Disability Advocates Oppose Convicted Murderer’s Death Sentence

Disability Rights of Ohio, the Arc of Ohio, and several other advocacy groups for individuals with disabilities have filed a brief in support of Danny Hill as the Sixth Circuit reconsiders its decision to vacate his death sentence for the 1985 rape and murder of 12-year-old Raymond Fife.

Hill was 18 at the time.

The friend-of-the-court brief, filed Monday, argues that the Ohio state court deviated significantly from accepted clinical guidelines by instructing experts to focus on Hill’s present functioning, rather than extensive historical evidence of Hill’s intellectual disability.

Like the defense, the disability rights organizations argue that the state ...