Hamm v. Smith · ¶136

Three years later in Moore, this Court announced another constitutional rule of IQ analysis. There, a Texas defendant obtained a test score of 74 with a corresponding confidence interval spanning 69 to 79. 581 U. S., at 10. In determining whether the defendant satisfied a 70-IQ cutoff, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals considered factors beyond the test score and its standard error of measurement. For example, the court noted that the defendant had possibly experienced depression when he took the IQ test. Ex parte Moore, 470 S. W. 3d 481, 517–519 (2015). The court also recognized that he had “external motivations to obtain a lower score, such as facing the death penalty” if he scored too high. Id., at 517. Based on these extrinsic details, the Texas court concluded that there was “no reason to doubt” that the defendant's “actual IQ” was in the “higher portion” of the 69to-79 interval…

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