Tenace, 43, was twice convicted in the 1994 killing and robbery of 76-year-old Edward Kozlowski, of Toledo, for whom he'd done repair work in his Wamba Avenue home. His first conviction was overturned.

Both juries returned death sentences, but the Supreme Court will reweigh the factors arguing both for and against imposition of the death penalty.

While no justice could remember a case in which the court found a convicted murderer's childhood alone warranted reversal of a death sentence, several justices used words like "horrific" in describing Tenace's upbringing.

Chief Justice Thomas Moyer pointed to Tenace's home life in which he was introduced to drugs and crime by his mother and abused by her boyfriend.

"This man started at ground zero when he became an adult," he said. "He has no help from his parents. Why should we put him to death?"

Justice Alice Robie Resnick, however, countered that Tenace's life of crime could also work against him.

"I recognize that his childhood was certainly not desirable," she said. "He did go through some terrible things, but there's a point in everyone's life where you have to take some responsibility. We've seen people who have come out of situations like this where they've accomplished great things."

Should the court overturn his sentence, Tenace would face life in prison with the possibility of parole. However, his attorney, Jeffery Gamso, said Tenace would be in his 80s before he would become eligible.

Although now on death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, Tenace also faces a sentence of 25 years to life in New York for a similar murder in which he slit a woman's throat during a robbery of her home.

Mr. Gamso conceded that Tenace, a drug addict, was responsible for Mr. Kozlowski's death, although he argued his crime should have been involuntary manslaughter.

Tenace has maintained that his decision to leave Mr. Kozlowski gagged and to pull the phone cord from the wall showed he intended to leave him alive while he made his escape.

The elderly man suffered a broken nose, head injuries, three fractured ribs, and severe bruising of his neck, suggesting strangulation.

Mr. Gamso argued not all aggravated circumstances favoring death are created equal, and that "felony murder" provides a lower hurdle for Tenace to clear.

"In this family, with this background, you do resort to lawlessness...," he said. "There is no getting around it. Troy is damaged goods."

But Justice Maureen O'Connor told Mr. Gamso that Ohio law doesn't provide a scoring system in which one aggravating circumstance weighs more than another.

Assistant Lucas County Prosecutor Craig Pearson reminded the court it has never reversed a death sentence based solely on childhood background, even in cases worse than this one.

"If you're going to do it, it has to be a worse scenario than presented to the court in this case," he said.

Contact Jim Provance at:
jprovance@theblade.com
or 614-221-0496.