Alabama appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court last week, arguing that the state should be allowed to execute a death row prisoner despite multiple federal courts’ rulings that the prisoner is intellectually disabled and cannot legally be executed.

The case centers around Joseph Clifton Smith, an Alabama man who was convicted and sentenced to death for brutally beating and murdering Durk Van Dam in Mobile in 1997.

However, lower federal courts have deemed that Smith is intellectually disabled and cannot be executed under the Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia, in which the court ruled that sentencing people with intellectual disabilities to death constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and violates the Eighth Amendment. Since then, seven death inmates deemed to have intellectual disabilities have been removed from Alabama’s death row, while several others, including Smith, remain on appeal. 

Part of the criteria that Alabama uses to determine intellectual disability is IQ tests. An IQ score of 70 or less is typically considered a benchmark of intellectual disability, but the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — which psychologist use in helping the courts determine the Atkins rule — considers IQ scores of 65-75 to indicate “mild” mental disability. Smith has taken five IQ tests throughout his life and has earned scores of 75, 74, 72, 78 and 74. Accounting for margin of error, it is believed that Smith could have an IQ as low as 69.

IQ test scores are only part of the rule, however. The Supreme Court has clarified criteria for the Atkins rule since its 2002 ruling to include that there is no strict score cut-off, and that inmates with IQ scores above 70 may also be considered intellectually disabled if they have severe behavioral issues. Smith was deemed to fit this criteria by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021, with Senior U.S. District Judge Callie V. S. Granade writing that Smith’s “actual functioning” was lower than what IQ tests showed.

Now, the Alabama attorney general’s office is arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that Smith should be eligible for execution, saying that the average of his five IQ tests is 74, making him above the 70 threshold. Psychologists have said that averaging IQ scores is not an accurate way to determine intellectual capacity, nor can the margin of error in these tests be disregarded.

The federal government and 20 other states have also signed onto a brief supporting Alabama’s case, writing in a joint brief that they “wish to restore their authority to choose and apply their own penological policies and rules.”

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case last week. During oral arguments, several justices expressed confusion over Alabama’s argument. Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pushed back against Alabama’s argument that they needed more guidance in criteria for determining intellectual disability, saying that the state’s argument has changed from claims they made in lower courts.

“It seems to me that you are actually changing the standard,” Jackson said, pointing out that the state seems to be reducing the Atkins rule to be solely about IQ.

Another justice, Amy Coney Barrett, also said during the hearing that the question of the case confused her since Alabama’s state-determined process for determining intellectual disability had been followed. 

Following the hearing, the lawyer representing Alabama in the case, Alabama Principal Deputy Solicitor General Robert Overing, said that the state is hoping in its ruling the court will provide guidance on how to approach cases with multiple different IQ scores.

“Unfortunately, because the court hasn’t given guidance in the last 10 years, courts around the country have been very confused and adopted new rules that don’t make a lot of sense, don’t follow the science, and don’t defer to state enforcement of criminal justice,” Overing said.

“But in Alabama, and in other states, IQ can be the entire inquiry and we think that’s the constitutional rule as well,” he added.

Alabama top stories in brief

UA alumni start fundraiser for suspended student publications

• Masthead, a nonprofit run by University of Alabama alumni and focused on supporting student journalism, has started a fundraising campaign for two student-run magazines permanently suspended by the university earlier this month.
• The nonprofit aimed to raise $25,000 through the fundraiser to support printing costs and student salaries for Alice Magazine and Nineteen Fifty-Six. The fundraiser surpassed this goal three days after it began. 
• The two magazines were suspended earlier this month by UA out of concern that they violate federal guidelines regarding diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at universities that receive federal funding. Alice Magazine is a women’s lifestyle magazine and Nineteen Fifty-Six is a magazine focused on Black life and culture on campus.

