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Anthony Sowell / Heavy Metal Band Releases Album Inspired by Anthony Sowell/Convicted of murdering all 11 women/JUDGE UPHOLDS JURY RECOMMENDATION- SOWELL SENTENCED TO DEATH!/Execution Stayed-Delayed

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Anthony Sowell / Heavy Metal Band Releases Album Inspired by Anthony Sowell/Convicted of murdering all 11 women/JUDGE UPHOLDS JURY RECOMMENDATION- SOWELL SENTENCED TO DEATH!/Execution Stayed-Delayed Empty Anthony Sowell / Heavy Metal Band Releases Album Inspired by Anthony Sowell/Convicted of murdering all 11 women/JUDGE UPHOLDS JURY RECOMMENDATION- SOWELL SENTENCED TO DEATH!/Execution Stayed-Delayed

Post by Nama Mon Dec 20, 2010 11:20 pm

The families of five of the 11 women whose remains were found last year in the home of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell sued the city of Cleveland on Wednesday, arguing that their loved ones would still be alive if sex-crimes detectives had done their jobs.

In the suit, filed by lawyers Jeffrey Friedman and Terry Gilbert in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, the families blasted police, blaming the women's deaths on the "deliberate indifference" of sex crimes detectives and the police practice of releasing suspects while waiting for evidence to trickle in.
A city spokeswoman did not return a call for comment on the lawsuit.
Sowell, 51, is charged with the aggravated murder of the 11 women and attacks on three others. His trial is scheduled for Feb. 14, and he faces the death penalty if convicted.
Six of the women found in Sowell's home -- Janice Webb, Amelda Hunter, Diane Turner, Telacia Fortson, Nancy Cobbs and Kim Yvette Smith -- were killed after Cleveland police failed to aggressively investigate accusations that he had attacked other victims, who had escaped. Smith's family is not represented in the lawsuit.
Text of the lawsuit
Previous stories
Dec. 8: Suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell's school records lost in East Cleveland district's disorganized archives

Nov. 10: Cost of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell's defense surpasses $185,000 mark

Oct. 30: Victims of accused serial killer Anthony Sowell remembered one year later: video

Nov. 16, 2009: Cleveland woman says she fought, fled Anthony Sowell in 2008 attack but authorities didn't believe her

More about Anthony Sowell
Police arrested Sowell on Dec. 8, 2008, after a bleeding woman approached a police cruiser and said Sowell punched and choked her and tried to rip off her clothes. Police either ignored or failed to check his criminal history, which included a 15-year sentence for brutally raping a woman in 1989.
And despite the victim's cooperation and witnesses vouching for her injuries, police and city prosecutors determined there was insufficient evidence to hold and charge Sowell, and he was released two days later.
Six of the women Sowell is accused of killing were still alive at that time.
Their remains were not discovered until last fall, when police were investigating another rape accusation against Sowell. Over the course of a week, police unearthed 10 bodies and one skull found in a bucket in the basement of Sowell's home in Cleveland's Mount Pleasant neighborhood.
The suit asks the court not only to grant financial compensation for the victims' families, but also to order the city to review its investigative and prosecutorial policies and procedures "in order to prevent such reckless conduct in the future."
The claim also condemns what is known as the police practice of "straight release" -- a long-criticized method of alleviating overcrowded jails by releasing suspects until enough evidence is gathered to indict them. Because criminal suspects must be charged within 24 to 48 hours while in custody, straight release eases the deadline on detectives to gather evidence for a criminal complaint.
"However, because of lack of resources, overcrowded jails, lack of manpower, incompetency, or indifference, the City of Cleveland Police Department often performs only cursory investigations or none at all during this early stage," the lawsuit claims.
Family members of the victims said in interviews Wednesday that, while Sowell awaits his day in court, it's time the city faced its comeuppance for the apathy and poor judgment they believe contributed to the tragedy.
Inez Fortson, 70, of East Cleveland, the mother of Telacia Fortson, said no amount of financial compensation could ever replace her only daughter, but the city must be held accountable.
"I'm upset because if [police] would have done their job when they were first called to investigate this wouldn't have happened," Fortson said. "I'm also sad because the holidays are coming up again, and I don't have my daughter here with me."

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Post by Nama Mon Dec 20, 2010 11:21 pm

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Post by Nama Mon Dec 20, 2010 11:26 pm

A local heavy metal band has released a controversial album that is based on the case of reputed serial killer Anthony Sowell.

