Triple killer's death penalty hearing begins

Edward Tenney is a "pariah on civilized society" who after a lifetime of violence should be executed, prosecutors argued Friday as the triple murderer's death penalty sentencing hearing opened.

Tenney was convicted of robbing businesses, burglarizing homes, possessing weapons, escaping from jail and terrorizing many who crossed his path in Illinois and Florida during a criminal history that dates back to 17.

He went to prison a half-dozen times for his crimes but, prosecutors said, quickly returned to his life of "unlawful disorder" before forever losing his freedom in 1995 when accused of the three murders during random robberies.

"All of these innocent people were killed for this man's greed and penchant to pray on society," said Assistant State's Attorney David Bayer, who called the defendant a pariah. "For Mr. Tenney's entire adult life, when he wasn't in jail, he is out stealing, robbing, breaking into businesses, buildings and people's homes. He uses guns almost all the time."

Tenney, 50, is serving two life prison terms for the 1993 fatal shootings of 75-year-old Virginia Johannessen and dairy heiress Mary Jill Oberweis, 56. The two widows, who lived alone, were killed 10 months apart in separate home invasions in an affluent Aurora Township neighborhood in Kane County.

Earlier this week, a DuPage County jury convicted Tenney of a third murder - his first - for the fatal shooting of Jerry Weber April 16, 1992. Tenney robbed the 24-year-old father of a wallet containing $6, as Weber tried to free his van from a muddy Aurora field, three weeks after his second son was born.

The jury, led by a 65-year-old Willowbrook woman as its foreman, also found Tenney eligible under the law for a death sentence. At issue still is whether to impose the ultimate punishment.

The defense team, John Houlihan and Mark Kowalcyzk, is fighting to save Tenney's life.

They do not dispute his violent history. Rather, the attorneys plan to present mental health experts next week who will testify that Tenney suffered severe emotional and physical abuse while growing up in a dysfunctional family that led him from an early age to take a "defensive protective stance for what he perceived to be a hostile world."

"It's not an excuse," Houlihan said, "but is offered as an explanation for why these seemingly unfathomable things happened. If we look below the surface, it helps to put it into perspective; to better understand."

Houlihan argues Tenney operated under an extreme mental and emotional disturbance and could not control his behavior when he opened fire on Weber.

The defendant's cousin, Donald Lippert, 34, serving an 80-year prison term for his role in all three slayings, testified twice in the trial that he back then was Tenney's teenage partner in crime. Lippert is eligible for parole after serving half the prison term.

The cousins were arrested in May 1995 for the three murders after police linked them to two guns used in the shootings and robbery proceeds. Lippert confessed, while Tenney still maintains his innocence.

The sentencing hearing, before DuPage Circuit Judge Daniel Guerin, is expected to last one week.