DANNY HILL CASE Hearing to resume on killer's mentality

A prosecutor expects the hearing to last about three days.
WARREN -- A hearing for convicted killer Danny Lee Hill is expected to reconvene Wednesday.
Attorneys from the state public defender's commission, who represent Hill, requested the hearing so that a fourth expert could testify. The defense attorneys want to convince the judge that Hill is mentally retarded.
Hill's hearing began in October and so far three experts have testified.
Expert opinion in Hill's appeal to get off of Ohio's death row is 2-to-1 that he's not mentally retarded, but Hill's public defenders want Dr. Sara S. Sparrow of Yale University to testify. It's not yet known what Dr. Sparrow will say.
Differing views
LuWayne Annos, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, along with Dennis Watkins, county prosecutor, say Hill is not retarded and should be put to death for the 1986 sexual assault and mutilation death of Raymond Fife, 12, of Warren.
Annos said she expects the hearing this week to last about three days.
Hill's lawyers say he's mentally retarded and should be spared the death penalty because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing mentally retarded people constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and is unconstitutional.
Judge Thomas Patrick Curran of Cleveland spent several days this year listening to mental health experts and prison employees talk about Hill. Judge Curran is retired but is on special assignment by the state Supreme Court.
The prosecutor's office notes that the three psychologists who attempted to administer IQ and adaptive functioning tests have testified that Hill "malingered and deceived them and thwarted their efforts to accurately assess his mental functioning."
The judge will rule on Hill's case following all the testimony. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati delayed Hill's appeal process in August 2002 pending a ruling from a state court on his mental capacity.