Thomas Dale Ferguson v. John Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al.
HabeasCorpus Punishment Securities
Whether a jury's eleven-to-one recommendation of a life sentence weighs heavily in favor of a finding of prejudice under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984).
Whether a single raw IQ score (as opposed to a score range) above 70 — regardless of when the IQ test producing that score was administered — is an independently sufficient basis to deny a capital defendant's claim under Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002).
Whether a capital defendant must prove below-average intellectual and adaptive functioning before age eighteen, at the time of the offense, and at the time he challenges his execution.
Whether a single raw IQ score above 70, regardless of when administered, is independently sufficient to deny a capital defendant's Atkins claim, and whether a capital defendant must demonstrate below-average intellectual and adaptive functioning before age eighteen, at the time of the offense, and at the time of execution