The album, by the Akron-based band Fistula, features Sowell's picture superimposed on the forehead of a goat, and songs like " Ohio Death Toll Rising" and "So Far Sowell So What."

"I think it's cruel, the whole thing is cruel," said Inez Fortson, whose 31-year-old daughter Telacia was one of eleven women allegedly kidnapped and murdered by Sowell.

What Fortson finds most distasteful is the band's decision to include evidence bags containing soil from Anthony Sowell's yard in 100 of the albums.

A promoter of the band claims he dug up the dirt from the tree lawn, the only part of the Sowell property not fenced off as evidence for his upcoming trial.

Fortson says the band's attempt to capitalize on the case shows a lack of compassion for the victims' families.

"I would just tell them how cruel it is and one day it might happen to them," Fortson told Fox 8 News. "And then how will they feel?"

Anthony Sowell is scheduled to stand trial in February.

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Anthony Sowell / Heavy Metal Band Releases Album Inspired by Anthony Sowell/Convicted of murdering all 11 women/JUDGE UPHOLDS JURY RECOMMENDATION- SOWELL SENTENCED TO DEATH!/Execution Stayed-Delayed Empty Akron heavy metal band's album contains what it says is soil from Cleveland home of accused killer Anthony Sowell

Post by Nama Mon Dec 20, 2010 11:30 pm

About 100 fans who bought a copy of Akron-based heavy-metal band Fistula's latest album, "Goat," received a bonus gift -- an evidence baggie containing soil reportedly from the front yard of the Imperial Avenue house where the remains of 11 women were found last year.
The album, which was recorded on vinyl, was inspired by the case of Anthony Sowell, who is charged with the aggravated murder of the 11 women and attacks on three others. The 51-year-old Cleveland man faces the death penalty if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial Feb. 14.
The concept album and the group's marketing strategy -- particularly, the soil souvenir -- have fueled a national debate over whether people should profit from grisly crimes and others' misery.
Andy Kahan, the victim advocate for the city of Houston, is among the nation's most outspoken critics of "murderabilia," a term he coined in 1999 to describe goods and artifacts commemorating the work of infamous killers.
Kahan said devoting an album or artwork to a serial killer offers the criminal undeserved immortality and is like a sucker punch to the families of victims.
"It's one of the most nauseating and disgusting feelings that a victim's family can experience," Kahan said. "You've got third parties making blood money on the diabolical, gruesome death of one of your loved ones."
The Imperial Avenue home of accused serial killer Anthony Sowell.
Fistula guitarist and songwriter Corey Bing said in an interview last week that the concept for the album sprang from his reactions to the first images he saw of Sowell -- mug shots and footage of sheriff's deputies escorting him into a courtroom.
"His eyes just looked black, like a demon," Bing said. "And I don't believe in stuff like that, but this dude looked evil to me, like he was seriously jacked up or possessed."
Low tunings and heavy vocals set the tone in songs titled "Ohio Death Toll Rising," "One Chair and an Electrical Cord," "The Ones That Got Away," "So Far Sowell So What," and "Mission Accomplished." Sound bites from news coverage and media interviews with victims are spliced into the recording.
The album's cover art depicts a malevolent goat -- an animal often associated with the devil -- with Sowell's face etched on the center of its forehead. The goat's neck is wreathed in human skulls. And it is holding a crack pipe and a bottle of malt liquor, representing two vices investigators believe Sowell used to lure his victims to their deaths.
The idea to include dirt from Sowell's yard as a memento for loyal fans came much later in production, Bing said.
Bing was recording in the studio in August when Travis Witherell, owner of Hydro-Phonic Records, took a field trip to Sowell's home. There, he snapped photos and collected soil from the small patch of land near the curb -- the only part of the property not caged in by a 14-foot-tall chain-link fence.
Bing said a Cleveland police officer looked on from a nearby cruiser as Witherell worked. The car even appears in one of the photos, he said.
Attorney Rufus Sims, who is representing Sowell in his criminal case and two wrongful-death lawsuits filed against him recently, chuckled at the notion of attaching significance to soil from his client's yard.
"I'm sure that album is selling like hotcakes on Imperial Avenue," Sims joked. "After looking at 4,500 photographs of some pretty morbid stuff, this news brings great levity to my day. I think it's pretty humorous, and quite frankly, we could use a little humor right now."
The dirt was included only in the Deluxe Crime Scene Edition of "Goat," which was limited to 100 copies and has sold out. The special edition was pressed on glow-in-the-dark vinyl and wrapped in police crime scene tape. The package also featured photos of the house and a large two-sided poster, a collage of newspaper articles about the killings.
Plenty of artists have cashed in on the public's fascination with violent crime, producing serial killer-themed wall calendars, snow globes, clocks, watches, comic books and even action figures. And Fistula certainly is not the first band to write music about murder.
A Chicago band called Macabre, whose repertoire includes an album detailing the life of Milwaukee serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, is considered the quintessence of the so-called "murder metal" genre.
Although some might consider the music and artwork in poor taste, they're perfectly legal and constitutionally protected speech.
Ohio law prohibits convicted murderers from selling their stories for profit. And eight other states have laws against killers sending items, such as letters, cards and artwork, from prison to vendors who peddle them to collectors.
A Senate bill introduced in June would clamp down entirely on the flow of such memorabilia from prisons nationwide.
But the federal law would not control manufactured products, including music. Nor would it stop dealers from selling relics related to notorious killings -- such as the soil from Sowell's yard.
Kahan, who has purchased many such items just to get them off the market, said soil is a rare find for industry aficionados. Years ago, he recalled, dirt purportedly from the crawl space where 26 of serial killer John Wayne Gacy's victims were buried sold for $40 a bag.
Kahan said the only way for Fistula to alleviate its ethical burden would be to contact the victims' families to discuss the band's objectives and offer a percentage of the proceeds.
Florence Bray, whose daughter Crystal Dozier and niece Amelda Hunter both were found dead in the Imperial Avenue house, said the band has not contacted her. But she said she's not surprised to hear about the album, adding that the media is just as guilty of capitalizing on the case.
"It's the repetition of the story that hurts," Bray said. "Eventually you have to give people a chance to heal. All I can tell you is that it's been over a year, and it hurts today like it did last year."
Christine Schobey, aunt of victim Kim Yvette Smith, said she's not offended by the "Goat" album and defended the band's right to produce it.
"If there is a way to make a profit, people are going to try," Schobey said.
But Fistula will be lucky to break even, Bing says -- especially since overseas fans have complained they're having trouble getting their special-edition "Goat" albums through international shipping services because of the soil sample.
"We're not going to sell a million copies, and I'm not going to get rich," Bing said. "And I didn't do it to prove how heavy my band is. I just wanted to deliver a message: Stop watching TV -- it's not real. Go look at your sexual offenders list and find out which perverts are living in your neighborhood."
Bing says the band is well-intentioned and wanted to use its medium to encourage people to take responsibility for the safety of their communities -- to have greater awareness of their surroundings and the suspicious behavior of others.
"What happened in that house is real," Bing said. "And sometimes if you want to make a point, you have to be extreme."

