DENNIS WATKINS: Solicitor General to join prosecutor’s team on Danny Lee Hill case

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Dennis Watkins is the Trumbull County Prosecutor).

I am pleased to announce that Ohio Attorney General David Yost has agreed that his Office of Solicitor General has agreed to join and take the lead of my office’s efforts to have the Ohio Supreme Court review an 11th District Court of Appeals decision requiring another hearing on convicted murderer Danny Lee Hill’s Atkins or intellectual disability claim, previously referred to as “mental retardation.”

The Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys’ Association is also lending its assistance in seeking justice for the Fife family, agreeing to submit an amicus curiae or “friend-of-the-court” brief urging the Ohio Supreme Court to hear the case.

It is expected that by March 11, 2024, both Yost and Gaiser will file a joint memorandum in support of jurisdiction. Additionally, Steve Taylor, Staff Counsel for the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, will also file the Association’s amicus curiae memorandum in support of jurisdiction.

For more than 38 years, Hill has avoided execution by filing a series of unsuccessful appeals in both state and federal courts. There have been about 30 appeals. This office has successfully defended the conviction and sentence before both the 11th District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court, including defeating Hill’s initial Atkins claim in the Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas, and on appeal before the 11 th District Appeals Court.

What was Danny Lee Hill’s defense?

Hill’s appointed federal public defenders carried on his claims of intellectual disability to the federal district court and repeatedly in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, including before an “en banc” or full panel of all the appellate judges and then to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ultimately after years of federal litigation, the state of Ohio’s position, defended by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and the Office of the Solicitor General, was upheld by the federal court, and Hill’s disability claim failed, and his death sentence was upheld.

Undeterred, the federal public defender’s office next injected itself into the Ohio state court proceedings by asking the trial court to reconsider whether Hill should get a new trial.

Visiting Judge Patricia Cosgrove, in a well-reasoned and legally sound 13-page opinion, denied the Hill motion. However, 11 th District Court of Appeals, with Judge John Eklund delivering the opinion of the Court, disagreed with Judge Cosgrove’s decision and ordered her to conduct another hearing.

How does the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office feel about the case?

After numerous appeals on this issue, it is our strong opinion that this new order is not supported by established Ohio law. The type of claim that Hill is raising for a second time in not permitted unless good cause is shown, including a requirement that Danny Lee Hill prove he is actually innocent of the crimes for which he was convicted and sentenced to death.

This office is also receiving support from the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association (OPAA). Its Amicus Committee recently voted 7-0 to submit an amicus curiae, or friend-of the court, brief to the Ohio Supreme Court. Its memorandum will also request the Ohio Supreme Court hear Trumbull County’s appeal of the 11 th District Court granting death row inmate Hill another bite of the apple relating to his claimed intellectual disability.

I want to sincerely thank Attorney General Dave Yost, and Solicitor General T. Elliot Gaiser for joining with me, Criminal Division Chief Charles L. Morrow, and Special Assistant

Prosecuting Attorney, Stephen Maher, in seeking review and reversal of the recent Hill decision by the 11 th District Court regarding Hill’s alleged mental disability claim which mandates another hearing on an old claim that has been finalized. We are also privileged to have Ohio Prosecuting Attorney Association’s Staff Counsel, Steve Taylor, an experienced appellate attorney, author the amicus brief.

Hill was found guilty and sentenced to death in 1986 for the Sept. 10, 1985, kidnapping, torture, rape, and murder of 12-year-old Raymond Fife.

Finally, Miriam Fife, the mother of Raymond Fife, is pleased with the offices of the Attorney General Dave Yost and the Solicitor General joining our efforts to uphold Hill’s death sentence. Miriam, who is 83, especially appreciates the personal updates she has received through telephone calls and other personal contact over the years by prior Solicitors Eric Murphy and Benjamin Flowers, plus Chief Deputy Solicitor General Michael Hendershot.

Miriam’s hope is that she and her family will not have to go back to court and see Hill again relitigate the same thing. It has been 38 years and over 30 different proceedings, and she is praying that justice will be finally carried out as ordered by three Trumbull County judges in 1986.