Bennie Adams won't be put to death for 1985 murder

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court has set aside the death sentence of Bennie Adams, who was convicted in 2007 for the 1985 murder of Gina Tenney, a Youngstown State University student, who lived in the same apartment building on the North Side of Youngstown.

The state charged Adams with aggravated murder. Adams was eligible for the death penalty, the state alleged, because he murdered his victim while committing one or more underlying felonies – rape, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, or aggravated burglary. But the state did not ask the jury to indicate which of the underlying felonies Adams committed.

In such circumstances, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor explained in the majority opinion, Ohio law requires the state to produce substantial evidence to prove all four felonies. Because the state did not establish that Adams committed aggravated burglary, “the evidence is, as a matter of law, insufficient to support a death sentence,” she wrote.

In its decision announced this morning, the Supreme Court upheld Adams’ conviction for aggravated murder, though.

The case now returns to the trial court for a new sentencing hearing in line with the decision. The chief justice noted, however, that the state is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution’s double jeopardy clause from seeking the death penalty on remand.