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Post by Nama Mon Dec 20, 2010 11:32 pm

The Akron-based heavy metal band Fistula -- from left, Bob Branca, Corey Bing, Jeremy Wilson, Nate Linehan and Steve Barcus -- based its new album on the case of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell. One hundred special editions of the album are already sold out. They each came with a morose extra -- a tiny evidence bag purported to contain soil from the front yard of the Cleveland house where police say Sowell lived and 11 women under his control died.

Anthony Sowell / Heavy Metal Band Releases Album Inspired by Anthony Sowell/Convicted of murdering all 11 women/JUDGE UPHOLDS JURY RECOMMENDATION- SOWELL SENTENCED TO DEATH!/Execution Stayed-Delayed Fistulajpg-a897189f310d7517

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Post by raine1953 Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:02 am

Trial opens for Cleveland man accused in 11 deaths

(AP) CLEVELAND (AP) — The bodies were removed many months ago, but the stench of them still clings to the boarded-up house on Imperial Avenue.

The smell surfaces every so often: a reminder of the horrors that unfolded here in November 2009, when police began pulling the remains of 11 women from the depths of this rundown white duplex on an impoverished Cleveland street.

"Every once in a while you can hear people saying ... 'What's that smell?,'" says Tracy Chapman, who lives across the street.

The murder trial gets under way Monday for Anthony Sowell, 51, a convicted sex offender and ex-Marine charged with killing the women and hiding their remains in his home and backyard. The trial, expected to last several weeks, will force Cleveland residents to revisit a dark chapter in the city's history that most would rather forget. Prosecutors say Sowell, who has pleaded not guilty, lured women from the neighborhood into his home with the promise of alcohol or drugs, then killed them.

