Supreme Court hears Alabama’s appeal to execute a man found to be intellectually disabled
December 9, 2025
The Supreme Court is taking up an appeal from Alabama, which wants to put to death a man who lower federal courts found is intellectually disabled and shielded from execution. The justices are hearing arguments Wednesday in a case that could make it harder for convicted murderers to show their lives should be spared because they are intellectually disabled. The Supreme Court prohibited execution of intellectually disabled people in a landmark ruling in 2002. Joseph Clifton Smith, 55, has been on death row roughly half his life after his conviction for beating a man to death in 1997. The issue in Smith’s case is what happens in borderline cases of intellectual disability.