Ohio high court upholds death sentence for man

Two doctors found the man not to be mentally retarded.

COLUMBUS (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court upheld the death sentence Wednesday of a man who argued he could not be sentenced to die because the government had declared him mentally retarded.

The seven-member court ruled unanimously in favor of the conviction and death sentence of James Frazier for the 2004 slaying of Mary Stevenson in the Toledo apartment building where both lived.

Frazier, 66, entered Stevenson’s apartment March 2, 2004, strangled the 49-year-old woman, cut her throat and fled with two of her purses.

The building where both lived is a federally subsidized complex for poor people who have disabilities or are elderly. Frazier was granted a Social Security disability in 1994 based on an administrative finding that he was mentally retarded, Wednesday’s court ruling said.

Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton said Frazier didn’t present the IQ test score from that finding or other criteria Social Security officials used in making this diagnosis.

Frazier was found competent to stand trial and during the trial dropped his mental retardation claim. Two doctors also said he was not mentally retarded, with an IQ of at least 75, Wednesday’s court ruling said. An IQ of below 70 is one of the signs of mental retardation.

Clinical psychologist Gregory Forgac said Frazier did “surprisingly well” answering questions during an evaluation exploring his competence to stand trial.

“He was able to converse with me appropriately and he appeared capable of understanding the nature and objectives of the proceedings which have been brought against him,” Forgac said, according to Wednesday’s ruling.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in the 2002 case of Atkins v. Virginia, banned the execution of the mentally retarded as unconstitutional.

Lundberg Stratton noted the state Supreme Court had yet to decide whether a death-row defendant, such as Frazier, could waive a claim of mental retardation under the Atkins ruling. But other courts have found inmates can waive that claim, she said.

“Thus, Frazier has failed to meet his burden of proof to show that he is mentally retarded, as Atkins requires,” Lundberg Stratton wrote.

The court also rejected Frazier’s argument that his attorneys should have presented evidence about his mental retardation diagnosis for Social Security benefits.

Failure to present that evidence was a tactical decision by his attorneys since two doctors had already found Frazier was not mentally retarded, Lundberg Stratton said.

Frazier is pursuing his mental retardation claim in a separate appeal that must first be decided by his original trial judge.

Frazier’s lawyers “failed to ensure that a complete mental retardation evaluation was conducted” that would have allowed Frazier to make that claim during his trial, state public defenders argued in a filing in Lucas County Common Pleas Court last year.

Frazier’s attorney, Spiros Cocoves, called Wednesday’s decision disappointing. Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates said the ruling was fair.