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One-Low-Score Rule
Definition
The approach—which both parties agree is incorrect—under which a defendant automatically satisfies the first prong of an intellectual disability claim (below-average intellectual functioning) simply by having one IQ test score whose standard error of measurement range dips below 70, regardless of other scores.
Examples
- •Both Alabama and the United States argued the Eleventh Circuit wrongly applied a one-low-score rule by treating Smith's single score of 72 as sufficient to establish the intellectual functioning prong.