---
title: 'Supreme Court Directs Florida to Reconsider Intellectual Disability Decision in Death Penalty Case'
description: 'The United States Supreme Court has ordered the Florida Supreme Court to reconsider a decision that had denied a death-row prisoner’s claim that he was…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/supreme-court-directs-florida-to-reconsider-intellectual-disability-decision-in-death-penalty-case'
section: news
date: '2017-10-19T22:33:00-04:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:49:11-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

!   !  

**The United States Supreme Court** has ordered the **Florida** Supreme Court to reconsider a decision that had denied a death-row prisoner's claim that he was ineligible for the death penalty because he has Intellectual Disability. On October 16, the Court reversed and remanded the case of **[Tavares Wright](https://www.floridasupremecourt.org/Opinions)** (pictured, left), directing the Florida courts to reconsider his intellectual-disability claim in light of the constitutional standard the Court set forth in its March 2017 decision in *[Moore v. Texas](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/6719)*.

The decision in *Wright v. Florida* was the sixth time the Court has vacated a state or federal court's rejection of an intellectual-disability claim and remanded the case for reconsideration under *Moore*—and [the third time it has done so in less than a month](/united-states-supreme-court-decisions-2017-2018-term). Earlier in October, the Court vacated two decisions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and remanded the cases of Texas death-row prisoners **Obie Weathers** and [**Steven Long**](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/6854) for reconsideration in light of *Moore*, and on October 18, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals cited *Moore* as grounds for reconsidering its own prior rejection of intellectual-disability claims raised by [**Carnell Petetan, Jr**.](http://www.search.txcourts.gov/SearchMedia.aspx?MediaVersionID=f71ddf06-b66e-402e-a1f2-83bf9aa22f94&coa=coscca&DT=ORDER&MediaID=61554992-4309-4c95-ad21-8128461c1800%C2%A0) (pictured, right).

*Moore* was expected to have broad impact in Texas, where—the Court unanimously agreed—the state courts had unconstitutionally adopted an unscientific set of lay stereotypes to determine whether a defendant facing the death penalty had impairments in functioning that qualified him or her as intellectually disabled. Five members of the Court also stressed in the majority opinion in *Moore* that the state had improperly rejected claims of intellectual disability by emphasizing a capital defendant's perceived adaptive strengths, instead of "focus\[ing\] the adaptive-functioning inquiry on adaptive *deficits,*" as required by accepted medical practice.

Lawyers in Harris County (Houston)—which has [**executed more prisoners than any other county**](/node/6582)—anticipate that more than a dozen prisoners sentenced to death in that county may be entitled to reconsideration of their death sentences under *Moore*, and one prisoner, **Robert James Campbell,** has already been resentenced to life. However, the Supreme Court's recent rulings indicate that its pronouncement in *Moore* that a state's determination of Intellectual Disability must be "informed by the medical community’s diagnostic framework" is not limited to Texas.

In May, the Court vacated a decision of the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in the case of [**Taurus Carroll**](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/6756) after his lawyer invoked *Moore* to argue that Alabama had unconstitutionally deviated from accepted methods of determining intellectual disability. In the Florida case, Wright's lawyers [argued](/files/pdf/WrightCertPetition.pdf) that the state supreme court's decision in his case was inconsistent with a line of Supreme Court cases on intellectual disability—[*Atkins v. Virginia*](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/intellectual-disability-and-death-penalty#Atkins) (2002), which declared execution of those with intellectual disability to be unconstitutional; [*Hall v. Florida*](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/intellectual-disability-and-death-penalty#Hall) (2014), which struck down Florida's approach to measuring the role of IQ in determining intellectual disability; and *Moore*. Although its order did not set forth the reasons for its decision, the Supreme Court agreed and directed the Florida courts to reconsider the issue.

K. Hoppa, [Death row inmate Petetan wins rehearing for sentence](https://www.wacotrib.com/news/courts_and_trials/death-row-inmate-petetan-wins-rehearing-for-sentence/article_4ffc7e0d-aeb8-5a74-a294-9934922a8eee.html), Waco Tribune-Herald, October 18, 2017; B. Rogers, [Texas attorneys brace for new death penalty appeals after Supreme Court ruling](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Texas-attorneys-brace-for-new-round-of-death-12271127.php), Houston Chronicle, October 15, 2017; *see also* *Long v. Davis*, No. 16-8909 (U.S. Oct. 2, 2017); *Weathers v. Davis*, No. 16-9446 (U.S. Oct. 9, 2017); *Wright v. Florida*, No. 17-5575 (U.S. Oct. 16, 2017).