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US Supreme Court

Supreme Court Seems Divided on Role of IQ in Weighing Death Sentences

The justices reviewed whether an appeals court had erred in the way it analyzed potential intellectual disability by a convicted murderer.
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Supreme Court Seems Divided on Role of IQ in Weighing Death Sentences
The Supreme Court in Washington on Nov. 10, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times
Sam Dorman
Sam Dorman
Editor
12/10/2025|Updated: 12/10/2025
0:00

The Supreme Court wrestled on Dec. 10 over how judges should weigh IQ scores when determining whether a convict was wrongly sentenced to death.

The case, Hamm v. Smith, centered on an Alabama man convicted of murder in the 1990s, but the legal questions involved stem from a 2002 decision by the high court known as Atkins v. Virginia.

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Sam Dorman
Sam Dorman
Editor
Sam Dorman is an editor for The Epoch Times. You can follow him on X at @EpochofDorman.
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