Hall v. Florida (12-10882)
argument 12-10882Hall v. Florida
Supreme Court of the United States
58 min
7 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 4 days ago
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What constitutional rule did the Court establish in Atkins regarding execution of the mentally retarded?
We'll hear argument this morning in case twelve, ten eighty eight, two, Hall versus Florida. Mr Waxman?
Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court. In Atkins versus Virginia, this court held that the Constitution bars executing persons with mental retardation. That is persons with significantly sub average intellectual function concurrent with deficits in adaptive behaviour with an onset before the age of eighteen. Because of the standard error of measurement that's inherent in IQ tests It is universally accepted that persons with obtained scores of seventy one to seventy five can and often do have mental retardation when those three prongs are met. The statistical error of measurement or SEM mister.
A line has to be drawn somewhere. Um And we did say in Atkins that we would leave it up to the States to determine The standards for this issue. So what's the rule we announce today? We tell them seventy's not okay, but seventy five would be? I I'm not quite sure. How would you announce the rule?
Um the let me first take s take some issue with all due respect with your characterization of Atkins. What this court said in Atkins is not that we leave it to the states to establish the standards for the clinical condition of mental retardation. You what you said quoting Ford is we leave it to the states to We leave to the states the task of developing appropriate ways to enforce the constitutional restriction that we announce. The rule that we advocate is and the only real question presented in this case is just this. If a state conditions the opportunity to demonstrate mental retardation on obtained IQ test scores. It cannot ignore the measurement error that is inherent in those scores that is a feature statistical feature of the test instrument itself.
But
we didn't we didn't base our decision in Atkins upon a study of what the American Psychiatric Association and other medical associations considered to be mental retardation. We based it on what What was the general rule that states had adopted. And a large number of States had adopted seventy as the criterion. I mean the criterion is what do the American people think is the level of mental retardation that should make it impossible to impose the death penalty. We didn't look for the answer to that question to the APA or any of the other medical associations. We looked to what the States did. Now, what has changed in what the States do? Anything?
Uh Justice Scalia, I have uh I w I would like to respond with four points and I hope desperately I'll remember them. First of all What this court said was this court Number one, it made clear, as it is reiterated in Miller versus Alabama and Graham versus Florida, that while a consensus or a perceived consensus among the States is important, the ultimate test is this Court's conclusion about what the Eighth Amendment does or doesn't allow. In Making that determination at page three hundred and eighteen of this Court's opinion in Atkins This court, after reciting in footnote three the virtually identical clinical definitions of mental retardation, and in footnote five, pointing out that seventy to seventy-five is the established cutoff for mental retardation, this court said the following quote
Clinical definitions of mental retardation require and the recited the three tests because of their impairments Mentally retarded persons by definition, that is, by the clinical definition, have diminished capacities to understand, and it recited all the other disabilities that made the imposition of the death penalty for persons with that. excuse me, with that clinical condition unconstitutional. Now as to what the states did The Court did refer to, I believe, uh eighteen state statutes. Not a single one of those state statutes and not a single decision of the highest court of any state or any court in any state. applied seventy or two standard deviations from the mean without reference to this the SEM.
The only statute that addressed it in two thousand and two when this court decided Atkins was Arizona, which expressly provided
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What constitutional rule did the Court establish in Atkins regarding execution of the mentally retarded?
0:01–7:37
2
How does the standard error of measurement (SEM) affect IQ scores in death‑penalty cases?
7:37–15:15
3
Why do the Justices argue about who should bear the burden of proving mental retardation?
15:15–22:48
4
What is the significance of the 95 % confidence level in interpreting IQ test results?
22:48–31:11
5
Can a state set a hard IQ cutoff above 70 without violating the Eighth Amendment?
31:11–36:41
6
How should courts handle multiple IQ test scores that straddle the statutory cutoff?
36:41–44:34
7
What impact would changing the IQ threshold have on the administration of the death penalty?
44:34–52:10
8
What conclusions did the Court reach about Florida’s statute and the role of SEM?
52:10–58:59