Two death-penalty murder trials to begin

YOUNGSTOWN — Juries will be selected this week for two death-penalty murder trials, the first such trials here in four and a half years.

However, the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judges presiding over them have extensive experience with such cases in their legal or judicial careers, or both.

“It should go smoothly,” said Judge Timothy E. Franken, who will preside over the trial of Bennie L. Adams, who is charged with killing a Youngstown State University student almost 23 years ago.

“It’s been done enough. We’re not inventing anything,” added Franken. Before becoming a judge last year, Franken tried at least seven death-penalty cases as an assistant county prosecutor and at least six as a defense lawyer.

“I’ve been through this half a dozen times before,” said Judge R. Scott Krichbaum, who will preside over the trial of Michael A. Davis, the man charged with setting the Jan. 23 East Side house fire that killed six people.

Besides presiding over six previous death-penalty trials from the bench, Krichbaum represented six defendants in capital cases as a defense lawyer. These were among 48 murder case defendants he represented as a defense lawyer before he became a judge.

Read more in Sunday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com