On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court voted 5-4 to dismiss the case Hamm v. Smith, rejecting Alabama's request to proceed with the execution of a convicted murderer who was found by lower courts to be intellectually disabled.
The court's decision leaves in place existing rulings that people with intellectual disabilities should not be executed. The case centered on an Alabama inmate whose intellectual disability had been established through lower court proceedings.
The Supreme Court's action upholds prior judicial determinations regarding the inmate's cognitive condition. Lower courts had found the convicted murderer to be intellectually disabled, a finding that bars execution under established legal precedent.
The 5-4 vote reflects a divided court on the matter. The dismissal means Alabama will not be permitted to carry out the execution in question, as the state had sought.
This ruling reinforces the legal principle that intellectual disability serves as a bar to capital punishment. The court declined to hear Alabama's challenge to the lower court findings regarding the inmate's disability status.
The case, Hamm v. Smith, represents the latest instance in which the Supreme Court has declined to overturn lower court determinations regarding intellectual disability in death penalty cases. By dismissing the case, the court allowed those lower court rulings to stand without further review.
The decision maintains the current legal framework governing executions of individuals with intellectual disabilities, leaving existing protections in place.
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