Judges' Strange New Respect for I.Q. Science

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will consider whether a hammer-murderer scoring 72, 74, 75, 74, and 78 on I.Q. tests is close enough to 69 to escape the death penalty.

As we all have been instructed, I.Q. tests are worthless pseudoscience based on racism … except when I.Q. helps a low-brow murderer avoid the death penalty. Then, as the Supreme Court ruled in its 2002’s Atkins v. Virginia decision in effect banning states from executing first degree murderers with IQs below 70, we must Follow The Science!

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court in Hamm v. Smith will consider the case of torture-murderer Joseph Clifton Smith, who beat a carpenter he was robbing to death with a hammer way back in 1997.

A federal appeals court recently excused him from the death penalty on the grounds that while he was given five IQ tests while young and never scored below 70, scoring 72, 74, 75, 74, and 78, he came close enough for holistic horseshoes and hand grenades. The IQ test comes with a 3 point margin for error, so then his lowest score of 72 could actually have been a 69, so no death penalty for the torture-murderer!

From Reuters:

US Supreme Court to review death row inmate’s intellectual disability ruling

By John Kruzel

June 6, 2025

WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear an appeal by Alabama officials of a judicial decision that a man convicted of a 1997 murder is intellectually disabled - a finding that spared him from the death penalty - as they press ahead with the Republican-governed state’s bid to execute him.

A lower court ruled that Joseph Clifton Smith is intellectually disabled based on its analysis of his IQ test scores and expert testimony. Under a 2002 Supreme Court precedent, executing an intellectually disabled person violates the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment bar on cruel and unusual punishment. …

Smith, now 54, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of a man named Durk Van Dam in Alabama’s Mobile County. Smith fatally beat the man with a hammer and saw in order to steal his boots, some tools and $140, according to evidence in the case. …

At issue in Smith’s case is whether and how courts may consider the cumulative effect of multiple intelligence quotient (IQ) scores in assessing a death row inmate’s intellectual disability.

Like many states, conservative-leaning Alabama considers evidence of IQ test scores of 70 or below as part of the standard for determining intellectual disability. Supreme Court rulings in 2014 and 2017 allowed courts to consider IQ score ranges that are close to 70 along with other evidence of intellectual disability, such as testimony of “adaptive deficits.”

Smith had five IQ test scores, the lowest of which was 72. A federal judge noted that Smith’s score could be as low as 69, given the standard of error of plus or minus three points. The judge then found that Smith had significant deficits from an early age in social and interpersonal skills, independent living and academics.

Therefore, he couldn’t understand “Thou shalt not kill.”

Or something.

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the judge’s conclusions in 2023, setting aside Smith’s death sentence. This prompted Alabama officials to file their first of two appeals to the Supreme Court in the case.

In November, the justices threw out the 11th Circuit’s decision, saying that the lower court’s evaluation of Smith’s IQ scores can be read two ways, and requires clarification.

Ten days later, the 11th Circuit issued an opinion clarifying that its evaluation was based on “a holistic approach to multiple IQ scores” that also considered additional relevant evidence, including expert testimony. This prompted a second appeal by Alabama officials to the Supreme Court.

Overall, I’m not much of an enthusiast for the death penalty because of the insane amounts of what Hamlet complained of as “the law’s delay.” Smith, for instance, was sentenced to die during the last millennium, but here he still is in 2025.

Still, I can see the death penalty as

Paywall here.