Justice Thomas Questions Death Penalty for Low IQ Convicts in Hamm v. Smith

Atkins v. Virginia and Intellectual Disability

• 💡 The Supreme Court case Atkins v. Virginia established a general rule that individuals with intellectual disabilities cannot be executed.
• 🎯 States are granted significant discretion in defining what constitutes intellectual disability and the criteria for proving it.

Alabama's Discretionary Standard

• ⚖️ Alabama's standard requires respondents to demonstrate that their true IQ is likely 70 or below, considering all relevant evidence, including multiple IQ scores above 70.
• ❌ The courts below erred by replacing this burden with a variant of a "one low score rule," which is now widely acknowledged as incorrect.

The "Holistic Analysis" Debate

• 🧐 Respondent focuses on justifying the lower courts' opinions as applying a "holistic analysis," but this misses the core issue.
• ⚠️ The problem lies not just in considering other evidence, but in measuring that evidence against the wrong standard.
• 📊 The courts failed to consider the collective weight of the respondent's multiple IQ scores, looking at evidence on only one side of the scale.

Eighth Amendment Implications

• 📜 The Eighth Amendment violation in Atkins relates to the execution of intellectually disabled individuals.
• 🌍 The scope of Atkins is tied to the consensus of the states, similar to how the court has handled definitions in the insanity context.