While the nation's highest court won't hear the case of a decades-old Trumbull County murder case, they have ordered another court to rehear the case. 

The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order Monday granting a motion by the Trumbull County Prosecutor and the State of Ohio that the case should be reheard. 

At question was a ruling by the U.S. Sixth District Court of Appeals ruling that said that Danny Lee Hill, convicted in the case of a 12-year-old boy scout who was tortured, raped and murdered, should not be executed.

Although the appellate court upheld Hill's conviction for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Raymond Fife, the court also found that Hill demonstrates several of the prerequisites to be considered mentally deficient.

According to that ruling, Hill's IQ varies between a low of 48 and a high of 71.

After review of videotapes of Danny Lee Hill's interrogation, the court found Hill to be "childlike, confused, often irrational, and primarily self -defeating".

That appeals court ruling took the death penalty off the table. 

However, The Supreme Court's opinion outlines several "deficits" in the Sixth District Court of Appeals ruling. 

At the center of the debate is how the appeals court came to their decision. The Supreme Court argues that the Sixth District "relied repeatedly and extensively" on a capital murder case dealing with intellectually deficient individuals. 

However, the Supreme Court justices ruled that that specific case Moore v. Texas wasn't decided until well after Hill's case. 

The Supreme is now ordering the Sixth District Court of Appeals to reconsider the case applying the correct laws and rulings to the case. 

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins points to the fact that the opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court was unanimous- all nine judges agreed that the Sixth District Court of Appeals "did not appropriately apply the law". 

The question now, according to Watkins, is whether the "correct law" would bring about the death penalty when applied to the Hill case. 

Watkins says the state courts which ruled on the case under the current, correct laws found that Danny Lee Hill should be executed for the crime. 

According to court records, on September 10, 1985, at approximately 5:15 p.m., Raymond Fife left home on his bicycle to visit a friend, Billy Simmons.

After learning that the 12-year-old had not arrived at his friend's home by 5:50 pm, Fife's family began searching for him.

Raymond Fife's father found his son more than four hours later in a wooded field behind the Valu-King supermarket on Palmyra road.

The child was naked and appeared to have been severely beaten and his face was burned. Raymond's underwear was found tied around his neck and appeared to have been lit on fire.

Raymond died in the hospital two days later.

The coroner, who ruled Raymond's death a homicide, testified during the trial that the victim had been choked and had a hemorrhage in his brain. The coroner also said that Fife sustained several burns, damage to his rectal-bladder area and bite marks on his penis.

Through testimony from three Warren Western Reserve High School Students, the jury learned that Danny Lee Hill and Timothy Combs were in the area of the Valu-King and the bike trails on the evening Raymond Fife was assaulted. One of the students had also seen Fife riding his bike in the store parking lot.

A student who said he saw Combs on the trail also said he heard a child's scream. Another student says he saw Combs pulling up the zipper of his blue jeans.

Two days after Fife was found, Danny Lee Hill, who was 18-years-old at the time, went to the Warren Police Station to inquire about a $5,000 reward that was being offered for information concerning the murder.

According to Police Sergeant Thomas Stewart, Hill told him that he had just seen some he knew riding Fife's bike. When Stewart asked Hill how he knew the bike belonged to Fife, Hill replied, "I know it is."

Sergeant Stewart testified that during their conversation, it became apparent that Hill knew a lot about the bike and the underwear that was found around Fife's neck.

On the following Monday, September 16, Hill went to the police station accompanied by his uncle, Warren Police Detective Morris Hill.

Police say after waiving his Miranda rights, Danny Lee Hill admitted on audio and videotape that he was present during the beating and sexual assault of Raymond Fife, but that Timothy Combs did everything to the victim.

Combs was eventually convicted of felonious sexual penetration, arson, rape, kidnapping and aggravated murder.

Since Combs was 17-years-old at the time of the crime, he was not eligible for the death penalty and is serving a life sentence. He will be eligible for his first parole hearing in 2049.

Hill was convicted on the same charges, but since he was 18-years-old at the time Fife was assaulted, he was sentenced to death.