U.S. top court rules for Florida death row inmate over IQ test

By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a death sentence for a Florida man in a decision that found the state's method for assessing whether defendants are mentally disabled was unconstitutional. The court ruled on a 5-4 vote, with Justice Anthony Kennedy writing the majority opinion, that death row inmate Freddie Lee Hall should have another chance to show he should not be executed. Florida had initially determined that convicted murderer Hall was mentally disabled in 1992, but later found him competent after he scored 71 on an IQ test, the minimum under Florida law. The court found that the Florida process was unlawful under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which bans cruel and unusual punishment.



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