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Thread: Danny Lee Hill - Ohio Execution - July 22, 2026

  1. #31
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Danny Lee Hill appeal for new trial denied

    By Renee Fox
    The Warren Tribune-Chronicle

    WARREN — An appeals court held up the trial court’s refusal to grant Danny Lee Hill a new trial based on the possibility the bite-mark science used to describe evidence used in his trial was unreliable, according to court documents.

    The 11th District Court of Appeals issued the ruling Monday supporting the 2016 ruling out of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

    Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove ruled that even though she had serious concerns about the scientific reliability of bite-mark evidence, the other evidence against the defendant was “more than sufficient to support Hill’s conviction on aggravated murder and three death penalty specifications.”

    She found Hill’s attorneys were unable to prove “a strong probability that there would be a different outcome if a new trial were granted in this case,” according to court documents.

    The court of appeals affirmed her ruling.

    In January 1986, Hill, who was then 18, was convicted and later sentenced to death for his part in the Sept. 10, 1985, torture, rape and brutal attack on 12-year-old Raymond Fife, who later died from his injuries.

    Hill’s co-defendant, Timothy Combs, was 17 at the time of the killing and not eligible for the death penalty. Combs was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted by a jury in Portage County. He died last month in prison.

    The appeal argued, among other things, that Hill should have been granted a new trial because the court did not determine the bite-mark argument amounted to new evidence, did not hold an evidentiary hearing, allowed the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office to represent the state although the defense attempted to disqualify his office and did not consider or rule on Hill’s argument that “fabricated expert evidence at his trial” constituted a violation of his Constitutional rights.

    Hill’s attorneys argued new expert testimony should be used to replace the testimony on the bite-mark evidence presented at trial decades ago.

    “Hill’s argument fails to appreciate that the crucial issue is whether there was unavoidable delay in obtaining their testimony,” the appeals court opinion states.

    And one of the experts Hill procured states that “his opinions are not based on any advances in scientific knowledge,” the opinion states.

    Hill’s statements to police, witnesses who placed him at the scene of the attack on Fife, previous violent and sexually oriented attacks Hill committed and knowledge of the crime supports the trial court’s ruling that Hill would have been convicted with or without the bite-mark evidence, the appeals court ruled.

    Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is holding weekly conferences to determine if it should intervene in a ruling that could take Hill off of death row following a ruling earlier this year by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals that overturned Hill’s death sentence and ordered he be resentenced.

    The Ohio Attorney General’s Office petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case after petitions from the Trumbull County prosecutor.

    The court accepts about 1 percent of cases per year. The court could relist the case at another time, make an opinion without a full hearing, grant a full hearing or decide not to hear the case.

    A three-judge panel of the circuit court ruled in February state court judges and mental health experts who declared Hill is not intellectually disabled were wrong, and there is clear evidence he is mentally disabled.

    http://www.tribtoday.com/news/local-...-trial-denied/
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  2. #32
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court granted Hill's petition for certiorari, vacated the judgment of the Sixth Circuit and remanded for further proceedings.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/...19zor_m6ho.pdf

  3. #33
    Senior Member CnCP Addict johncocacola's Avatar
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    The Per Curiam decision noted that the 6th Circuit relied too much on Moore Vs. Texas.

  4. #34
    Moderator Dave from Florida's Avatar
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    The panel on the 6th Circuit is anti death penalty so Merritt will find a way to adhere to the previous result.

  5. #35
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Ohio high court won't hear challenge over bite-mark evidence

    By Associated Press

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from a man sentenced to death for the 1985 rape, torture and slaying of a 12-year-old boy.

    Attorneys for 52-year-old Danny Lee Hill have unsuccessfully argued bite-mark evidence used against him was unreliable and that he should get a new trial.

    A county judge rejected his request, and a state appeals court upheld that decision. The state Supreme Court this week declined to consider a further appeal.

