Where do you stand on the TOO DUMB to get the Death Penalty Issue?

The way I look at it, as low as their IQ's may be, it's a lot higher than their victims. That's right They're all dead..their IQ's are zero.

Here's a question: Are the victims just as dead as they would have been if killed by a smarter person?

Well ... anyway, now the Supreme Court is weighing in:

A majority of the Supreme Court seemed skeptical on Monday regarding how Florida decides who is eligible to be spared the death penalty on account of intellectual disabilities.

Freddie Hall, convicted of murder, scored
slightly above 70 in an IQ test.

The state uses an IQ of 70 as a rigid cutoff, and several justices suggested that it should take account of a standard margin of error or consider additional factors. 

Other justices seemed inclined to allow Florida and other states to decide for themselves how to determine who is “mentally retarded” and so ineligible for execution under the court’s 2002 decision in Atkins v. Virginia. 

That decision gave states substantial discretion and only general guidance. It said a finding of intellectual disability requires proof of three things: “subaverage intellectual functioning,” meaning low IQ scores; a lack of fundamental social and practical skills; and the presence of both conditions before age 18.

In that decision, the court said IQ scores under “approximately 70” typically indicate intellectual disability. 

As Monday’s argument progressed, it became clear that what divided the two groups of justices was more than the particular case. Their disagreement was a larger one about the role of scholarly and professional expertise in the resolution of legal disputes.

“We didn’t base our decision in Atkins upon a study of what the American Psychiatric Association and other medical associations considered to be mental retardation,”

Justice Antonin Scalia said. “We based it on what was the general rule that states had adopted.” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy noted that the court will hear a case on Wednesday involving economic theory.

Read the rest HERE.

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