Hearing reset for priest who killed nun in 1980
4/29/2011A court appearance for Toledo Catholic priest Gerald Robinson that had been scheduled for Friday has been postponed until May 20.
Attorneys for the 73-year-old priest convicted in 2006 of murdering a nun, and the Lucas County prosecutor’s office agreed by mutual consent to the delay.
The hearing in Lucas County Common Pleas Court had been ordered by Judge Gene Zmuda to determine whether Robinson’s constitutional rights were violated in the two-week trial in April and May, 2006. Jurors found Robinson guilty in the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.
The Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals, the Ohio Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Robinson’s appeals, and the priest is pursuing an amended petition for postconviction relief. His court appearance will mark the first time he will be in Toledo in person since his conviction. He appeared in court in January, 2010, via a video link from Hocking Correctional Facility in southern Ohio, where he is incarcerated.