Raymond Fife would have turned 53 on Jan. 27. Had he lived, Raymond might have celebrated his birthday with his wife and children, his siblings and his mother, Miriam.

Danny Lee Hill and Timothy Combs made sure that didn’t happen when they took 12-year-old Raymond’s life in September 1985. No one ever got to know the man he could have become.

I remember reading about the case when it happened. The viciousness and randomness of what happened to Raymond changed Warren and the people who lived here. Some parents wouldn’t let their kids go outside alone after that.

There had been murders here before and there have been plenty since, but what happened to Raymond broke something in many of us. When I came here to work in 1995, I met colleagues who covered the case and to this day, the experience is still never far away. It has stayed with many who call Warren home.

The killers were found, tried and convicted in 1986. Hill, 18 at the time of the rape, torture and murder, was eventually sentenced to death. Combs, three months shy of his 18th birthday at the time of the crimes, received three life sentences.

Combs died in prison in November 2018 at the age 50. But Hill, who has been on Ohio’s Death Row since 1986, continues to draw breath — something he and Combs denied Raymond.

That was supposed to change this summer — on July 22, to be exact. After all these years, all the delays and all the unwarranted appeals, the Fife family — especially Miriam — were going to see justice done. Danny Lee Hill was going to get the punishment he so richly deserved.

Then Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine stepped in and delayed justice again. On Friday, three days after Raymond’s birthday, DeWine’s office — in a Friday afternoon news dump — announced in an email sent at 4:42 p.m. that the governor had issued reprieves to Hill and two other convicted murderers.

All three — Hill, Gerald Hand and Cleveland R. Jackson — were scheduled to be executed this summer. DeWine pushed back all three execution dates to 2029 due, according to the emailed press release “to ongoing problems involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, pursuant to DRC protocol, without endangering other Ohioans.”

What does that even mean? Why hasn’t Danny Lee Hill received the lawfully applied sentence for what he did to Raymond? Why has Miriam Fife — who turned her grief into tireless work for the families of other crime victims — still waiting for justice for her murdered son?

These are questions many in the Mahoning Valley have been asking since Friday evening. Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins is among them.

In a story on DeWine’s reprieves by Metro Editor Marly Reichert, Watkins said his office will never comment regarding a pending criminal case in another jurisdiction, such as federal court.

“However, regarding the constitutionality of the death penalty, the law is the clearest it has been in years. Yes Virginia, there is a death penalty in the United States,” Watkins said. “The people of Ohio only need to look to the state of Florida and its Gov. Ron DeSantis, which carried out its 18th execution on Dec. 9. In fact, there have been 45 executions this year in the U.S., a 15-year record.”

Watkins also said he hopes “Ohio’s new governor and the legislature can get to work in bringing executions back to the state like 12 other states did in 2025.”

“Raymond Fife was killed in 1985,” Watkins said. “Miriam Fife has been twisting in the wind for more than 40 years waiting for justice for her son.”

Ohio hasn’t carried out an execution since 2018, when Robert Van Hook was put to death by lethal injection, which remains the state’s method of choice for executions. Van Hook committed a murder in 1985. The family of his victim — David Self — waited a long time for justice, but not nearly as long as Raymond’s family.

DeWine announced in December 2020 that Ohio would no longer perform executions via lethal injection. That was more than five years ago — more than enough time for Ohio lawmakers to debate other methods of execution and select one so that justice need not be delayed any longer.

But that hasn’t happened. Perhaps DeWine is personally opposed to the death penalty. If so, I’d respect him more if he simply came out and said so. Whatever the case, he should sit down with Raymond’s mother — now in her 80s — and explain himself. And based on the reaction to this latest reprieve, there are many others here who want answers.

DeWine’s ears should be burning, but the lame-duck governor doesn’t appear to care.

The Mahoning Valley’s representatives in Columbus work for people like Raymond’s parents, Isaac and Miriam Fife. Isaac, who died in 2006, did not live to see justice done. Miriam is still waiting and God willing, she will see it done. Our legislators should make this a priority today.

Justice delayed really is justice denied. That denial has gone on far too long.

Ed Puskas is editor of the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator. He can be reached at epuskas@tribtoday.com or by calling 330-841-1786.