Court Rules Against Florida I.Q. Rule in Death Cases

[struggle4progress]

By ADAM LIPTAK
MAY 27, 2014

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday continued a trend to limit capital punishment, ruling that Florida’s I.Q. score cutoff was too rigid to decide which mentally disabled individuals must be spared the death penalty.

“Florida seeks to execute a man because he scored a 71 instead of 70 on an I.Q. test,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in a 5-to-4 decision.

Justice Kennedy was joined by the court’s four-member liberal wing, a recurring coalition in cases concerning harsh punishments.

When the court barred the execution of people with mental disabilities in 2002 in Atkins v. Virginia, it largely let the states determine who qualified. Tuesday’s decision, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for the four dissenters, represented a “sea change” in the court’s approach ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/28/us/court-rules-against-florida-iq-rule-in-death-cases.html

[elleng]

1. And here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014812627