Hamm v. Smith · ¶172

Smith's attempts to defend the judgment below are similarly unpersuasive. Smith contends that Hall and Moore require courts to “consider other evidence of intellectual functioning” whenever “IQ scores alone are inconclusive.” Brief for Respondent 24. But this contention only raises the question of when multiple scores are “inconclusive” under Atkins. When pressed at oral argument to address this question, Smith's counsel steadfastly refused to give a clear or consistent answer. At one point, counsel conceded that several sufficiently high IQ test scores could be dispositive even if one score was 71. Tr. of Oral Arg. 104–105. Moments later, however, counsel suggested that any time the confidence interval for a test score falls below 70, courts must consider evidence beyond IQ tests. Id., at 120. When we asked counsel to clarify when, if ever, test scores alone could be conclusive, he…

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