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Hall V. Florida Case Study

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Facts Bobby James Moore was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death after shooting a clerk during a robbery. The petitioner challenge his sentenced by arguing that he was intellectually disable and, for that reason, needs to be discharged from the death sentence. The state habeas court concluded, by looking at previous courts decisions Atkins v. Virginia and Hall v. Florida, that Moore was intellectual disable and for that reason recommended to the upper court that the death sentence that Moore received was violating the Eighth Amendment. The upper court, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA), did not accepted the recommendation of the state habeas court. Instead, the CCA stated that the lower court use invalidated guides and wrongly determine the intellectual disability of the petitioner. The CCA used older guides, called Ex parte Briseno, and with the factors proposed by that guide the court determine that it was sufficient evidence to declare that Moore did not have intellectual deficits. The high court granted the …show more content…

The lower court focused on the factors of Briseno (1992) which were applied without the presence of a doctor in the moment of the recitation, which was incorrect. Also, the CCA did not applied the standard error of measurement in the IQ test, which under Hall v. Florida needs to be apply if the IQ score is between 69 and 79. If the test score is between the IQ test ranges, the person(s) will be qualify as intellectually disable. In addition, the Court sustain that is necessary to view and get support from other medical guides that are recent to prove the defendant is intellectually disable, instead to convict someone just by looking to a test score and old guides. For the reason that, the court declared that the CCA fail to applied current medical guidance and the decision that the court made was a violation of the Eight

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