Highest court may revisit decision on Danny Lee Hill's death penalty

WASHINGTON

The U.S. Supreme Court today decided to “relist” a petition by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, asking that the top court hear an appeal of the decision to remove Warren killer Danny Lee Hill from Death Row.

It means the case will be distributed to supreme court justices for a second conference on Friday, according to a news release from the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office.

“The United States Supreme Court accepts roughly 1 percent of cases annually,” Trumbull prosecutors noted. “In fact, today, the court denied certriorari [the court hearing an appeal] in approximately 215 cases. The mere fact that the court has relisted this petition indicates the Supreme Court of the United States is strongly considering hearing and reviewing the case on its merits,” prosecutors said.

“This officer remains optimistic that the court will review the case and ultimately affirm Hill’s conviction and death sentence.”

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court in Cincinnati ruled in February that Hill should be resentenced to something other than the death penalty in the brutal 1985 torture-rape-murder of Raymond Fife, 12, in a wooded area off of Palmyra Road Southwest in Warren.

The February ruling said earlier rulings by courts in Ohio were wrong when they said Hill was not too intellectually disabled to be executed.