Supreme Court Will Weigh IQ Tests in Death Penalty Challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday that it will consider Alabama's bid to reinstate the death penalty for a convicted murderer that lower courts found to be intellectually disabled.

Taking up the state's case, the justices are set to consider the effect of multiple IQ tests in determining whether a defendant should be spared capital punishment due to intellectual disability. The Supreme Court held in its 2002 decision Atkins v. Virginia that the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments prohibits the execution of the intellectually disabled.