A federal appeals court said Alabama can’t execute Joseph Clifton Smith, 52, a man with an IQ in the 70s, as the court ruled that he is intellectually disabled and that his death sentence is …
The Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal judge’s 2021 decision vacating the death sentence of Joseph Clifton Smith, 52.Van Dam, whose body was found in his pickup truck in Mobile County, died as a result of 35 blunt-force injuries to his body, according to testimony from a forensic pathologist.
Smith scored as low as 72 and as high as 78 on IQ tests over the years and showed evidence of poor intellectual and adaptive functioning since a young age, the court ruling noted. Senior US District Judge Callie V.S. Granade wrote in 2021 that Smith’s IQ score of 72 could mean his IQ is actually as low as 69 “if you take into account the standard error of measurement.”
The ruling is a victory for Smith’s attorneys who have been fighting for years to overturn his death sentence.
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