Hamm v. Smith · ¶96

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed. Smith v. Commissioner, Ala. Dept. of Corrections, 67 F. 4th 1335 (2023) (per curiam). The court acknowledged that “[w]hether Smith has significantly subaverage intellectual functioning turns on whether he has an IQ equal to or less than 70.” Id., at 1345 (citing Ex parte Perkins, 851 So. 2d, at 456). Given that Smith had five IQ scores ranging from 72 to 78, one would have thought that this acknowledgment would have resolved the case against Smith. Nevertheless, the court reasoned that “a district court must move on to consider an offender's adaptive functioning when the lower end of his lowest IQ score is equal to or less than 70,” no matter how many higher test results he has. 67 F. 4th, at 1346; accord, id., at 1347. In other words, even if Smith had scored four 120s, a single 72 would allow the court to move on to the other mental- retardation factors.…

preliminary print (page proof)
Source edition
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.