Supreme Court will hear Alabama appeal in bid to execute man found to be intellectually disabled
The Supreme Court will consider making it harder for convicted murderers to show their lives should be spared because they are intellectually disabled, according an order released early on Friday after an apparent technological glitch.
The justices' action comes in an appeal from Alabama, which is seeking to execute Joseph Clifton Smith. He was sentenced to death for killing a man in 1997. Lower federal courts found Smith is intellectually disabled and thus can't be executed.
When it's argued in the fall, the case could be the first in which the Supreme Court cuts back on its 23-year-old landmark ruling that barred the death penalty for people who are intellectually disabled.
At issue is what happens in borderline cases, when scores on IQ tests are slightly above 70, which is widely accepted as a marker of intellectual disability.
In 2014 and 2017, the court somewhat eased the burden of showing intellectual disability in those cases.
It's the second time in about a year that an online error resulted in an early release from the high court. An opinion in an abortion case was accidently posted on its website a day early in June 2024. The court's landmark opinion overturning abortion as a constitutional right also went out early, though those circumstances were different because the case was leaked.
This time, the court released a set of orders set for Monday after an 'apparent software malfunction' sent out early notifications.
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The Guardian
8 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Hegseth claims US ‘obliterated' Iranian nuclear sites despite lack of assessment
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, on Sunday repeated claims by Donald Trump that US strikes had completely destroyed Iran's nuclear facilities and its ability to acquire nuclear weapons even as the Pentagon acknowledged it was too early to provide a full damage assessment. At a news conference, Hegseth and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dan Caine, said the strikes, codenamed Operation Midnight Hammer, devastated the Iranian nuclear program. The remarks from Hegseth in particular amounted to repeated praise for Trump and the operation that targeted the nuclear enrichment sites at Natanz and Fordow, the key facility buried deep underground, and a third site at Esfahan where Iran was seen to store enriched uranium. 'It was an incredible and overwhelming success. The order we received from our commander in chief was focused,' Hegseth said wearing a blue suit and US flag motif pocket square in the Pentagon briefing room, the first time he has appeared there since becoming the secretary. 'Thanks to President Trump's bold and visionary leadership and his commitment to peace through strength, Iran's nuclear ambitions have been obliterated,' Hegseth said. 'The operation President Trump planned was bold and it was brilliant.' According to Caine, who was seen in pictures released by the White House to have been in the Situation Room as the operation unfolded, the bombing raid involved a two-part strike package of B-2 bombers and fourth- and fifth-generation fighter jets launching from the US. The operation started around midnight on Friday, when the main contingent of bombers departed from the Whiteman air force base in Missouri and flew towards Iran, while another contingent flew in the opposite direction over the Pacific Ocean as a decoy effort. The main contingent involved seven B-2 bombers flying for 18 nonstop hours into Iranian airspace, refueling multiple times in the air, while unidentified fighter jets swept ahead of the group for possible Iranian fighter jets and surface-to-air missile threats over the nuclear sites. Caine said the Pentagon was not aware of any shots fired at the bombers as they flew into Iran and dropped the first of 14 so-called 'bunker buster' bombs, technically known as GBU-57s on the Fordow enrichment facility under the cover of darkness around 2.10am local time. After the bombers dropped the GBU-57s on Fordow and Natanz, Caine said, a navy submarine fired a series of Tomahawk missiles at the Esfahan site, as the aircraft turned around to fly back to the US. 'We are unaware of any shots fired at the Package on the way out. Iran's fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran's surface-to-air missile systems did not see us throughout the mission. We retained the element of surprise,' Caine added. The actual extent of the damage in particular to Fordow, the site Trump has been most focused on destroying because of its hard-to-reach nature, was not immediately clear. Neither Hegseth nor Caine provided details beyond their initial assessment that it had been 'obliterated'. Following Trump's remarks in a televised address from the White House on Saturday night that the US could launch more attacks on Iran unless they started peace talks, Hegseth said the administration was in contact with the country's leadership through public and private channels. 'They understand precisely what the American position is, precisely what steps they can take to allow for peace – and we hope they do so,' Hegseth told reporters. 'I think Tehran is certainly calculating the reality that planes flew from the middle of America and Missouri overnight, completely undetected over three of their most highly sensitive sites,' Hegseth added. 'We believe that will have a clear psychological impact on how they view the future.' Hegseth also said at the news conference that congressional leaders were notified about the strikes after the bombers left Iranian airspace – a decision that is sure to draw criticism from Democrats that Trump engaged in a conflict without the authorization of Congress.
