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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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