SO WHAT IF THE CONDMNED HAD A LOW IQ

The test for mental competence should not rest on a test score, but on a determination of whether the killer knew right from wrong

Freddie Hall, 68, has been roosting on Florida’s death row for 35 years. He was sentenced to death for the 1978 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 21-year-old woman who was seven months pregnant. Later, Hall also killed a Florida sheriff’s deputy.

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the mentally retarded or intellectually disabled cannot be executed. However the court left the definition of those terms up to the individual states.

Florida uses a three-part test to determine mental retardation for murderers facing the death penalty. If the accused scores 70 or below on an IQ test, the state will follow up with assessments for “deficits in adaptive behavior” and an onset before the age of 18.

Hall scored 71 on an IQ test in 2002. His attorneys are challenging Hall’s death sentence because of the rigidity of the 70 IQ score. They argue that Florida does not take into account the standard five-point margin of error which would mean that a score of 75 could actually equate to score of 70.

Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the Supreme Court’s four liberal justices - Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan – in questioning and casting doubt on the validity of Florida’s rigid rule.

Justice Antonin Scalia defended Florida’s rule, noting that Hall’s attorneys did not raise the issue of mental retardation for the first 10 years of his stay on death row. Scalia then attacked the challenge to Hall’s death sentence by suggesting that the killer had some mental competence because, “He is the one who seized the young woman, who pushed her into a car, who drove the car with his accomplice following in another car and who killed her, and . . . killed a policeman, too, later.” Scalia then argued that the courts should let the states determine mental competence rather than be guided by the ‘evolving standards’ set by groups like the American Psychological Association. “This APA is the same organization that once said homosexuality was a mental disability and now says it’s perfectly normal. They change their minds.”

Despite Justice Scalia’s reasoned argument, it looks as though with Justice Kennedy’s swing vote, Florida’s rigid 70 IQ score will be ruled unconstitutional and Hall’s death sentence will be overturned by a 5-4 vote.

I have felt all along that IQ tests are not too reliable and I’m sure they can be manipulated. That’s why I say, so what if the condemned has a low IQ. Instead of using an IQ test, a better determination of mental competence in death penalty cases would be a scientifically-proven evaluation of whether the killer knew right from wrong.

As for Freddie Hall, the prosecution might as well give up. Although this cold-blooded killer of a 21-year-old pregnant woman and a Florida cop must have known right from wrong, he will croak well before his case is finally settled, should the prosecutors decide to seek the death penalty once again.