The Independent
37 minutes ago
- The Independent
How Trump unleashed devastating ‘Midnight Hammer ‘ stealth strike on Iran using deception as key weapon
In the wee hours of the morning on June 21, a man going by the name David Shayani took to his X account to reply to another user who saw flight tracking information for a group of eight American tanker aircraft departing Whitman Air Force Base in Missouri. He wrote that he'd seen a total of nine B-2 Spirit bombers passing over his Warsaw, Missouri home, 'headed due East.' Shayani, who describes himself on the social media site as 'an average guy' and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, had inadvertently spotted what we now know was part of a grand deception by the Trump administration ahead of what the Pentagon revealed to be called 'Operation Midnight Hammer,' a blitz attack on a trio of Iranian nuclear facilities that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called 'an incredible and overwhelming success' during a press conference Sunday morning. The former Fox News weekend host turned American defense chief, who was appearing in the Pentagon briefing room for the first time alongside Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine, said the operation had required 'misdirection and the highest of operational security' to permit seven of the stealth bombers spotted by Shayani, as well as an untold number of what Caine said had been 'fourth and fifth-generation' fighters, to penetrate deep into Iranian airspace and drop a total of 14 Massive Ordinance Penetrator bombs — bunker busting weapons designed to take out hardened facilities — in the first operational use of that weapon. Caine, the four-star Air Force general who Trump called out of retirement and promoted to serve as the Joint Chiefs of Staff chair upon his return to the White House in January, noted that a number of the B-2 bombers seen in Missouri had taken off from Whitman 'at midnight Friday into Saturday morning.' Of those stealth bombers, Caine said 'part of that package' — including two of the nine spotted by Shayani — were sent westward towards the Pacific region as a 'decoy' and part of a 'deception effort known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders' in Washington and at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida. According to the general, the remaining seven stealth bombers, what he called 'the main strike package' manned by two crew members apiece, spent the next 18 hours proceeding 'quietly to the east with minimal communications throughout' while refueling in-flight en route to the 'target area' in Iran. Once there, Caine said the bombers 'linked up' with a fleet of escort fighters and support planes in what he described as a 'complex, tightly timed maneuver requiring exact synchronization across multiple platforms in a narrow piece of airspace, all done with minimal communications.' By 5:00 pm ET on Saturday, those planes were on the cusp of entering Iranian airspace. That's when a U.S. submarine — which Caine suggested was one of the U.S. Navy's four Ohio class guided missile submarines — launched 'more than two dozen' Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles aimed at 'key surface infrastructure targets at Isfahan,' one of the three nuclear program locations targeted in the attack. Then, the U.S. planes — including decoy aircraft in the form of 'fourth and fifth generation' fighter jets — flew 'at high altitude and high speed' in front of the B-2 bombers to draw out any Iranian Air Force fighters or ground-based air defense missiles. The Air Force general said the 'strike package' continued with support from a number of U.S. combat commands and services, including U.S. Strategic Command, U.S. Cyber Command, U.S. Space Command, the U.S. Space Force, and U.S. European Command as the 'protection package' fighters used what he called 'high speed suppression weapons' in 'preemptive suppressing fires against any potential Iranian Surface to Air threats' to ensure that the bombers could proceed unmolested. It appears that goal was achieved, as Caine told reporters that the U.S. was 'currently unaware' of any shots fired at the bombers on their way to their target sites. The first bombs, a pair of the 30,000 pound MOP bunker-busters, were dropped by the lead B-2 bomber at approximately 6:40 pm Eastern Time, targeted at one of 'several aim points' on the Fordow facility, which had been constructed deep in a mountain near the Iranian city of Qom. Caine said the remaining six bombers dropped 12 more of the massive weapons against their respective targets at Fordow and the Natanz site, with the last bombs hitting home around 7:05 pm ET and the Tomahawk missiles, which had been fired just before the bombers began their run into Iranian airspace, hitting their targets shortly thereafter.
BBC News
41 minutes ago
- BBC News
US and Iran: What's happening?
The United States has launched military strikes in Iran, attacking three nuclear bases in the in a televised speech from the White House, US President Donald Trump called the operation a "spectacular military success" and warned that Iran should make peace or face "far greater" response to the strikes, Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said: "The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences." What's the background to this? The US bombing of Iran's nuclear sites comes just over a week after Israel launched strikes on then Israel and Iran have continued to fire missiles at each and the US have long been allies. Now President Trump has decided to support Israel by joining the attack on said American warplanes attacked three nuclear sites in Iran - including an underground nuclear site called has always said its nuclear research is for peaceful purposes like the strikes President Trump said: "Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated." What has been the reaction? UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer described Iran's nuclear programme as "a grave threat to international security"."Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and the US has taken action to alleviate that threat," Starmer Foreign Minister David Lammy says "the UK did not participate in these strikes" and urged Iran to "show restraint and reach a diplomatic solution to end the crisis", which means through peaceful UN Secretary-General António Guterres said:"There is no military solution. The only path forward is diplomacy. The only hope is peace."Since the US bombing, missile attacks between Israel and Iran have continued.
