'Borderline retarded' man to be executed

CINCINNATI, July 13 (UPI) -- The Ohio Supreme Court declined to intercede Monday in the impending execution of a "borderline retarded" man.

William Garner is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

The state's highest court said in a ruling posted on its Web site it had declined to accept Garner's discretionary appeal and denied as moot his motion for stay of execution.

Garner, 37, would become the sixth person to be executed in Ohio this year, putting the state on pace to break its record of seven in on year and second only to Texas, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Monday.

Two months after his 20th birthday, the Avondale man whom attorneys allege is "borderline retarded" based on IQ numbers, was sentenced to die for the confessed killings of five children on Jan. 26, 1992.

Garner stole a woman's purse at a hospital, hailed a cab to her home where her four children and one of their friends were asleep upstairs. He stole a boom box, a VCR and a television set from one of her children's bedrooms, the newspaper said.

Garner then set three fires to cover up the crime and left in a cab, paying for the fare with the stolen television.

The three girl children huddled together unable to escape. The only survivor, a boy, jumped out a second-story window urging his friend, who was sleeping over, to do the same, the Enquirer said.

The friend did not and died in the fire.

"It's sad. It's awful -- all for a stupid TV," veteran Cincinnati police homicide Detective David Feldhouse said.

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