In a surprise secret meeting Friday, prospective jurors were introduced to Sowell behind closed doors while reporters covering the case waited on another floor for trial credentials. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose had previously said jury selection would begin Monday in his courtroom.

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Post by Wrapitup Mon Jun 06, 2011 9:17 am

Thanks for the post, BJ.

This trial w/be a slam dunk - GUILTY!!!
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Anthony Sowell / Heavy Metal Band Releases Album Inspired by Anthony Sowell/Convicted of murdering all 11 women/JUDGE UPHOLDS JURY RECOMMENDATION- SOWELL SENTENCED TO DEATH!/Execution Stayed-Delayed Empty Graphic Testimony - Warning!

Post by Wrapitup Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:10 pm











For more video's of this trial, please click here:
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Post by raine1953 Sat Jul 23, 2011 1:01 pm

Ohio sex offender convicted of killing 11 women

An Ohio sex offender was convicted Friday of killing all 11 women whose remains were found in his home and buried in his backyard in a case that horrified the city of Cleveland.

Anthony Sowell, 51, was convicted of aggravated murder, kidnapping, tampering with evidence and abuse of a human corpse in the 11 deaths. His trail now moves to the sentencing phase, where he faces a possible death penalty.

"We do deserve this justice," said Denise Hunter, whose sister, Amelda, was found buried in Sowell's yard in plastic garbage bags.

The jury deliberated for just over 15 hours before announcing the verdicts. Sowell looked straight ahead and barely moved as the first aggravated murder verdict was read. Deputies immediately cuffed his hands in front of him. After standing through the verdicts covering one victim, Sowell sat down, his chest heaving as he pushed himself back in the chair.

None of the attorneys commented afterward because a gag order remains in place until after Sowell is sentenced.

The jury sat through weeks of disturbing testimony as the prosecution made its case against Sowell. They saw photographs of the victims' blackened, skeletal corpses lying on autopsy tables and listened to police describe how their bodies had been left to rot in Sowell's home and yard.

The women began disappearing in 2007, and prosecutors say Sowell lured them to his home with the promise of alcohol or drugs. Police discovered the first two bodies and a freshly dug grave in late 2009 after officers went to investigate a woman's report that she had been raped there.

Sowell was acquitted of only one count in the 83-count indictment: a charge of aggravated robbery connected to one of the women he was convicted of attacking.

During the trial, several women gave grueling testimony of alleged attacks by Sowell, telling the court how they had managed to escape. One woman, who said she was brutally raped by Sowell, testified that she had seen a headless body in his home.

In his closing statement, defense attorney John Parker questioned the credibility of several witnesses, noting that some had struggled with drug addiction and mental health issues, and criticized police officers for failing to properly investigate when the victims' families tried to report them missing.

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Post by raine1953 Mon Jul 25, 2011 7:06 pm

Serial killer convicted, but botched case holds lessons for police

While much of the country fixated on the murder trial of Casey Anthony, another murder trial unfolded in a Cleveland courtroom that put an entire state's criminal justice system and its handling of rape cases under scrutiny.
Anthony Sowell was convicted Friday of killing 11 women and leaving their bodies to rot in his house. He awaits sentencing.

CBS News has highlighted how the Cleveland police department missed opportunities to catch the serial killer.

Almost a year before Sowell was caught, a woman said he tried to rape her. But she was dismissed by Cleveland police and the prosecutor as not credible even though Sowell was a convicted sex offender.

Another reported rape was not investigated by the Cleveland Police Department for more than a month. It was this ultimate visit to Sowell's home by the police that revealed his crimes.

Missed Opportunities in Sowell Case

Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath says since Sowell's arrest, his department has "partnered very hard with our rape crisis center and our community" to encourage rape victims to come forward. And now that Sowell is convicted, McGrath tells CBS News they will begin an internal review of the department's actions in this case. McGrath said he hopes the review can be completed in no more than six weeks.

McGrath says he also called the FBI on Friday to request that the bureau's Behavioral Science Unit send analysts to Cleveland to conduct a top to bottom review of the entire case.

McGrath deferred all questions about his officers' performance leading up to Sowell's arrest until after his department's review, but said, "Once we discovered the victims at the residence we did very, very well."

