Appeals court rules against man who was convicted of murdering Youngstown State student
The Seventh District Court of Appeals upheld the sentence of a convicted murdered in a unanimous decision on Thursday.
The defendant, Bennie Adams, was initially charged with aggravated felony-murder and sentenced to death for the December 1985 murder of 19-year-old Gina Tenney.
Adams had allegedly kidnapped, raped, burglarized Tenney before strangling her to death and dumping her body in the Mahoning River. She was a freshman attending Youngstown State University at the time.
His death sentence was vacated by the Supreme Court of Ohio, and he was given a new sentence of life imprisonment with parole eligibility after 20 years.
Adams filed a petition for a new trial on Jan. 20, 2020, alleging that he did not receive a fair trial. He claimed the jurors in his initial trial were biased against him because they learned of a prior rape conviction he had.
His case made its way to the Seventh District Court of Appeals which ruled that in his original trial, Adams’ prior rape conviction was not considered or even discovered during jury deliberations. The court concluded that Adams received a fair trial when he was originally convicted.
Adams was released on parole in 2004 after serving 18 years in prison.
Support our journalists with a tax-deductible donation
Sign up for our Mahoning Matters newsletter