    Hill was convicted of aggravated murder in the killing of Raymond Fife in Warren.

    Hill is separately challenging his eligibility for the death penalty, citing intellectual deficits. A federal appeals court is slated to hear arguments in that case this fall.

    https://www.10tv.com/article/ohio-hi...dence-2019-jun
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #36
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Danny Lee Hill death penalty hearing set for December

    A panel of federal judges has set a date to hear whether or not Danny Lee Hill should be executed for torturing,raping, and murdering a 12-year-old Warren boy scout

    By Mike Gauntner
    WFMJ News

    A panel of federal judges has set a date to hear whether or not Danny Lee Hill should be executed for torturing,raping, and murdering a 12-year-old Warren boy scout.

    The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the Hill case on December 5.

    Hill was sentenced to death for the 1985 murder of Raymond Fife in a field in Warren. However, the sixth circuit court found earlier that Hill shows signs of being mentally deficient, including an IQ ranging from 48 to 71 and childlike, confused and irrational behavior.

    Because a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling declared that executing people with intellectual disabilities is unconstitutional, the death penalty for Hill was taken off the table.

    The Trumbull County Prosecutors Office took the appellate court ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court which refused to hear the case, but found several "deficits" in the Sixth District Court of Appeals ruling and sent the case back to the appellate judges for reconsideration.

    At the center of the debate is how the appeals court came to their decision. The Supreme Court argues that the Sixth District "relied repeatedly and extensively" on a capital murder case dealing with intellectually deficient individuals.

    However, the Supreme Court justices ruled that that specific case Moore v. Texas wasn't decided until well after Hill's case.

    Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins argues that all nine U.S. Supreme Court agreed that the Sixth District Court of Appeals "did not appropriately apply the law".

    The question now, according to Watkins, is whether the "correct law" would bring about the death penalty when applied to the Hill case.

    Watkins says the state courts which ruled on the case under the current laws found that Danny Lee Hill should be executed for the crime.

    Hill, who was 18 years old at the time of the crime, went to prison when he was 19 and is now 33 years old.

    Background


    According to court records, on September 10, 1985, at approximately 5:15 p.m., Raymond Fife left home on his bicycle to visit a friend, Billy Simmons.

    After learning that the 12-year-old had not arrived at his friend's home by 5:50 pm, Fife's family began searching for him.

    Raymond Fife's father found his son more than four hours later in a wooded field behind the Valu-King supermarket on Palmyra road.

    The child was naked and appeared to have been severely beaten and his face was burned. Raymond's underwear was found tied around his neck and appeared to have been lit on fire.

    Raymond died in the hospital two days later.

    The coroner, who ruled Raymond's death a homicide, testified during the trial that the victim had been choked and had a hemorrhage in his brain. The coroner also said that Fife sustained several burns, damage to his rectal-bladder area and bite marks on his penis.

    Through testimony from three Warren Western Reserve High School Students, the jury learned that Danny Lee Hill and Timothy Combs were in the area of the Valu-King and the bike trails on the evening Raymond Fife was assaulted. One of the students had also seen Fife riding his bike in the store parking lot.

    A student who said he saw Combs on the trail also said he heard a child's scream. Another student says he saw Combs pulling up the zipper of his blue jeans.

    Two days after Fife was found, Danny Lee Hill, who was 18-years-old at the time, went to the Warren Police Station to inquire about a $5,000 reward that was being offered for information concerning the murder.

    According to Police Sergeant Thomas Stewart, Hill told him that he had just seen some he knew riding Fife's bike. When Stewart asked Hill how he knew the bike belonged to Fife, Hill replied, "I know it is."

    Sergeant Stewart testified that during their conversation, it became apparent that Hill knew a lot about the bike and the underwear that was found around Fife's neck.

    On the following Monday, September 16, Hill went to the police station accompanied by his uncle, Warren Police Detective Morris Hill.