In the last few months, crucial mistakes have come to light showing that the Cleveland Police Department was not the only law enforcement agency that could have caught Sowell earlier.

On April 17, 2009, a woman at a Cleveland area bus stop caught a ride with a friend in a car driven by a man named "Tony". Her friend left the car, leaving the woman alone with "Tony" who punched her in the face and made a series of rapid turns. They ended up at a house fitting the

description of Sowell's.

The police report notes that "Tony" put her in a chokehold and dragged her to the third floor of his house where she later said it smelled "stagnant" perhaps from "garbage or mold." In fact, the smell was from dead bodies.

She said she was raped four times and fed an unknown pill during the course of the night often passing out from pain. She awoke, smashed a picture frame over her captor's head and escaped according to the police report.

She ran from his house, losing track of his street in the process. She contacted a friend who took her to a hospital where a rape kit was collected. According to the police report, her voice had been made "raspy" from attempted strangulation.

The patrol officer wrote a detailed report and tried in vain to locate the assailant's house. He put the DNA evidence from the rape kit into a bin, but according to the department he failed to tell the sex crimes detective about the evidence. So the rape kit sat unopened for two years. The sex crimes detective said the victim did not respond to repeated messages and the case went stale.

After Sowell was arrested, the victim contacted the Cleveland Police Department and re-told her story. Only then was the rape kit located and tested. It matched Sowell.

The Cleveland Heights Police Department did not have a computerized system to track evidence. Cleveland Heights is not alone. According to the Department of Justice, 43 percent of police departments nationwide do not have a computerized system for tracking forensic evidence.

But the department says even if they had submitted the DNA to the state there would not have been a match leading to Sowell's arrest. That's because of another critical mistake by another law enforcement agency.

When Anthony Sowell was in prison in 1997, serving 15 years for rape, his DNA was taken as part of a state program to create a database of criminal DNA according to the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

But the current Ohio attorney general's office says after the DNA was taken in 1997, they "have no idea where it went." It was never entered into the state database.

There may be other DNA profiles taken in the late 1990s that were supposed to be entered into the state database that never were, but the Ohio attorney general's office and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction have not been able to figure out how to synch their two databases to compare the tens of thousands of current and former state prisoners to the DNA profiles in the state database. So no one knows.

"We've encountered unexpected difficulties comparing the databases," Ohio Attorney General spokesperson Eve Mueller said in an email to CBS.

There has been other progress.

As a result of the Sowell case, the Cleveland Heights Police Department will now test all rape kits and their evidence is now tracked with a computer.

State Attorney General Mike Dewine convened a roundtable to discuss the standardization of rape kit testing across the state. His office is awaiting the results of a law enforcement survey to see how different departments handle evidence.

The Cleveland Police Department says they have overhauled their sexual assault policies. For the first time they have counted all of their untested rape kits finding more than 4,000 and they say they are now committed to testing all kits.

"The biggest change is that as a community we have really learned - because we have had to - that all victims should be believed and supported when they come forward to report a rape," said Megan O'Bryan, executive director of the Greater Cleveland Rape Crisis Center

The sentencing phase of the trial will begin on August 1, 2011. Sowell faces the death penalty.

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Post by Guest Mon Aug 01, 2011 6:35 am

CLEVELAND - Defense attorneys are trying to spare the life of a former Marine convicted of killing 11 women by painting him as someone who suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses. The sentencing phase of trial begins today for Anthony Sowell, a sex offender who was found guilty July 22 of murdering the women and abusing their corpses, which were hidden in his home and buried in his backyard.

The jury, which sat through weeks of disturbing and emotional testimony, saw photographs of the victims’ corpses lying on autopsy tables and listened to police describe how their bodies had been left to decompose in the house.

Now the defense wants to convince jurors that Sowell, who exhibited little emotion during the trial, was mentally ill and doesn’t deserve to die. If the jurors don’t choose the death penalty, Sowell faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Sowell, 51, had pleaded not guilty to killing the women, many of whom had been missing for weeks or months before their remains were found in plastic sheets and garbage bags dumped in the house and yard.

