USA: ‘The Nation we aspire to be’ : Revisiting intellectual disability and the death penalty, Supreme Court strikes down Florida law

The USA’s death penalty experiment continues, and a judicial killing on average every 10 days. There have been 20 executions so far this year. The latest revision comes via a split vote on the US Supreme Court. In a 5-4 decision issued on 27 May 2014, the Court struck down a Florida law requiring that a defendant claiming to have intellectual disability – and to therefore be exempt from execution – show an IQ score of 70 or below. It found that Florida’s rigid IQ 70 cut-off was itself unconstitutional.

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