A Supreme Court decision on Thursday spared the life of an inmate on Alabama's death row but put off a larger fight for another day, USA Today reports. The court opted not to weigh in on how states should assess intellectual disabilities in regard to capital punishment. The decision means that a lower-court ruling in favor of 55-year-old Joseph Smith will remain in place, notes the Washington Post. Smith has IQ test results ranging from 72 to 78, and the lower court found that his mental impairments make him ineligible for execution under the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Thursday' unsigned opinion leaves that ruling—and the court's 2002 ban on executing people with intellectual disabilities—intact, but a conservative dissent signaled appetite for a sharper shift. Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, argued the court ducked its duty to clarify standards in death cases, particularly when inmates have IQ results that vary, per the New York Times. Alabama's threshold is 70, perhaps putting Smith's score of 72 within the margin of error but not his score of 78.
"The result was predictable: To avoid execution, Smith tried to convince courts that he is not intelligent enough to be executed," Thomas wrote. "Today, the Court rewards Smith's efforts." The Post notes that the case is significant because many inmates on death row have IQ scores similar to Smith's, which hover around the cutoff line for executions. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, concurring in the dismissal, said the court was right not to take the case because it doesn't have enough factual information on how to assess intelligence. "The court is not equipped to provide any meaningful guidance on how courts should assess multiple IQ scores," Sotomayor wrote. Smith has been on death row because he beat a man to death in 1997.
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