The US Supreme Court dismissed Alabama's appeal to execute Joseph Clifton Smith, affirming his protection from the death penalty.Justices allowed a lower court ruling to stand, which categorized Smith as intellectually disabled despite his IQ scores being slightly above the common threshold.Legal standards regarding how states assess cognitive impairment in capital cases remain a central point of contention for the court.Four conservative justices dissented against the decision, while a majority supported the reliance on holistic evidence of disability.