WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday struggled over how courts should decide borderline cases of whether convicted murderers are intellectually disabled and should be shielded from execution.

There was no clear outcome apparent after the justices heard two hours of arguments in an appeal from Alabama, which wants to put to death a man who lower federal courts found is intellectually disabled.

UPDATE: TN man convicted of rape, murder wants Thursday execution delayed as Gov. Lee refuses clemency

Harold Wayne Nichols is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Thursday, December 11.

Joseph Clifton Smith, 55, has been on death row roughly half his life after his conviction for beating a man to death in 1997.

The Supreme Court prohibited execution of intellectual

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