No music festival in Gulf Shores in 2026, mayor announces

• There will not be a music festival in Gulf Shores in May 2026, the city’s Mayor Robert Craft announced at a City Council meeting last week. The city has played host to a music festival each May since 2010.
• This news comes amid some change-ups with the festival in recent years. Since 2010, the city has hosted the Hangout Music Festival. However, this year’s festival rebranded to the Sand in My Boots festival, which featured a country music line-up curated by country superstar Morgan Wallen.
• Sand in My Boots quickly sold out its 40,000 tickets, and city business owners have said they preferred the crowd that attended that festival to past attendees of Hangout Fest.
• However, this year’s festival was the last 10-year franchise agreement between the city and festival producers. The city was not able to reach a new franchise agreement until late July, which they said was too short of a timetable to prepare for a 2026 festival.
• The city has confirmed that it will be hosting a festival in 2027, though it is unclear if that will be Hangout Music Festival or Sand in My Boots. Sand in My Boots festival producers confirmed that the festival will return to Gulf Shores, but did not confirm when. 

Women’s health advocates, nonprofits launch Alabama Birth Equity Initiative

• A coalition of women’s health advocacy groups, nonprofits and providers have announced that they are forming the Alabama Birth Equity Initiative, a new program meant to improve maternal and infant mortality rates across the state.
• The program is being led by reproductive health advocacy group the Yellowhammer Fund, who is partnering with Margins: Women Helping Black Women, Oasis Women’s Health and Alabama Birth Center. 
• Program organizers said they are planning to provide funding to help midwives in the state to pay for their training expenses.
• Additionally, the program is planning to provide mobile health units to help increase access to healthcare in rural areas, as well as working with Margins to expand mutual aid networks.
• Alabama has a high infant mortality rate. The state’s infant mortality rate for 2024 was 7.1 babies per 1,000 live births, significantly higher than the national average of 5.5 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Escambia County residents vote to increase property tax to help fund rural hospitals

• A majority of voters in Escambia County voted during a special election in favor of a property-tax increase that will dedicate an additional 4 mills in property tax to the Health Care Authority to support DW McMillan Memorial Hospital in Brewton and Atmore Community Hospital.
• Just over 3,000 ballots were cast in the election, with 54% voting yes and 46% voting no. 
• This change is expected to generate $1.8 million in new funding.
• The referendum was placed on the ballot by the Escambia County Commission in a 3-2 vote, with members who opposed it raising concerns that a business plan to use the additional funding had not yet been established. 
• With multiple rural hospitals in Alabama at risk of closing or cutting programs, Keith Horton, chairman of the Escambia County Healthcare Authority, said that the additional funding was “a tool in the toolbox to put them on a financially secure position.”

Eli Lilly building new facility in Huntsville

• Eli Lilly and Company announced last week that they are planning to build a new manufacturing facility in Huntsville. The pharmaceutical company is investing more than $6 million into the facility.
• The new facility will be built in Huntsville’s Greenbrier South industrial park, which already hosts the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, a bioscience research institute.
• The site is supposed to manufacture Eli Lilly’s first oral, small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist, called orforglipron, which can be used for treating Type 2 diabetes and promoting weight loss.
• The facility is expected to bring more than 450 jobs to the area, including engineers, personal and lab technicians, as well as 3,000 construction jobs to build the facility.

Our articles you might have missed

• If you’re looking for something to read this December, we just released the first book review for Alabama Spotlight. Like everything connected to Alabama Spotlight, our goal is to showcase unique people, places and things that make Alabama special. Wesley Hyde starts us off with the critically acclaimed “Alabama Moon” by Watt Key.

• In the latest Alabama Spotlight podcast episode, Harrison Neville sat down with Jefferson County Greenways CEO Darryl Washington and Janet Simpson, the COO and deputy director. Listen to learn more about the work Jefferson County Greenways is doing in the region and about East Side Park, their upcoming project in the Roebuck Springs Neighborhood.

• In the most recent edition of The Longleaf Hiker, we visit Red Mountain Park, a beautiful park steeped in Alabama history. Check out our article Hiking with history at Red Mountain on our website.

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