The defense has claimed in a report prepared by a mental health expert that Sowell suffers from several mental illnesses, including severe obsessive compulsive disorder with sexual obsessions, psychosis, cognitive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

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Post by TerryRose Mon Aug 08, 2011 4:56 pm

As I have seen this on the news daily lately, it seems to me that Sowell's defense is trying to use what worked to get Casey Anthony off, claiming sexual abuse as a child and other abuses. Those trumped up mental illnesses do not wash with me. There are many obsessive-compulsive, cognitive-impaired, and PTSD afflicted people walking around in society and they never harm anyone else. Do I think he is sick? Yes, but the only sickness that will explain his crimes is psychosis and I haven't seen an in-depth explanation of what that psychosis is. Instead, I have seen video of the doctor pointing out these other personality disorders thoroughly. Seems to me he has a sick sexual desire, not to be confused with those other disorders many good people have. I post just to say that the Anthony trial has far-reaching repercussions. In a murder one case, they can claim child abuse made them do it, no matter how old they are when they have done these things. Let us hope, though it worked for KC, it won't work for the likes of this monster too. JMO, of course.
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Post by laga Mon Aug 08, 2011 5:16 pm

I agree TR, that is what is the most infuriating, the thought of there becoming a kc legacy in the courts.
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Post by Wrapitup Tue Aug 09, 2011 1:35 am

The KC trial and Not Guilty verdict have set a precedent for people like Sewell.

TR, I agree with every word you said. I have a sick feeling he may get off on these charges w/the insanity plea. And, as you said..YES, he is sick..most definitely is addicted to sex and killing after the "act." He reminds me of Ted Bundy in many, many ways.

As far as KC, I worry that other sick parents will "dispose" of their children similar to how KC threw away her beautiful daughter. angry
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Post by Wrapitup Tue Aug 09, 2011 1:38 am


Boo hoo hoo! Poor me, it's because of my childhood, bla bla bla. la la la WTF A pacemaker but he can still kill, cut women up and hide their bodies. BS crap angry "He doesn't know what happened. He can't explain???????" OMG!

After you watch this video, more VERY interesting video's w/play; however, I cannot embed them.
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Post by Wrapitup Wed Aug 10, 2011 12:52 pm

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By Ted Achladis FOX8.com Reporter
3:55 p.m. EDT, August 9, 2011
CLEVELAND—
Closing arguments in the mitigation phase of the Anthony Sowell murder trial ended Tuesday and the case was handed off to the jury.

Jurors will deliberate over Sowell's sentence. The only options for their sentence recommendation are the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Earlier Tuesday, Judge Dick Ambrose gave the jury its instructions and they listened to final messages from the attorneys.

One day after Sowell apologized to his victims' families, prosecutors attempted to prove that he is not mentally ill and that he should be executed.

Fox 8's Kevin Freeman says that prosecutors on Tuesday called their own mental health experts to the stand to refute previous testimony of defense witnesses who concluded that various mental defects may have caused Sowell to kill 11 women.

Dr. Diana Goldstein, a neuropsychologist from Illinois, testified that after looking at Sowell's records, she sees no sign that he suffers from any serious mental illness that would cause him to kill 11 women and hide their bodies at his home.

Goldstein also criticized the findings of defense expert Dr. George Woods, who testified last week that Sowell suffered from several things, including obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

During cross-examination, defense attorney John Parker took issue with Goldstein's findings.

"Living with four decomposing bodies does not show some cognitive dysfunction?" he asked.

"No, absolutely not," Goldstein responded.

"So it's no cognitive dysfunction in the brain to be living with four decomposing bodies in the same house for a long period of time?" Parker asked again.

"I think there's a parsimonious explanation for that," she answered.

Dr. James Knoll, a forensic psychiatrist from New York, also took the witness stand. He agreed that Sowell suffers no mental illnesses.

Defense attorneys have argued that Sowell's mental state and abusive upbringing are reasons he should be spared from the death penalty and given life in prison.

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Post by Guest Wed Aug 10, 2011 2:05 pm

Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell's sentence: jury recommends death
Anthony Sowell / Heavy Metal Band Releases Album Inspired by Anthony Sowell/Convicted of murdering all 11 women/JUDGE UPHOLDS JURY RECOMMENDATION- SOWELL SENTENCED TO DEATH!/Execution Stayed-Delayed Anthon11


CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A jury has recommended death for serial killer Anthony Sowell.


Cuyahoga County Judge Dick Ambrose will actually sentence Sowell, but not until 9 a.m Friday.

Family members of some of Sowell's victims broke into applause as Sowell was led out of the courtroom by sheriff's deputies.

Sowell simply nodded his head as he left through a doorway.

