Trumbull County prosecutor details Danny Lee Hill’s murder case appeal battle
Stephen E. Maher, Special Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor, has filed two separate motions with the Eleventh District Court of Appeals.
Both appeals are related to convicted murderer Danny Lee Hill’s most recent efforts to delay his sentence.
Danny Lee Hill’s conviction
Hill’s been incarcerated since 1986.
A three-judge panel in Trumbull County found him guilty of kidnapping, raping and murdering 12-year-old Raymond Fife on Sept. 10, 1985.
Prosecutors said Fife was headed to a Boy Scout meeting on the southwest side of Warren when he was murdered.
Hill was sentenced to death, but has avoided execution through a 37-year series of appeals in both state and federal courts.
Most recent appeals, motions
On Dec. 11, a panel of three judges from the Eleventh District Court of Appeals released an opinion regarding Hill’s death penalty sentence.
The panel recommending remanding the case to trial court to reconsider whether Hill is entitled to another hearing related to his claimed intellectual disability, commonly referred to as “an Atkins claim.”
It is this most recent decision that the Trumbull County Prosecutors Office is challenging.
In one motion, Special Assistant Prosecutor Maher is requesting for an en banc or full panel of all five judges of the Eleventh District Court of Appeals to rehear the case.
In the other, he is requesting the Appeals Court to “certify a conflict” or advise the Ohio Supreme Court that it believes there is a disagreement on an issue of law between various Ohio Courts of Appeals, thereby requiring a review by the Ohio Supreme Court to clearly state the law in Ohio.
Maher filed two motions at the Eleventh District Court of Appeals Dec. 20.
Maher is also Senior Assistant Attorney General to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
Maher was appointed to be Special Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor by Administrative Judge at Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas Andrew D. Logan.
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