Supreme Court dismisses Hamm v. Smith, sparing Alabama death row inmate Joseph Clifton Smith

The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Hamm v. Smith (No. 24-872) as improvidently granted on May 21, 2026, leaving in place an Eleventh Circuit ruling that Alabama death row inmate Joseph Clifton Smith is intellectually disabled and cannot be executed under the Eighth Amendment bar established in Atkins v. Virginia (2002). The 5-4 vote saw Justices Kavanaugh and Barrett join the three Democratic appointees to dismiss the case without deciding the merits. Alabama had sought a clear rule for how courts must weigh multiple IQ test scores when all scores are nominally above its statutory 70-point cutoff; that legal question remains unresolved and open for a future case.