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Filing says judge indicated ruling against Danny Lee Hill retrial
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A filing by attorneys for Danny Lee Hill, 49, says the judge considering a possible retrial for the death-row inmate has indicated she will deny the request.
The filing by attorneys Sarah R. Kostick and Vicky Ruth Adams Werneke renews their request to Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove for a hearing on the question.
Judge Cosgrove is a visiting judge hearing the case on assignment from the Ohio Supreme Court.
The Wednesday filing says Judge Cosgrove told the parties in an Aug. 8 telephone conference that she would have a hearing next Thursday and Sept. 30 to hear evidence on the motion for new trial.
But it adds that Aug. 17 Judge Cosgrove told the parties by telephone that the hearing was “revoked,” and she would issue an opinion on whether to grant a new trial shortly.
As of Thursday, Judge Cosgrove had not issued a decision.
Hill’s attorneys had asked for a new trial in 2014 questioning the testimony about bite marks found on the private parts of Hill’s victim, Raymond Fife, 12. An expert witness said the bite marks were made by Hill.
Hill’s attorneys say the scientific community has determined since Hill’s trial that bite marks cannot be reliably used to identify the person causing them.
Prosecutors have said the bite marks were not crucial to proving that Hill was one of the two killers. Raymond Combs, 17, also was convicted of the murder and was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility in 2049.
“The evidence is truly overwhelming that the bite-mark comparison that was used at Mr. Hill’s trial in 1986 was based on subjective speculation masquerading as scientific evidence proffered by an expert who deliberately gave misleading testimony,” the filing says.
The filing also calls the rest of the state’s case against Hill “weak.”
Hill and Combs were convicted of raping, torturing and burning Raymond in a wooded area along Palmyra Road on Sept. 10, 1985, as Raymond rode his bicycle to a Boy Scout meeting. Raymond died two days later from his injuries.