The jury had the power to recommend the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Ambrose began reading the verdicts for each of Sowell's 11 victims at 2:45 p.m.

One-by-one, he read a verdict that "the sentence of death should be imposed on the defendant, Anthony Sowell" for his crime.

Ambrose then polled the jury asking if each agreed with the unanimous verdict for the death penalty for Sowell. All 12 jurors said they were in agreement .

The jury -- a panel of seven women and five men -- began deliberations Tuesday afternoon and picked up again early this morning.


The jury re-entered the courrtoom around 2:30 p.m. Several relatives of victims went through metal detectors and were also seated in the courtroom.

Sowell, weaing an orange jumpsuit, entered the courtroom last and was seen briefly smiling and laughing with his attorneys.

Ambrose is not able to impose the death penalty without a recommendation from the jury -- but he can reduce a death penalty recommendation to life in prision.

Ambrose asked the jury to weigh the murders against testimony over the last week that said Sowell’s violent acts stem from post-traumatic stress, obsessive compulsive disorder, cognitive dysfunction and psychosis worsened y a his 2007 heart attack.

Sowell was convicted July 22 of multiple counts of aggravated murder and offenses for the deaths of the women whose remains were discovered in and around his Imperial Avenue home in 2009. He also was found guilty of attempting to kill three other women.

He finally spoke to the jury earlier this week, saying: "The only thing I want to say is that I'm sorry. I know that may not seem like much. And I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart."

He addressed the jury under the guidance of his attorneys, who asked him prepared questions.

This is not typical of me. I don't know what happened. I can't explain it. But I know it's not a lot, but that's all I can give."

Sowell’s attorney John Parker told jurors in his closing remarks of the mitigation phase on Tuesday that Sowell and the crimes he committed were products of his childhood.

"What the state is asking you to do is eliminate this man from the face of the earth," Parker said. "But what you need to keep in mind is that when you execute a person, you are killing their entire life. You are executing the abused child. You are executing the honorable Marine. You are executing the well-behaved prisoner. You are executing the man who held down a job."

But County Prosecutor Rick Bombik had scoffed at the idea of a life sentence.

"A life sentence, ladies and gentleman?" Bombik said in his closing. "Where’s the punishment? You’re sending him home to a place where he does well. A place where he can become the best of friends with child rapists."

Bombik was referring to Roosevelt Lloyd, a convicted sex offender and Sowell’s former cellmate at the Grafton Correctional Facility. Lloyd testified on Sowell’s behalf last week and told jurors Sowell is a "nice, loving, caring person."
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Post by TerryRose Wed Aug 10, 2011 4:04 pm

Sentence was handed down today---death penalty----the victims' families applauded and cheered. Justice has been done.
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Post by Wrapitup Wed Aug 10, 2011 4:07 pm

This is fantastic!!!! As the State said: "If anyone deserves the DP, it is Anthony Sowell".

To look and hear him speak, one would never guess he could be so horribly pathological and heinous. It just goes to show that we never really know who we are dealing with. That is why it is SO important for single mothers to PROTECT their little ones by NOT bringing men around their children until they have had their record run and spent a lot of time with them (IMO, at least 6 mo to a year) before even Thinking of allowing them around a child.

AS killed women. He is no better than Ted Bundy. In fact, his MO was a lot like his.
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Post by TerryRose Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:46 pm

Maybe I should have worded my post differently. I meant to say the JURY decided on the DP, but the final sentence is yet to be given by the judge. Do you think that a judge would go against the decision of the jury in this case? That part confuses me.
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Post by Wrapitup Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:54 pm

TR, I was under the impression that the judge agreed with the jury. I don't know what the laws are in Ohio as far as if a judge can go against the decision of the jury, but I think he/she could.

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Post by Wrapitup Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:57 pm

I also noticed that there was a huge round of applause when the DP sentence was read.

Remember right before the court clerk read the verdict in the Anthony case? JP said there would be no emotions to be shown, or words to that affect.

At least in this case, family and friends of the victims were able to "show their emotions" and rightly so!!
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Post by TerryRose Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:11 am

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The judge upholds jury's recommendation-----Anthony Sowell sentenced to death.
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Post by raine1953 Wed Aug 24, 2011 6:39 pm

Businessman selling dirt from convicted serial killer, Anthony Sowell's home

JACKSON, Fla. - A Florida man’s bizarre business of selling a convicted serial killer’s dirt has victims families disgusted.

