No. 23-639

Thomas Dale Ferguson v. John Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al.

Lower Court: Eleventh Circuit
Docketed: 2023-12-13
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Experienced Counsel
Tags: adaptive-functioning capital-punishment circuit-split eighth-amendment intellectual-disability iq-test iq-testing moore-v-texas
Key Terms:
Punishment HabeasCorpus JusticiabilityDoctri
Latest Conference: 2024-02-16
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether a court may disregard a valid IQ test with a range under 70 simply because not all tests show such a range, or must proceed to evaluate adaptive functioning

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

question presented here, rooted in the same circuit split. See Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Comm’r v. Smith, No. 23167 (filed Aug. 17, 2023). That petition is presently set for conference on December 8, 2023. The questions presented here are: 1. Whether a court considering the element of “significantly subaverage intellectual functioning” may disregard a valid IQ test with a range under 70 simply because not all of the tests available show such a range—as the panel below and the Sixth, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits have held—or, rather, whether the court must proceed to evaluate adaptive functioning—as the Fifth, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits have held. 2. Whether the Alabama Supreme Court, which provided the rule adopted below, erred by interpreting the Eighth Amendment to require a capital defendant to prove a present adaptive functioning deficit despite his incarceration, in conflict with the Eighth Circuit, Ninth Circuit, and at least seven state courts of last resort to consider the issue.

Docket Entries

2024-02-20
Petition DENIED.
2024-01-31
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/16/2024.
2024-01-30
2024-01-12
Brief of respondent Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections in opposition filed.
2023-12-07
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due January 12, 2024)
2023-12-04
Application (23A312) granted by Justice Thomas extending the time to file until January 4, 2024.
2023-11-24
Application (23A312) to extend further the time from December 6, 2023 to January 4, 2024, submitted to Justice Thomas.
2023-10-11
Application (23A312) granted by Justice Thomas extending the time to file until December 6, 2023.
2023-10-05
Application (23A312) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from November 5, 2023 to January 4, 2024, submitted to Justice Thomas.

Attorneys

Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections
Edmund Gerard LaCour Jr.Office of the Attorney General, Respondent
Thomas Dale Ferguson
Linda T. CoberlyWinston & Strawn, LLP, Petitioner