L is smarter than Near.

1. Rewatch the episode of his death again. L clearly stated that Kira, if caught, would almost certainly be sentenced to death. Light's lifespan, for that matter, was the longest ever seen in the serie, implying he wasn't going to get caught. Rem correctly guessed that Misa, not Light, was going to be sentenced for Kira's crimes. By killing L and W with her death note, Rem extended Misa's life (since she would not be sentenced to death with L's demise), but there is nothing suggesting she extended Light's. 2. A statement without evidence or a source to back it is an opinion. Your opinion is that when L thought there was a 9% chance that Light was Kira, he really meant a 90% chance. However, L didn't just say there was a 9% chance. He thought it. And that's an entirely different thing, because in a story without explicit mind-probing, thoughts are expected by the audience to be unfalsified. Also, I don't think you can give reference on a round that does not exist. 3. You must have missed an episode. From the time Light murdered L's body double, it was plainly obvious to L and the audience that Kira/Light was irredeemably a madman. Unless you mean he looked crazier in his final confrontation with Near? He wasn't, he just had a harder time hiding his insanity after being outed as Kira and being shot multiple times. If anything, the job was even harder for Near than it was for L: L faced a young and inexperienced Kira, while Near defeated him many years after his ascension to power. 4. You lose points for citing Yahoo answers as if it was a reliable source. Furthermore, the poll you mention is about L-Kira (alias Light) versus Near, not L. Ryuzaki (which I assumed the debate was about). I thought I remembered Near outsmarting L-Kira, so correct me if you think Light is more intelligent than Near. It also so happens that L-Kira outsmarted Ryuzaki, therefore Ryuzaki Also, pointing out mistakes is bad form, especially since the guy didn't make a grammar mistake, he was using the simple past tense of an irregular verb. You aren't exactly without mistake (Mellow instead of Mello, which I should have proof-read and corrected myself. I apologize for that), either. 5. In the end, the facts still speak for themselves. Ryuzaki/L: -Faced Kira before his rise to power. -Had plenty of evidence against Misa (footages of her talking with Rem) and Light (his own testimony of "maybe being Kira"). -Couldn't save his life. -Couldn't catch Kira, and had no backup plan to do so after his death. -Had a death note that he could have used to do both of the above. On the other hand, Near: -Faced Kira at the height of his power. -Had none of L's evidence (all destroyed by Watari) yet figured out the existence of the death note and that Light was Kira in spite of that. -Saved his own life (at the cost of Mello's). -Catched Kira (not that we know whether he had a backup plan or not). -Was so intelligent he didn't need to use the death note. The above reasons, in addition to Death Note: How to Read which gives an higher intelligence score for Near than L, are pretty good evidence to back up the fact that Near is more intelligent than Ryuzaki, the words of some people on Yahoo answer be damned.