After months, and in some way years, of anticipation, the Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals today issued its decision in the Gerald Robinson murder case.
In a shockingly long and meticulous 95-page ruling, the three-judge panel upheld the guilty verdict from the Toledo priest's 2006 trial in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.
Attorneys on both sides said it was the longes decision they had ever seen from the appeals court. Judges Handwork, Pietrykowski and Skow reviewed the appeal line by line, virtually, referring repeatedly to the 4,000 page trial transcript and evidence from 2006.
The appellant's arguments were rejected point by point, from claims of ineffective council to an unfair delay from the time of the crime until his arrest.
I wrote about it for tomorrow's paper; you can read the entire 95 page decision online here.
I must say that Robinson's defense attorney John Donahue of Perrysburg is convinced that the priest did not murder Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.
Dean Mandros, assistant Lucas County prosecutor, said he realizes there are some segments of society who can never accept that a priest could commit such a heinous act.
But the detailed, lengthy and thorough appeals court ruling made it abundantlly clear that the judges feel the legal process was fair and impartial and that there were no errors in the trial.
Donahue plans to pursue this to the Ohio Supreme Court.
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Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my article on the woman who channels a dead saint is running tomorrow and one of my editors suggested I should have had her call up Sister Margaret Ann. I'm not sure what to make of that but now I wish I had thought of it when I was doing the interview.
That article is also running tomorrow with an online audio sample of the woman channeling Padre Pio.
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Tomorrow I'll be going to the Jame Farr LPGA golf tournament in Toledo on a highly unusual assignment: covering it for the society column. Our society writer, Barbara Hendel, is ill and will be out for a while so everyone is being asked to pitch in and cover something. I am delighted that my assignment is the golf tournament.
I might grumble about my job from time to time but if I do, please stop me and remind me about the time I got paid to watch women play golf.
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Sylvania, Ohio
July 11, 2008