduled.
- Oct 30 2023DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 11/3/2023.
- Oct 25 2023Rescheduled.
- Oct 04 2023DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/27/2023.
- Oct 04 2023Reply of petitioner Commissioner, Alabama Dept. of Corrections filed. (Distributed)
- Sep 20 2023Brief amici curiae of Idaho, et. al. filed.
- Sep 20 2023Brief of respondent Joseph Clifton Smith in opposition filed.
- Sep 20 2023Motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed by respondent Joseph Clifton Smith.
- Aug 17 2023Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due September 20, 2023)