By Sharon Coolidge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Bies

Convicted killer Michael Bies should not be executed, his lawyer said in court papers Friday, because he is mentally retarded.

The motion, filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court asking a judge to consider Bies' mental state, comes in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said executing mentally retarded convicts violates the Constitution.

Bies and another man were convicted and sentenced to death in 1992 for the beating death of 10-year-old Aaron Raines of Price Hill.

Bies' attorney said he has an IQ of 68, two points below what is often considered mental retardation.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen called the motion a tactic to stall the execution.

"Bies deserves to die for what he did to that little boy," Allen said. "All indications are that Bies knew right from wrong."

Bies was scheduled to be executed next month, but a federal magistrate indefinitely halted the execution pending an appeal.

During his trial, Bies was repeatedly referred to as being mentally retarded. His lawyer, Randall Porter, is now asking Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Beth Myers to review the trial paperwork to determine if during that proceeding he was deemed retarded. If she doesn't find that, Porter is asking that she issue a ruling finding him retarded.

Porter has submitted several documents, including a post-conviction ruling, an appeals court ruling and an Ohio Supreme Court ruling, all stating Bies has mild to borderline mental retardation.

Specifically, Porter asked the judge to examine a court clinic report done during Bies' trial that says he is a "marginally functioning, mildly mentally retarded man who has never fully achieved satisfactory life adjustment."

Bies, 31 and Darryl Gumm, 37, both of Hazard, Ky., were sentenced to death by a jury in November 1992. Gumm's execution date has not been set.

Aaron's body was found May 12, 1992, in the basement of an abandoned building in the 2100 block of West Eighth Street, not far from his home. The fourth-grader was lured into the building, stomped and beat with sticks, a pipe and a slab of concrete.

Arguments have been made on behalf of 28 of Ohio's 205 death-row inmates saying they are mentally retarded and should not be put to death, according to the Ohio Attorney General's Office.

The U.S. Supreme Court said in its 2002 ruling that it must be determined whether the inmate was mentally retarded when the crime was committed or during trial. Most crimes of which death row inmates were convicted are 10 or more years old, and those who were convicted did not have a mental retardation hearing. In those cases, prisoners can request a hearing to determine if they are mentally retarded.

E-mail scoolidge@enquirer.com