By John Kruzel

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court is set on Wednesday to hear a bid by Alabama officials to pursue the execution of an inmate convicted of a 1997 murder who a lower court found to be intellectually ‍disabled and thus ineligible for the death penalty.

President Donald Trump’s administration has backed the Republican-led state’s appeal of the lower court’s determination that Joseph Clifton Smith is intellectually disabled based on intelligence quotient, or IQ, test scores and expert testimony.

Smith, now 55, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of a man named Durk Van Dam in Alabama’s Mobile County. Smith fatally beat the man with a ‌hammer and saw in order to steal his boots, tools and $140, according ‌to evidence in the case. The vi

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