Supreme Court decision on death row IQ case will spare prisoner’s life

The Supreme Court dismissed a case on Thursday about how to consider intelligence tests when evaluating if a person is sufficiently intellectually disabled to be disqualified from the death penalty, effectively sparing a death row inmate in Alabama from execution.

The high court issued a brief per curiam ruling, saying it had improperly granted review in Hamm v. Smith and declining to issue a ruling on the merits. The brief unsigned ruling was accompanied by multiple opinions agreeing and disagreeing with the order, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing a concurring opinion, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in which she said the high court was correct in declining to use this case to “address how courts must analyze multiple IQ scores under” its standard for the death penalty regarding intellectually disabled persons.

“In cases presenting multiple IQ scores, courts should continue to consider multiple IQ scores in light of this Court’s precedents and