Hamm v. Smith · ¶183

This unmoored approach to Atkins will produce the very sort of “arbitrary and unpredictable” outcomes that our post- Gregg death-penalty jurisprudence has sought to avoid. California v. Brown, 479 U. S. 538, 541 (1987); see Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153 (1976). If Atkins has any prospect of surviving as a workable doctrine, lower courts need “ `clear and objective standards' that provide `specific and detailed guidance' ” on how to analyze multiple IQ scores. Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U. S. 420, 428 (1980) (plurality opinion) (footnote omitted). The Court's refusal to provide such guidance will continue to undermine the intelligibility of this doctrine.

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