YOUNGSTOWN — Attorneys from the Ohio Public Defender’s Office cite four reasons why they are appealing a ruling denying Bennie Adams a new trial in the 1985 killing of Youngstown State University student Gina Tenney.

The attorneys said the issues are a violation of Adams’ due-process rights, improper limitations on witness testimony, improper weighing of witness credibility and improper denial of expert-witness assistance.

Judge Anthony Donofrio of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ruled against a new trial for Adams after a June 12 hearing. Adams is housed in the Trumbull Correctional Institution in Leavittsburg. His first parole hearing is set for June 2028.

More specific reasons for the appeal will be given in the next filing by Adams’ attorneys.

During the June 12 hearing, assistant Mahoning County prosecutors and Adams’ lawyers questioned 13 of the 16 jurors about what they remembered — if anything — about Adams having previously spent time in prison for rape prior to the 1985 trial where Adams was convicted of the aggravated murder of Tenney. Two other jurors were deposed, meaning interviewed outside of the courtroom with a stenographer taking down what was said. One juror has died since the trial.

Only one of the 15 surviving jurors remembered any conversation among jurors that suggested anyone knew that Adams previously had been convicted of rape.

Donofrio ruled that there was no credible evidence that any juror improperly knew of the earlier conviction before the end of the trial.

A juror obtaining information about a defendant from improper sources, prior to a trial being over, can be ruled juror misconduct and can be grounds for a defendant getting a new trial.

DEATH PENALTY

Tenney, 19, of Ashtabula, was the upstairs neighbor of Adams, now 65, in an Ohio Avenue duplex.

The jury recommended that Adams get the death penalty. The late Mahoning County Judge Tim Franken imposed the sentence, which was later reduced to 20 years to life in prison.

U.S. District Court Judge James S. Gwin had ruled Donofrio, who oversees the court Franken ran, needed to have a hearing to determine whether any jurors knew that Adams had been convicted of rape and spent 17 years in prison in another case before the 2008 trial. Gwin also ordered Donofrio to determine when the jurors knew that information.

The judge noted that “while (he) does not find that (the male juror’s) testimony was necessarily intentionally dishonest, it does not comport with the memories of his fellow jurors.”

The male juror who testified differently from the other jurors said a female juror told him jurors prior to the jury announcing its recommendation that Adams get the death penalty that Adams had been in prison previously for rape.

But the woman testified she did “not know how she would have had that information to be able to pass it on to somebody else, and that is not something she would have done,” the ruling states.

She said she had no memory of the male juror and said she did not remember having the conversation the male juror said had occurred. She said she did not know at any point during the trial or penalty phase the reason why Adams previously had been in prison.

Donofrio said he found the testimony of the female juror “more credible” than the male juror’s testimony.

Furthermore, the judge found that “Adams’ prior conviction was not considered or even discovered during deliberations” on whether Adams was guilty or innocent.

The judge said he concluded that “the information about Adams was learned after the verdict was delivered and the jury was officially discharged from its duties. For these reasons, the court hereby finds the claims of juror bias are unsubstantiated.”

erunyan@vindy.com