The US Supreme Court dismisses Alabama’s bid to proceed with the execution of Joseph Clifton Smith, who was sentenced to death after a 1997 murder conviction. In a brief, single-sentence, unsigned order, the court throws out the state’s petition for review in Hamm v. Smith. The Supreme Court does not decide the merits of Alabama’s challenge, effectively leaving in place an earlier procedural ruling to review how a lower court determined that Smith is intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution under the US Constitution.
As reported across outlets, lower courts have found that Smith meets the constitutional standard for intellectual disability, barring the death penalty. PBS notes Smith is 55 and has spent about half his life on death row. The Supreme Court’s action preserves those lower court decisions rather than replacing them with a new determination.
The Independent, ABC News, and the Guardian describe the Supreme Court’s dismissal as unusual, because it removes the state’s request for Supreme Court review without reaching substantive issues, leaving Smith’s case outcome intact.
