Supreme Court spares life of convicted murderer with low IQ [View all]
Source: USA Today
Politics * Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court spares life of convicted murderer with low IQ
Disability rights groups closely followed the case because of potential implications for disabled people outside the criminal justice system.
Maureen Groppe
USA TODAY
May 21, 2026, 10:24 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on May 21 declined to revisit the standard for when an intellectual disability prevents the death penalty, ruling they should not have taken case about whether Alabama can execute a convicted murderer whose intellectual disability was disputed.
Their dismissal leaves in place a lower court's ruling that Joseph Smith, 55, has sufficient cognitive deficits to render him ineligible to be put to death for beating a man to death in 1997.
Disability rights groups had been closely following the case, in part because of its potential implications beyond the criminal context. ... People diagnosed as intellectually disabled can qualify for a variety of government support services, including special education, health care and income support.
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Joseph Clifton Smith, sentenced for murder on Oct. 16, 1998 Alabama Department of Corrections
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Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/05/21/supreme-court-iq-death-penalty-alabama-joseph-smith/87894697007/
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