Judges hear arguments in Hill’s appeal

By Tim Yovich

Convicted murderer Danny Lee Hill isn’t mentally retarded and it’s up to him to prove he is, a prosecutor says.

WARREN — Miriam Fife sat in the 11th District Court of Appeals’ gallery listening to attorneys arguing an issue that could eventually lead to her 12-year-old son’s murderer being put to death.

“It’s never ending,” Fife said Tuesday after three appellate judges listed to oral arguments to determine if Danny Lee Hill is mentally retarded.

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled execution of the mentally retarded is cruel and unusual punishment, even in past cases.

Hill, of Warren, was sentenced to death in 1986 at age 19. He was convicted of the 1985 torture and murder of her son, Raymond Fife. The boy was beaten, raped, impaled, strangled and burned.

“It should have been done a long time ago,” said Fife of the Hill’s execution. “You brace yourself and you go with it.”

She said it’s sad that her husband, Isaac, who found their son’s body, didn’t live to see the death penalty imposed.

Fife is in charge of the county prosecutor’s victim/witness program. She explained that she keeps herself going by helping other people.

“Danny Hill has played the game well,” Fife said of the way he has managed to elude execution by lethal injection. “He’s not mentally retarded.”

Hearing the arguments were Judges Diane V. Grendell, Mary Trapp and Colleen Mary O’Toole. They could have a ruling in three to six months.

One of Hill’s attorneys, Michael J. Benza of Cleveland, argued that Hill is mentally retarded and was when he gave police a statement admitting what he did.

LuWayne Annos, an assistant county prosecutor, asserted that no court has ruled that Hill is mentally retarded, although he has a low IQ.

She pointed out that when Hill was tried for murder in 1986, mental retardation wasn’t an issue, noting the trial was to determine if he was guilty or innocent.

The issue of Hill’s intelligence was appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ordered it returned to Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for a hearing.

After a lengthy series of hearings, visiting Judge Thomas P. Curran ruled in February 2006 that Hill is not mentally retarded. He had received reports from five experts in the mental health field.

Judge Curran, of Cuyahoga County, said in his ruling that Hill had sabotaged the testing procedures.

Annos argued Tuesday that it’s Hill who must prove that he is mentally retarded and hasn’t done it. “He knows how to play the system,” she added.

Hill is able to read above the level of retardation, Annos told the court.

Benza countered that those with retardation can read and hold down a job.

yovich@vindy.com