SCOTUS Dismisses Alabama Death Sentence Case In Divided Ruling

A divided Supreme Court of the United States on Thursday rejected Alabama’s effort to execute a convicted murderer whom lower courts determined is intellectually disabled.

The decision leaves intact lower court rulings in favor of Joseph Clifton Smith, 55, who has spent roughly half his life on death row following his conviction in the 1997 beating death of a man.

The Supreme Court barred the execution of intellectually disabled individuals in its landmark 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia.