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	Priest Appeals Murder Conviction in 1980 Death of Nun Toledo Blade August 9, 2007 http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070809/NEWS02/70809042 Toledo (OH) — More than a year after he was convicted for the 1980 murder of a nun, Gerald Robinson has appealed his conviction. A 105-page document was filed with the Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals yesterday, asking that the priest's conviction be overturned and that he be discharged from prison. If the conviction is not reversed, the appeal then asks that the appellate court send the case back to Lucas County Common Pleas Court for a hearing and possibly a new trial to determine if the delay in prosecuting Robinson violated his right to due process of law. "The state of Ohio waited 24 years to file criminal charges in this case, using evidence, all of which was available to it in 1980 when the crime occurred," the appeal said. "In the intervening decades, critical defense witnesses died, exculpatory evidence was lost, and the state lacked any justification for the delay." A common pleas court jury found the priest guilty on May 11, 2006, in the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, who was found stabbed and strangled in the chapel of the former Mercy Hospital near downtown. The priest was convicted after a three-week trial that drew national media attention. The transcript of the trial was completed and filed with the court July 9, giving defense attorneys John Donahue and Richard Kerger, who are handling the appeal, the necessary information to file the brief. Robinson has remained in prison since his May conviction. A panel of the court of appeals rejected a request in November that he be released from prison while the appeal proceeds through the judicial system.
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