Justices Hint at Wider Death Penalty Exemption for Disabled
- U.S. Supreme Court hears appeal from Texas death-row inmate
- Kennedy questions state’s standard for intellectual disability
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A narrow U.S. Supreme Court majority signaled it may force Texas to broaden its death-penalty exemption for people who are intellectually disabled.
Hearing arguments in Washington, Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the court’s liberal wing in suggesting that the state is improperly letting people be executed even though they are disabled under what he called an "almost uniform medical consensus."