YOUNGSTOWN — A new state law granting parole hearings for juveniles imprisoned for adult crimes has led Brandon Moore, 36, to drop his third appeal of a sentence originally set at 141 years.

Moore was sentenced for his part in a 2001 gang rape of a female Youngstown State University student.

Citing passage of Senate Bill 256, which Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law Jan. 9, Moore and the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s office jointly requested that the Ohio Supreme Court dismiss the appeal of his latest sentence of 50 years in prison. The court dismissed the appeal Thursday.

Moore was among several young males who kidnapped the woman from the parking area of her job at a group home on Detroit Avenue, then took her to the Peyatt Street area, where Moore and others repeatedly raped her.

The victim memorized the other car’s license plate and drove immediately to a house where she was able to tell friends the license plate number. Police eventually were able to arrest all four involved in the attack. Moore’s convictions included rape and kidnapping.

When Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court resentenced Moore in April 2018 after an Ohio Supreme Court decision, she reduced his penalty to 50 years.

Under that sentence, Moore will be eligible to ask Sweeney or her successor for release from prison in 26 years, when he is 62. That is the sentence Moore appealed but is no longer appealing.

Senate Bill 256 was introduced in the General Assembly in December 2019. In early 2020, proponents of the bill told state lawmakers the legislation attempted to address a 2010 U.S.Supreme Court decision that life sentences without parole for juvenile non-homicide offenders prohibit sentences that exceed the juvenile offender’s life expectancy.

The law requires the Ohio Parole Board to ensure its review process provides the prisoner a meaningful opportunity to obtain release. The law also makes a prisoner who was under age 18 at the time of the offense and serving a sentence for a nonhomicide crime eligible for parole after serving 18 years in prison.

Moore went to prison in 2002, 18 years ago.

In the request to dismiss Moore’s appeal, the parties noted the new law “will provide Brandon a parole opportunity that was not a part of the sentence he appealed.”

erunyan@tribtoday.com