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	Lawyer Files Appeal in Priest's Murder Conviction The Associated Press, carried in The Beacon Journal June 6, 2006 http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/14754258.htm TOLEDO, Ohio - A lawyer for a Roman Catholic priest convicted of murdering a nun filed a notice Tuesday that he plans to appeal the decision. The two-page notice filed by attorney John Thebes in Lucas County Common Pleas Court did not outline the reasons for the appeal. The Rev. Gerald Robinson was found guilty on May 11 of choking and stabbing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl while she was preparing a hospital chapel for Easter weekend services at Mercy Hospital on April 5, 1980. Robinson had worked closely with Sister Pahl at the hospital and presided at her funeral. He was found guilty after a trial in which witnesses linked a sword-shaped letter opener found in his room with the nun's wounds and blood stains found on an altar cloth that covered her body. Robinson, 68, was sentenced to the mandatory term of 15 years to life in prison. Prosecutors said the killing was steeped with religious ritualism because the stab wounds were in the shape of an inverted cross and a smudge of blood on Sister Pahl's forehead was meant as a mock anointing. Robinson's relationship had reached a breaking point with the nun, a strict taskmaster upset because the Good Friday service had been shortened, prosecutors said.
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