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WARREN – Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said Thursday he was pleased with a federal judge’s decision one day earlier that denied another appeal by death row inmate Danny Lee Hill on a mental retardation claim.
In denying habeas corpus relief for Hill, Judge John R. Adams said the convicted killer failed to convince the court that he was intellectually disabled and exempt from execution.
Hill filed the appeal in 2010 after being found fit to remain on death row by a visiting common pleas judge, the 11th District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court, which refused even to hear the matter.
Hill still may appeal the claim to the federal 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Watkins gave credit to assistant Attorney General Stephen Maher for successfully defending Judge Thomas Curran’s 2006 ”thorough and well-reasoned” decision, which initially denied the claim after a lengthy hearing.
Hill, 47, was 18 years old when he was convicted of raping, torturing and murdering 12-year-old Raymond Fife in a field on Warren’s southwest side in 1985. He was sentenced to death in February 1986 after a trial before a three-judge panel.
Adams decision, contained in a 101-page document, referred to a U.S. Supreme Court opinion that outlawed the execution of the “mentally retarded” because they may be led by others to commit crimes or coerced into giving false confessions after the fact.
“Neither of these scenerios apply to Hill. Instead, the evidence points to a self-directed, manipulative, career criminal who tried to conceal his involvement in this torture killing and then eagerly and voluntarily spoke with Warren police with two clear, self-serving objectives deflecting suspicion from himself in the murder and naming and blaming others, and collecting a $500 reward in the process,” Watkins said in a news release.
Adams’ decision also references Hill’s 2000 self-initiated interview with Tribune Chronicle reporter Andy Gray and notes that Hill did “demonstrate certain verbal skills, and clearly read with certain speed, accuracy and emphasis.”
Watkins also pointed out that one expert who examined Hill said he never diagnosed another criminal defendant with mental retardation who called his own press conference.
Besides the retardation claim in Adams’ court, Hill’s latest team of attorneys in the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals can now resume a coercion claim that has been placed on hold during the mental retardation issue.
Constitutional rights and the role of Hill’s uncle, former Warren Detective Morris Hill, in Hill’s original arrest have cleared legal hurdles at a suppression hearing prior to trial, as well as in the 11th District Court of Appeals, the Ohio Supreme Court and a federal district court, according to Watkins.