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childhood. The record also supports finding limitations in two additional areas—social skills and
self-direction.

        With respect to functional academics, Hill was considered “mentally retarded” by the
Warren City Schools.      He was diagnosed as mildly mentally retarded, “trainable mentally
retarded,” or “educable mentally retarded” several times before he turned 18, beginning with the
recognition that he was a “slow learning child” when he began formal schooling at age 6.
He scored below 70 on every IQ test administered during his school years. He attended special
education classes for the entirety of his school career, which meant that all of his academic
classes were taught at a verybasic level. He was “mainstreamed” only in physical education and
music, and struggled even there to keep up with and socialize normally with his peer group.
There is no record of him taking “mainstream” classes in any academic subject area, i.e., math,
reading, or history. At age thirteen, he was sent to a school for intellectually disabled children,
and was transferred to another, similar school at fifteen because of poor academic achievement
and behavior. At seventeen years old, after being arrested for, and pleading guilty to, two felony
rape charges, the juvenile court placed Hill in a facility that housed youth offenders with mental
disabilities or emotional problems. There, Hill completed ninth grade in special education
classes at age 18. After being released, he returned to high school, but Fife’s murder occurred
six months later.

  