Hall v. Florida
Hall v. Florida, 572 U.S. 701 (2014), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a bright-line IQ threshold requirement for determining whether someone has an intellectual disability (formerly mental retardation) is unconstitutional in deciding whether they are eligible for the death penalty.
| Hall v. Florida | |
|---|---|
Supreme Court of the United States | |
| Argued March 3, 2014 Decided May 27, 2014 | |
| Full case name | Freddie Lee Hall, Petitioner v. Florida |
| Docket no. | 12-10882 |
| Citations | 572 U.S. 701 (more) 134 S. Ct. 1986; 188 L. Ed. 2d 1007 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Hall v. State, 109 So. 3d 704 (Fla. 2012); cert. granted, 571 U.S. 973 (2013). |
| Holding | |
| A Florida law allowing the execution of borderline mentally handicapped individuals violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Kennedy, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan |
| Dissent | Alito, joined by Roberts, Scalia, Thomas |
The case fleshed out standards first announced by the Court in Atkins v. Virginia, which left the determination of what constitutes intellectual disability to the states. In Atkins, the Court held that people are intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for the death penalty if these three conditions are met: 1.) “subaverage intellectual functioning,” meaning low I.Q. scores; 2.) a lack of fundamental social and practical skills; and 3.) the presence of both conditions before age 18. The Atkins court stated I.Q. scores under “approximately 70” typically indicate disability, but the court let the states determine who is mentally disabled and thus cannot be executed.