Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Enforces Earlier
State Determination of Mental Retardation

Bies v. Bagley, 2008 U.S. App LEXIS 4160 (6th Cir. 2/27/28)- In 1992 Michael Bies was convicted a sentenced to death by the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. Two of the three examiners appointed by the trial court found Michael to be mild to borderline mentally retarded. At the mitigation hearing, Dr. Winters of the Court Clinic testified that Michael had an IQ of 69. On both rounds of his direct appeal, even though the State argued otherwise, the appellate courts reached the conclusion that Michael was mild to borderline mentally retarded. Subsequently in state post-conviction, the State conceded that Michael was mildly mentally retarded.

After the United States Supreme Court determined that the Eighth Amendment barred the execution of the mentally retarded, Michael moved the trial court, based upon the prior findings of the appellate courts and the concessions of the State concerning his mental retardation, to impose a sentence of less than death. The trial court held that these prior findings did not preclude the State from relitigating his mental retardation. The Sixth Circuit held that collateral estoppel as incorporated in the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment, precluded the State from relitigating the mental retardation. Consequently, the trial court was required to impose a sentence of less than death.

Michael is represented by Scott Haynes and OPD attorney Randall Porter.