    Police say after waiving his Miranda rights, Danny Lee Hill admitted on audio and videotape that he was present during the beating and sexual assault of Raymond Fife, but that Timothy Combs did everything to the victim.

    Combs was eventually convicted of felonious sexual penetration, arson, rape, kidnapping and aggravated murder.

    Since Combs was 17-years-old at the time of the crime, he was not eligible for the death penalty and is serving a life sentence. He will be eligible for his first parole hearing in 2049.

    Hill was convicted on the same charges, but since he was 18-years-old at the time Fife was assaulted, he was sentenced to death.

    https://www.wfmj.com/story/41019259/...t-for-december
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #37
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Edited:

    Two women wait for justice as Trumbull Co. murderers spend over 30 years on Death Row


    It's been over 30 years, but two local women are still waiting for justice in the murder's of their family members

    By Jennifer Rodriguez

    WKBN News

    It’s been 34 years since 12-year-old Raymond Fife was murdered. It’s been 33 years since the double murder of Doris and Raymond Montgomery.

    Now, in 2019, two women are still waiting for justice.

    Raymond Fife’s mother Miriam has been waiting since 1985 for the day her son’s murderer, Danny Lee Hill, will be put to death.

    Linda Couch is the niece of Doris and Raymond Montgomery. She was the one who found the couple after Charles Lorraine stabbed them to death in 1986.

    Both men are on death row. Both women are waiting.

    THE MURDER OF RAYMOND FIFE

    On September 10, 1985, 12-year-old Raymond Fife hopped on his bike and headed to a friend’s house before a Boy Scout meeting. But, he never made it.

    On his way there, he was stopped by Timothy Combs and Danny Lee Hill near a wooded area. At the time, Combs was 17 and Hill was 18.

    The two young men beat and sexually tortured Raymond. He was strangled with his underwear, then set on fire before being left for dead.

    But he held on.

    His father and brother-in-law found him four hours later. Raymond Fife fought for his life for two days before passing away on September 12, 1985.

    “Raymond was a very ornery child. He was the imp of his class at school. He was always joking around, a funny kid. Laughing all the time,” Fife said.

    Miriam Fife said her son had a great sense of humor and he was loved by many. He was active and loved bowling and baseball.

    “He was in Boy Scouts; he loved Boy Scouts. Fishing, he loved to go on the boat with his dad,” she said.

    After his death, the community donated a $5,000 reward for information that would lead to his killer.

    Just a few nights after the attack, Danny Lee Hill went to the police station to trade information for the reward money. Police didn’t believe his story.

    Four days after Raymond’s death, police arrested Hill. He had confessed to the crime.

    Then, Timothy Combs was arrested at his school.

    Within one week, both men had been arrested and charged with the kidnapping, rape and murder of Raymond Fife. But 34 years later, Raymond’s mother is still waiting for justice.

    Because Combs was not 18 at the time of the crime, he could not be given the death penalty. Instead, he was given multiple life sentences.

    Hill was sentenced to death.

    In 2018, Combs died in prison while serving out his sentence.

    As of now, Hill is still on death row and continues to file appeals against his sentence.

    WAITING

    For both women, it has been more than 30 years since the murders of their loved ones. More than 30 years of appeals and policy changes. New lethal injection drugs being introduced, then taken away.

    Fife said the process has taken so long, her husband has since passed away and didn’t make it to see justice for his own son’s murder.

    He isn’t the only family member who has passed away before justice was served.

    Both Fife and Couch said they never imagined it would take decades for the death sentences to be carried out, especially since both men were caught almost immediately following the murders.

    “They told me, when we had the trial, that there would probably be 11 years of automatic appeals that he was entitled to. But there was never a question that he murdered. He was arrested the same day, and later on in the afternoon, he said that he did it,”

    Couch said of Charles Lorraine.

    When looking into why the process takes so long, there are several major aspects that appear.

