Tennessee Supreme Court Says Expert Testimony Needed When Determining IQ
Besides an IQ test score, testimony from mental health experts should be considered when determining if a prisoner is intellectually disabled, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled today.
The decision, according to the Memphis Daily News, deals with the appeal of Michael Angelo Coleman, who is on the state’s death row for robbing and murdering a man in 1979.
Tennessee law bans the execution of people who are intellectually disabled, and the state considers evidence of that an IQ test score of 70 or below. A Tennessee trial and appellate court found that Coleman’s IQ test was high enough to impose the death penalty.
“Ascertaining a person’s IQ is not a matter within the common knowledge of laypersons. Expert testimony in some form will generally be required to assist the trial court in determining whether a criminal defendant is a person with intellectual disability,” Justice William C. Koch Jr. wrote for the Tennessee Supreme Court. The trial court isn’t required to follow an expert’s opinion, the court held, but must give the opinion “full and fair consideration.”
