US Supreme Court turns down Ohio priest’s conviction appeal in Easter weekend slaying of nun

Supreme Court nixes priest’s appeal in nun killing

TOLEDO, Ohio — The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down an appeal filed by a Roman Catholic priest convicted of murdering a nun in Ohio.

The high court said Monday that it is declining to hear the appeal of the Rev. Gerald Robinson.

Robinson was convicted in 2006 of killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.

Her body was found Easter weekend in 1980 inside a hospital chapel where both worked. She had been strangled and stabbed 31 times in her face, neck and chest.

Robinson, now 71, was a chaplain at the hospital at the time.

The priest’s attorneys have argued that he didn’t get a fair trial because his arrest came so long after the killing. Robinson was sentenced to a mandatory term of 15 years to life in prison.