43
Death-row inmate tells judge about killer Williams' intellectual challenges
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Another hearing was Friday in an effort to determine whether killer Andre Williams, 49, should be spared the death penalty on the basis of intellectual disability.
No other hearings are scheduled.
Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Plea Court heard from death row inmate Tyrone Ballew, who tutored Williams at two state prisons 20 years ago.
Williams was convicted in 1989 of killing George Melnick, 65, and participating in the assault of Katherine Melnick, 64, at the Melnicks’ Wick Street Southeast home. Williams was 21.
Ballew said he’s known Williams for 25 years, since they were in their early 20s and serving on death row in the Southern Ohio Correctional Institute in Lucasville.
Ballew and Williams would talk to each other during their recreational times, which would consist of a couple hours at a time, a couple times per week.
They also would write notes to each other that were delivered by “porters,” which are inmates assigned that job by the prison. Ballew would frequently give Williams sports-related news articles to read, and Ballew gave Williams lessons on his reading and writing, he said. Ballew attended college for about three years on a basketball scholarship before going to prison.
Ballew said Williams’ problems with writing were mostly with use of capital letters, spelling, run-on sentences and punctuation.
Under questioning from Alan Rossman, an assistant federal public defender, Ballew agreed that inmates and corrections officers made fun of Williams.
“Yes, they did because of his intellectual challenges,” Ballew said.
With two death-row inmates in the same courtroom at the same time, security in the courtroom was tight, with six officers from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections standing close guard.
Other hearings took place in late December and January that focused on testing done by medical professionals to determine whether Williams is intellectually disabled.
The Ohio Supreme Court in 2002 ruled that executing the mentally disabled violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The hearing was ordered in July 2015 by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals, which said McKay must reassess his earlier conclusions that Williams isn’t intellectually disabled enough to escape death for his crimes.
The 6th Circuit said Judge McKay and the 11th District Court of Appeals should have considered evidence relating Williams having an IQ score of 67 at age 15. Williams also had IQ scores in the 70s at other times.