Bayan Aleksey v. State of South Carolina

Summary

The South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Bayan Aleksey’s second post-conviction relief application, holding that he failed to prove intellectual disability that would bar his execution under Atkins v. Virginia. The court upheld the exclusion of an unavailable social worker’s affidavit addressing adaptive functioning and deferred to the PCR court’s credibility findings concerning the competing expert evidence. The court concluded that Aleksey’s developmental-period IQ scores, adaptive-functioning evidence, and developmental history did not establish the required elements of intellectual disability.

Holdings

1. The PCR court properly found that Aleksey failed to prove significantly subaverage intellectual functioning by a preponderance of the evidence. His developmental-period IQ scores of 96, 82, and 90, together with the credited testimony regarding later scores and testing reliability, supported the finding.
2. The PCR court properly found that Aleksey failed to prove significant limitations in adaptive functioning.
3. The PCR court properly found that Aleksey failed to prove that intellectual disability manifested during the developmental period.
4. The PCR court did not abuse its discretion by excluding the Hammock affidavit.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the PCR court erred in finding that Aleksey failed to prove significantly subaverage intellectual functioning by a preponderance of the evidence.
2. Whether the PCR court erred in finding that Aleksey failed to prove significant adaptive-functioning deficits.
3. Whether the PCR court erred in finding that Aleksey failed to prove onset of intellectual disability during the developmental period.
4. Whether the PCR court abused its discretion by excluding the Hammock affidavit.
5. Whether the appellate court should rely on the State's alternate ground that the PCR action was untimely and successive.

Disposition

affirmed