WARREN Death row inmates claim mental retardation

Inmates had until this week to file a claim if they believed they were mentally retarded.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Death row inmates Charles Lorraine and Andre Williams say they are too dumb to die.
The two former Warren men have filed motions in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court stating they should not be executed because their IQs are below 70.
Lorraine's case has been assigned to Judge Andrew Logan, and Williams' case will be heard by Judge W. Wyatt McKay.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that it's unconstitutional to execute people with mental retardation.
While the court did not set an IQ level, most states generally consider someone with an IQ of 70 or lower to be retarded.
Ohio's Supreme Court ruled in December that inmates would have until this past Monday to file a claim to be removed from death row if they believed they were mentally retarded.
Of the 207 inmates on death row, 36 have done so, said Atty. Gregory W. Meyers, chief counsel of the death penalty division of the Ohio Public Defender Commission.
Opposes motions
The Trumbull County prosecutor is opposing the motions of Lorraine and Williams.
"Charles Lorraine's motion is just frivolous," Dennis Watkins said. "Since he was convicted in 1986, he has had 22 appeals. At trial, there were six mental health experts that said he is not mentally retarded."
Court records from Lorraine's trial show his IQ tests to be in the 70s and 80s, prosecutors said.
Lorraine was convicted in November 1986 of killing Raymond Montgomery, 77, and his wife, Doris, 80, in their home on Haymaker Avenue Northwest.
Williams was convicted in 1988 of killing George Melnick, 65, and severely beating Melnick's wife, Katherine, 65.
"In my opinion it's just something to hold things up," said Miriam Fife, victim-witness advocate for the prosecutor's office. "The defendants have all the options -- victims have none. All of a sudden your loved one dies, and you are in a hell that you never realized existed."
The man convicted of killing Fife's son, Raymond, in 1985 also has filed a motion to be removed from death row.
Danny Lee Hill's case is pending in Judge Logan's courtroom. A pretrial is scheduled for June 19. Psychological exams from the 1980s show that Hill's IQ ranges from 55 to 68.
sinkovich@vindy.com