    FINDING THE RIGHT WAY TO EXECUTE

    Over the years, several executions have been halted due to the inability to find the necessary drugs. Recently, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine delayed executions again, stating Ohio should look for lethal injection alternatives.

    In 2014, Ohio became the first state where executions were carried out by a combination of the drugs Midazolam and Hydromorphone. But those drugs were no longer used after two executions went wrong.

    In the case of Dennis McGuire, he took nearly 25 minutes to die after being injected with the drug combination. He reportedly struggled, gasped and choked for several minutes before he was pronounced dead.

    McGuire was convicted of the 1994 rape and murder of 22-year-old Joy Stewart. She was seven months pregnant at the time.

    After McGuire’s execution, there was a three-year freeze on executions in Ohio, until another lethal injection protocol could be found.

    In 2017, once the freeze was lifted, Ohio began using a three-part cocktail — Midazolam (as a sedative), a paralytic drug and Potassium Chloride (to stop the heart) — as its form of lethal injection.

    But when a federal judge suggested the execution cocktail was unconstitutional in January of this year, Governor DeWine felt the need to pause upcoming executions again. In fact, he has asked legislative leaders to consider alternative methods of executions.

    Ohio is one of the 17 states that use lethal injection as its only method of execution.

    In other states, inmates may have the option to choose how they are executed. For example, in Oklahoma, there may be cases in which an inmate can choose to die by electrocution or firing squad.

    Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins also feels Ohio should explore other methods of execution.

    “To me, it’s simple… The first thing I would look at… we have fentanyl, carfentanil forfeiture, let’s use that. We can overdose these Death Row people with fentanyl, carfentanil,” he said.

    Although these methods may or may not be considered humane, Watkins feels the punishment should fit the crime.

    “I don’t buy into, and neither has the United States Supreme Court, that there’s no, a perfect death that you have no suffering… You go look at the victim, let me show you Tami Engstrom, and the 96 perimortem wounds and tell me about suffering of these victims,” Watkins said, referring to the case against Kenneth Biros who was put to death for the brutal murder of Engstrom.

    THE APPEALS PROCESS

    When an inmate is sentenced to death, the inmate is given the opportunity to file an appeal. This often creates a long, drawn-out process in which inmates are sitting for years on Death Row.

    A direct appeal is automatically given to any person sentenced to death. The appeal is made to the state’s highest court. This is a process that doesn’t typically happen quickly.

    “That will take some time because the records in death penalty cases are often longer because a variety of motions. Because it’s two stages, you may have a motion to suppress. So, it’s gonna take months, maybe a year or longer for a record to be produced, because it’s such a complicated case,” Watkins said.

    Often, Death Row inmates will claim they have an intellectual disability, or that the punishment for the crime is cruel and unusual.

    In some cases, these claims could result in new hearings, such as in the Danny Lee Hill case.

    Since his conviction, he has filed numerous appeals to have his sentence overthrown. Arguments for his latest appeal are scheduled in December.

    “Most of the delay in cases, have been numerous state and federal appeals, and also appeals that involve new constitutional rulings,” Watkins said.

    CLOSURE

    “I always say there is never real closure; it’s like writing a book. You get the end of each chapter, but when the actual end comes, it doesn’t close anything for you. You could have a sequel, because it still goes on in your mind,” Fife said.

    Out of the 138 inmates on Ohio’s death row, only 24 of them have an execution date.

    One of them is Charles Lorraine, who has been given an execution date of March 15, 2023.

    Couch said although having a date does bring some hope for justice, she said she can’t move on until she knows it will be carried out.

    “You go on with your life, but this is always in the background,” Couch said.

    A federal appeals court will decide whether Danny Lee Hill should be executed.

    After claiming an intellectual disability, it is possible that Hill could escape his death sentence.

    Fife said although she does not hate Hill, she feels his death sentence should be upheld.

