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A SPECTATOR’S PRIMER
NO. 24-872
IN THE MOCK SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
JOHN Q. HAMM, COMM’R OF THE ALABAMA DEP’T OF CORR., Petitioner,
v.
JOSEPH CLIFTON SMITH, Respondent.
[CAPITAL CASE]
Introduction
This moot court hypothetical is based on an actual case where the United
States Supreme Court has granted certiorari. At issue in the case before this Mock
Supreme Court is whether and how courts may consider the cumulative effect of
multiple IQ scores in assessing an Atkins claim, i.e., how to weigh or analyze IQ scores
as part of the determination that an individual is intellectually disabled such that they
cannot be subjected to a death sentence.
Factual and Procedural Background
In 1998, Smith was convicted of murder during a robbery, a capital offense
under Alabama law. Smith and another man beat and robbed the victim for $140,
his tools, and his boots. They left him under a mattress near his truck, and his badly
beaten body was discovered two days later in the truck—his multiple rib fractures
and collapsed lung were likely the immediate cause of death.
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