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WARREN -- Danny Lee Hill has been fighting against his death sentence for 37 years, and his battle shows no signs of ending.
Hill's attorneys have brought yet another legal action to court in an attempt to escape execution.
The 11th District Court of Appeals today will hear Hill's latest argument to overturn his death sentence based on his claim of having an intellectual disability, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled would exempt him from the death penalty.
Senior Assistant Ohio Attorney General Stephen Maher will be arguing for the state as they try to uphold a decision made earlier this year by Judge Patricia Cosgrove, who ruled she would not order a new hearing to determine whether Hill is mentally disabled.
Maher has worked with Trumbull Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and his staff for more than 20 years on many of Hill's appeals, the prosecutors office said.
Hill and co-defendant Tim Combs tortured, raped and killed Raymond Fife, 12, in Warren in 1985 as he was heading to a Boy Scout meeting on the southwest side of Warren.
A three-judge panel in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court ruled Hill should get the death penalty. Hill's death sentence remains intact with an execution date of July 22, 2026.
Combs died in prison in 2018 while serving multiple life sentences.
Since being given the death penalty nearly four decades ago, Hill has sought review three times before the U.S. Supreme Court and his case has come before the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals multiple times.
In August, an 11-3 vote of the full Sixth Circuit court reversed Hill's bid to have his death sentence overturned on the grounds of "new claim" of an old argument regarding bite mark evidence.
Today's hearing will be another constitutional claim that has been repeatedly litigated in state and federal courts, where Hill already has lost.
"At almost every turn, courts have ruled against him," Watkins said.
Since the brutal crime and arrest of Hill in September 1985, Watkins said Fife's mother, Miriam Fife, and her family have attended numerous court hearings.
"Miriam and her family need closure, some kind of conclusion to this case," Watkins said.