WARREN — The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday stood in the way of convicted murderer Danny Lee Hill’s latest bid to escape execution when the state’s top court reversed a decision by the Warren-based 11th District Court of Appeals.

The Supreme Court ruled that appeals court wrongly allowed Danny Lee Hill to rely on the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure to request that a trial judge vacate Hill’s death sentence on the grounds of intellectual disability.

Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy wrote in the opinion that state lawmakers in 1965 enacted the postconviction relief law, which specifies certain requirements that must be met when making a collateral challenge to a criminal conviction. Postconviction relief is an opportunity beyond a traditional appeal to contest a conviction and sentence.

A judge in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court denied Hill’s postconviction relief petition and refused to reconsider his death sentence. After U.S. Supreme Court rulings changed how states should evaluate intellectual disabilities during sentencing, Hill filed a motion in 2022 under the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure, asking the trial court to reconsider his death sentence.

“Postconviction relief-proceedings are special statutory proceedings to which the Civil Rules are inapplicable, so Hill may not challenge the judgment denying his petition for postconviction relief by filing a motion under” a specific civil rule, Kennedy wrote. Justice Joseph T. Deters wrote a concurring opinion “to underscore the injustice to the victim’s family caused by the delay in bringing finality to this case,” the ruling states.

Hill, 59, of Warren, was convicted of the 1985 torture and murder of 12-year-old Raymond Fife in Warren and has repeatedly challenged his conviction and death sentence.

Deters noted that while trial courts must give proper consideration to postconviction challenges, they should be aware of the suffering of victims and their families when “courts unduly delay resolving matters before them.”

In a separate concurring opinion, Justice Jennifer Brunner agreed that Hill could not use the civil rules to reopen his case. Still, she noted the state has not yet allowed Hill to make his claim that he has an intellectual disability under the latest standards established by the courts.

“It is at the very least questionable whether Hill’s death sentence is constitutional,” she wrote.

She added it was “extremely concerning” that the state was trying to prevent Hill from having his claim reviewed under the current standards. She encouraged the lower courts to resolve the matter “at the earliest possible instance.”

The Supreme Court ruling remanded the matter back to the 11th District court for consideration of Hill’s remaining assignment of error in his appeal of Visiting Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Patricia Cosgrove’s 2023 decision denying Hill’s petition for relief because it was “untimely and successive.”

In her decision, Cosgrove noted the delays in the case caused by Hill appeals and found that trial evidence overwhelmingly supported Hill’s conviction for aggravated murder with a death penalty specification.

TRUMBULL PROSECUTOR

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins applauded the latest decision, noting that there is a “long line” of federal and state courts that have denied Hill’s attempt to escape execution. Watkins said he believes Cosgrove’s decision — like others from the trial-court level through the state courts and federal system — will be upheld.

Hill was convicted and sentenced to death in 1986 by a three-judge panel of aggravated arson, kidnapping, rape, felonious sexual penetration and aggravated murder with capital specifications arising out of the September 1985 torture and murder of 12-year-old Raymond Fife of Warren.

In a press release Thursday, Watkins also thanked Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor Charles Morrow, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Ohio Solicitor General Mathura J. Sridharan and others for their hard work in this appeal.