Anthoney E Sowell – The Death Sentence Stands
The Ohio Supreme Court upheld the conviction and death sentence of Anthony E Sowell. He is the Cleveland man who killed 11 women and hid their remains in and around his home. (You can read about his arrest and the extent of his crimes here)
Anthony E Sowell, 57, was indicted in 2009 and convicted and sentenced in 2011. Jurors found Sowell guilty of killing the 11 women from June 2007 to July 2009.
Anthony E Sowell Is Discovered
A woman, who was partying with Sowell, ended up in the fight of her life, when Sowell suddenly turned and attacked her. He raped her and then attempted to strangle her to death. She fought back and was finally able to escape the mad man. She went straight to the law and told them what had happened. The police went to Anthony’s residence and found four dead bodies in his house. In all, 11 dead women would be uearthed before the hunt was over and the identity of the Cleveland Strangler would be revealed. Anthony E Sowell was sentenced to death.
Anthony Sowell Now Wants A New Hearing
The court’s 5-2 ruling rejected arguments that attorneys for Anthony Sowell wasted time challenging evidence against him and should have focused instead on sparing him from capital punishment.
Sowell’s trial attorneys “repeatedly directed the jurors’ attention to gruesome and painfully damning evidence,” according to a 2012 court filing. As a result, the trial attorneys looked desperate and jurors were likely irritated that it dragged out the trial.
New lawyers for Anthony argued a better strategy would have been to concede Sowell’s overwhelming guilt and push for life without parole based on his background, including a chaotic childhood.
The court rejected a request for a new, open court hearing to also challenge the admissibility of Sowell’s hours-long police interrogation.
Justice William O’Neill and Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor dissented, saying a new hearing should be held. In a criminal-justice system governed by the rule of law, a serial murderer’s trial is subject to the same constitutional protections as the trial of a low-level thief.
The courts said no and upheld the conviction and the death sentence.
Despite the ruling, however, an execution is years away. Anthony E Sowell could still appeal through the federal courts.
Killers like Anthony E Sowell are the reason Ohio has a death penalty, said Christopher Schroeder, head of Cuyahoga County’s capital punishment division. “Nothing less than the death penalty would ever be an appropriate sentence in this case.” Two dozen men are on Ohio’s death row.
The Victims Of Anthony E Sowell
Prosecutors say Sowell’s victims were recovering or current drug addicts and most died of strangulation. Some had been decapitated and the bodies of others were so badly decomposed that coroners couldn’t say with certainty how they died.
Anthony Sowell told authorities that he targeted women who reminded him of his ex-girlfriend. She had left him shortly before the killings began and life went straight to hell from there.
credit – msn
