Opinion ID: 2497751
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Cherry v. State

Text: The proper interpretation of section 921.137(1) was raised in Cherry v. State, 959 So.2d 702, 711 (Fla.2007), where the question before the Court was whether section 921.137(1) and rule 3.203 mandate a strict cut-off score of 70 or below on an approved standardized test in order to establish significantly subaverage intellectual functioning. [12] Cherry, 959 So.2d at 712. In his appeal, Cherry contended in pertinent part that an IQ measurement is more appropriately expressed as a range of scores rather than a concrete single number because of the standard error of measurement (SEM). However, we held in Cherry: One standard deviation on the WAIS-III, the IQ test administered in the instant case, is fifteen points, so two standard deviations away from the mean of 100 is an IQ score of 70. As pointed out by the circuit court, the statute does not use the word approximate, nor does it reference the SEM. Thus, the language of the statute and the corresponding rule are clear. We defer to the plain meaning of the statutes[.] Id. at 712-13. This same holding was reiterated in Nixon, which we discuss next.