IQ test score to see if a prisoner is too intellectually challenged to be executed

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee judges can no longer rely on a standard IQ test score to see if a prisoner is too intellectually challenged to be executed.

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Monday that testimony from mental health experts should also be considered to see whether a prisoner is intellectually disabled.

Tennessee law bars the execution of intellectually disabled people. An IQ test score of 70 or below is one of several factors that determine whether a prisoner is intellectually disabled. However, the court said experts were needed to see if the test score accurately reflects the defendant's functional IQ.

The decision stems from the case of Michael Angelo Coleman, who was sentenced to death for a 1979 robbery and murder of a Memphis man who was on his way to the grocery.

One of Coleman's attorneys said that federal courts and several other states already use expert testimony, in addition to the IQ score.