Justices to Clarify Test to Prove Low IQ in Capital Cases

The US Supreme Court agreed to consider what defendants must show in order to prove that they are mentally disabled and ineligible for the death penalty.

In the case granted Friday, Joseph Clifton Smith was convicted of the 1997 beating death of Durk Van Dam. Despite several IQ above Alabama’s 70-point cutoff, a federal trial court found that Smith’s IQ could be as low as 69. It ultimately found him death ineligible.

Alabama urged the justices to take up Smith’s case to clarify the test for establishing a defendant’s IQ. The “lower courts are deeply confused about what a State ...