Hill v. Shoop

Issues: (1) Whether it constitutes an unreasonable determination of the facts under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2) when a state court decision rejecting a claim of intellectual disability under Atkins v. Virginia does so by focusing on the individual’s “present functioning” in the confines of a prison environment, effectively discounting overwhelming historical record evidence and multiple diagnoses of intellectual disability; (2) whether a state court unreasonably applies Atkins when, contrary to the clinical standards in existence at the time adopted as controlling under state law for resolving claims of intellectual disability brought by death sentenced inmates, it treats the primary inquiry as the individual’s “present functioning” in a prison environment; and (3) whether it is a miscarriage of justice and a constitutional violation to allow the death sentence to stand when Warden Tim Shoop and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit agree Danny Lee Hill is intellectually disabled.