    “You have to forgive because hatred can eat you up… I have forgiven Danny Hill and Tim Combs because I got an education as to where they came from and how they turned out the way they were… It doesn’t excuse what they did. This punishment definitely fits the crime and should be carried out,” Fife said.

    https://www.wkbn.com/news/27-investi...-on-death-row/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #38
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    The panel hearing Hill's appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit will be made up of Senior Judge Merritt (Carter), Judge Moore (Clinton) and Judge Clay (Clinton).

    https://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/sites/c...022019_arg.pdf

  9. #39
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    State seeks to restore Hill’s death penalty

    By Tribune Chronicle

    CINCINNATI — Attorneys for convicted killer Danny Lee Hill, 52, have asked for a federal appeals court case to be placed on hold.

    They want consideration to be given to a Nov. 7 Ohio Supreme Court ruling that addresses intellectual disability of murderers.

    Attorneys for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, however, filed a legal brief giving several reasons why federal appeals judges should, instead, reinstitute the death penalty for Hill.

    The Hill case has a long legal history, but in January the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a federal circuit court in Cincinnati erred in its ruling that eliminated his death penalty on the grounds of intellectual disability. The nation’s top court sent the case back to the Cincinnati panel, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, for reconsideration.

    But Hill’s lawyers want the Ohio Supreme Court first to consider the impact its Nov. 7 ruling should have on Hill’s case, such as whether the November ruling can be applied to Hill’s case now. Visiting Judge Thomas P. Curran ruled in Trumbull County 2006 that Hill was not too intellectually disabled to be executed.

    One of the reasons Yost’s lawyers gave to the 6th Circuit panel for not sending the case back to the Ohio Supreme Court is the “very real human cost” of delaying Hill’s execution to the family of Raymond Fife, the Warren boy Hill and co-defendant Timothy Combs killed. Combs died in prison in 2018.

    “Danny Hill raped, tortured and murdered 12-year-old Raymond Fife in 1985,” the filing states. “The crime — which was shockingly brutal even when judged against the most sadistic (death penalty) crimes — is perhaps the most infamous in the history of Trumbull County, Ohio.

    “Danny Hill and a friend captured Raymond while he was on his way to a friend’s house. They raped him. They beat and strangled him. They bit his genitals. They burned his face.”

    The filing describes Raymond’s father, Isaac Fife, finding Raymond’s “battered and burned body in a field. Raymond, who would be in his mid-40s but for Danny Hill’s crime, died two days later.”

    The filing asks the judges in the Cincinnati court to consider the impact the case had on Raymond’s father and mother, Miriam, who served as a Trumbull County victim witness advocate for decades after her son’s death.

    “Walk for a minute in the shoes of Raymond’s father. Imagine what he felt when he found his son’s disfigured and discarded body. Imagine what Raymond’s entire family experienced in the decades that followed, while they waited for this case and others to run their course.”

    The filing says delaying the end of the Hill case would be justified “if Danny Hill had any legitimate claim,” adding, “He does not.”

    Hill’s attorneys said in their filing the Nov. 7 decision in a 2013 Summit County murder case is relevant enough to the Hill case for the Ohio Supreme Court to review its impact on Hill.

    “…the Ohio Supreme Court’s (Nov. 7) decision, if applied to (the Hill) case, would significantly modify the approach used by the state court in adjudicating Mr. Hill’s intellectual disability,” the filing by the federal public defender’s office, states.

    The Nov. 7 ruling sent Summit County murderer Shawn Ford Jr.’s death penalty case back to a lower state court for review of a new standard the Ohio Supreme Court established to determine whether intellectually disabled murderers should be executed by the state.

    https://www.tribtoday.com/news/local...death-penalty/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #40
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Hill's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Court of Appeals of Ohio, Trumbull County
    Case Numbers: (2016-T-0099)
    Decision Date: December 3, 2018
    Discretionary Court Decision Date: June 12, 2019

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/19-6567.html

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