The Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of death row inmate Danny Lee Hill.
Hill is an Ohio man found guilty decades ago of raping, kidnapping, and murdering a 12-year-old boy.
He has spent years challenging the verdict, to no avail.
The Supreme Court upheld a lower court finding that the evidence against Hill was insurmountable.
The defendant challenged his conviction on the basis of “newly discovered evidence” concerning a bite mark on the victim’s body.
The bite mark evidence was already considered by lower courts, which found it would have no impact on the overwhelming evidence of guilt.
“We note that if we came out Hill’s way, most convictions involving forensic evidence would never be final,” a Sixth District panel wrote.
Hill was found guilty in a bench trial in 1986 after he waived his right to a jury.
At trial, the jury heard that Hill was a registered sex offender before Fife’s murder and that Hill was known to bite his victims.
A forensic odontologist matched Hill’s teeth with bite marks on the boy’s genitals.
12-year-old Raymond Fife was found by his father in a wooded area behind a convenience store in Warren, Ohio, on the night