DocketNumber: 21-6428
Judges: Sonia Sotomayor
Filed Date: 6/30/2022
Status: Relating-to orders
Modified Date: 6/30/2022
Cite as: 597 U. S. ____ (2022) 1 SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES DANNY LEE HILL v. TIM SHOOP, WARDEN ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT No. 21–6428. Decided June 30, 2022 The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied. JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, with whom JUSTICE BREYER and JUSTICE KAGAN join, dissenting from the denial of certio- rari. Petitioner Danny Hill was convicted of murder and sen- tenced to death before this Court’s decision in Atkins v. Virginia,536 U. S. 304
(2002), which held that it is uncon- stitutional to execute people with intellectual disabilities. In response to Atkins, Hill filed a petition for state postcon- viction relief. Despite a mountain of record evidence to the contrary, the state courts held that Hill was not intellectu- ally disabled. On federal habeas review under the Antiter- rorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), a unani- mous panel of the Sixth Circuit concluded that the state courts unreasonably determined the facts, and ordered re- lief as to Hill’s death sentence. Specifically, the Sixth Cir- cuit ruled that the state courts “failed seriously to contend with the extensive past evidence of Hill’s intellectual disa- bility” by “exclud[ing] or discount[ing] past evidence of in- tellectual disability” and engaged in “cafeteria-style selec- tion of some evidence” over other evidence. Hill v. Anderson,960 F. 3d 260
, 270 (2020) (per curiam). The Sixth Circuit took the case en banc, vacated the panel deci- sion, and in a deeply divided decision, affirmed the District Court’s denial of habeas relief. As the seven dissenting judges observed, “[n]o person looking at this record could reasonably deny that Hill is in- tellectually disabled under Atkins.”11 F. 4th 373
, 400 (CA6 2 HILL v. SHOOP SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 2021) (opinion of Moore, J.). Before Hill filed his state peti- tion for postconviction relief, he had been diagnosed with intellectual disabilities approximately 10 times, beginning at age six. He scored 70 or below on every IQ test he took during his school years. The record before the state courts also revealed significant limitations in Hill’s functional ac- ademics, self-care, social skills, and self-direction. He could not sign his own name, never lived independently, was “ ‘functionally illiterate’ ” at school and in prison, could not read or write above a third-grade level, and could not per- form a job without substantial guidance from supervisors.Id., at 407
. He has never been able to take care of his own hygiene independently; even in the rigidly organized envi- ronment of prison, he will not shower without reminders. All three medical professionals who testified at the mitiga- tion phase of Hill’s trial concluded that he was within the range of intellectual disability, see State v. Hill,177 Ohio App. 3d 171
, 177,2008-Ohio-3509
, ¶¶ 8–11,894 N. E. 2d 108
, 112, and the trial court found the record indicated that Hill was “ ‘mildly to moderately retarded.’ ” 11 F. 4th, at 381 (majority opinion). For the reasons urged by Judge Moore in her dissent be- low, I would summarily reverse the en banc court’s denial of habeas relief. There is overwhelming record support for the fact that Hill has intellectual disabilities, as the state courts recognized at his trial and on direct appeal. It was only by discounting extensive past evidence of intellectual disability and focusing myopically on Hill’s highly struc- tured interactions with law enforcement, prison officials, and the courts that the state postconviction courts came to a different conclusion. At a minimum, future courts and, if the time comes, the Ohio Parole Board, should remember that a federal court’s conclusion that a state court’s decision was not “unreasonable” under AEDPA does not mean it was correct. As the en banc Sixth Circuit itself acknowledged, there is no question that jurists “could have reasonably Cite as: 597 U. S. ____ (2022) 3 SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting reached the opposite conclusion” as the Ohio courts with re- spect to Hill’s intellectual disability, and therefore whether he is constitutionally eligible for the death penalty. Id., at 395.