Hill's lawyer drops bid to oust judge

The judge presided over a matter for a psychologist who worked on Hill's case.
WARREN -- Convicted child killer Danny Lee Hill's public defender has dropped his request that Judge Thomas P. Curran quit the case.
Judge Curran, of Cuyahoga County, is a visiting judge presiding over the current phase of Hill's death penalty appeal.
Greg Meyers of the Ohio Public Defender's Office dropped the request that Judge Curran recuse himself and said he does not plan to file a disqualification request with Chief Justice Thomas Moyer of the Ohio Supreme Court.
Judge Curran issued a judgment entry explaining the matter Thursday.
Presided over a dispute
He has been hearing Hill's post-conviction case for months. Hill's lawyers had claimed Judge Curran has acquired "extrajudicial knowledge of facts" important to Hill's case by presiding over a dispute involving Dr. Douglas Darnall's license to practice psychology over this summer.
Dr. Darnall had given an opinion on the mental status of Hill when Hill was 17.
Hill seeks relief from his death sentence based on a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that execution of the retarded is cruel and unusual punishment.
Hill, of Warren, was sentenced to death in 1986 in common pleas court. He's convicted of the 1985 murder of Raymond Fife, 12, who was beaten, raped, impaled, strangled and burned. A co-defendant, Timothy Combs, was a juvenile then and is serving consecutive life terms in prison. Hill is at Mansfield Correctional Institution.
Judge Curran presided over Dr. Darnall's challenge to a disciplinary action against him by the Ohio Board of Psychology. Darnall's psychology practice included handling cases for individuals in Trumbull County Family Court.
Found in violation
In April 2005, the Ohio Board of Psychology found Dr. Darnall in violation of various standards governing that profession and suspended his license for two years with the first six months being an active term of suspension.
In August, Judge Curran ordered that the psychology board's decision be reversed and returned to the board to be handled in accordance with a settlement agreement.