The case settles a capital punishment case that has been in the legal system since 1978.
In a 5-4 decision, a majority of Justices said in Hall v. Florida that a Florida law prohibiting anyone with an IQ of 70 or higher from being classified as mentally disabled, and thus making them eligible for the death penalty, violates standard medical practices.
“As interpreted by the Florida Supreme Court, however, Florida’s rule disregards established medical practice in two interrelated ways: It takes an IQ score as final and conclusive evidence of a defendant’s intellectual capacity, when experts would consider other evidence; and it relies on a purportedly scientific measurement of a defendant’s abilities, while refusing to recognize that measurement’s inherent imprecision,” Justice Anthony Kennedy said, writing for the majority.
“The death penalty is the gravest sentence our society may impose. Persons facing that most severe sanction must have a fair opportunity to show that the Constitution prohibits their execution,” Kennedy concluded. “Florida’s law contravenes our Nation’s commitment to dignity and its duty to teach human decency as the mark of a civilized world. The States are laboratories for experimentation, but those experiments may not deny the basic dignity the Constitution protects.”
The Hall case arose from the 1978 murder of Karol Hurst, who was 21 years old and seven months pregnant, by Freddie L. Hall. Hall was convicted and sentenced to death in Florida.
A trial judge found Hall to be mentally handicapped, and in 1999, the Florida Supreme Court ruled “there is no doubt that the defendant has serious mental difficulties, is probably somewhat retarded, and certainly has learning difficulties and a speech impediment.”
The Hall case is directly related to a case from 2002, Atkins v. Virginia, when the Supreme Court said it is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment to execute individuals who are determined to be mentally disabled.