The AP reports that Eric Gein of Jackson, Fla. is selling dirt collected from the home of Anthony Sowell, a Cleveland man found guilty of murdering 11 women.
Gein says the dirt is valuable because Sowell’s victims were buried in it, and he also says it’s a sick world. He plans on capitalizing on said sickness by selling the soil per gram on his website.


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Post by TerryRose Wed Aug 24, 2011 7:48 pm

Sick people will sell it, sick people will buy it. Sickening all the way around. Somebody ought to ask if he is stealing that dirt and arrest him since he is not the owner of that land.
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Post by Wrapitup Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:49 am

So, he's in Florida. Did he go to Cleveland and get dirt from Sowell's property? And, how is it that he knows it's from where he buried the bodies? This is beyond despicable!!

I would think the house has a No Trespass sign on it.

What a nutcase!!

Laga, you are correct! Riley would be faint
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Post by raine1953 Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:11 pm

CLEVELAND – The Ohio Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell.
Last year, Sowell was sentenced to the death for the murders of 11 women who were found at his Imperial Avenue home.
Sowell’s newly appointed legal team argued that the appeals to which he is entitled would not have been completed before the October execution date.
According to Ohio law, every death row inmate is entitled to an automatic appeal no matter how heinous the offense may be.
“This is death, so all hurdles have to be cleared. All processes have to be done the right way. It has to be done, thoroughly examined in the state and in the federal court,” said Sowell’s former trial attorney Rufus Sims. “It may be reversed. We don’t know that, it may come back.”
“I’m not surprised, not at all. No matter what they do to him, it’s not going to bring my daughter back,” said Inez Fortson.
Fortson’s daughter, Telacia, was among the 11 victims.
“I just put it in the hands of God. Whatever happens, happens,” Fortson said.
“It’s not unusual. Cases like this stay on the docket for 20, 25 years,” said Sims.
Sowell is currently being held at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution.
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Post by Wrapitup Mon Apr 02, 2012 10:11 pm

That sure wouldn't be the case in Texas. He would be toast. Electric Chair
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Post by raine1953 Sat Dec 22, 2012 2:10 pm

When Cleveland and the nation first learned of the horrible acts committed by East Cleveland resident Anthony Sowell on Oct. 29, 2009, most people watched the news break on TV from work or at home or in a restaurant, or read it on their smartphones.
But not Strongsville resident Robert Sberna.
“I immediately went out to the crime scene because I was curious,” Sberna said. “The first day they found two bodies, and I saw an increasing amount of national and international media coverage.”
Now’s a good time to mention that Sberna is a freelance journalist, which would explain the curiosity that would drive him to want to go to a home in which authorities would later find a total of 11 bodies of women killed over the span of two years.
“I became curious about not only figuring out how a crime of this magnitude could take place over this time period, and the neighbors and police not know, and also what could cause an otherwise normal person to do this,” Sberna said.
And his journey to answer those questions resulted in the 206-page book “House of Horrors,” which he released on Oct. 29 – the third anniversary of the discovery of the bodies.
Writing it was no easy task. Sberna said there was a gag order on all the information from police and the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office before Sowell – whom Sberna describes as “a complete narcissist” – went to trial, so Sberna was on his own to paint a picture of what happened.
“I spent my time for that first year talking to neighbors and family members of Sowell, and what I found was really kind of a complex, interesting character,” he said. “He had a horribly abusive childhood.”
In adulthood, Sowell – a decorated Marine – was “a total, malignant narcissist,” Sberna said, pointing to what Sowell told him in a telephone interview from prison during the trial.


“He told me ‘you guys got it all wrong,’ so I told him let’s clear it up, what do we get wrong,” he said. “And he said: ‘You guys keep saying when I was in the Marine’s I got two Letters of Commendation. I actually got three Letters.’ And that was the primary thing we wanted me to know. He was more concerned with having the world see him as he saw himself.”
As he continued reporting, Sberna discovered that as complex as Sowell’s past was, so was the past of his victims, many of whom struggled with addiction and received little sympathy from the public.
“I got in there really early when people were still venting, angry, scared, shocked, and they wanted to tell their story,” Sberna said. “My objective in writing the book was really to humanize the victims, because they got stigmatized and demonized really quickly.”
Sberna said writing the book, which is in the true crime genre and contains letters Sowell wrote to Sberna while he was in prison on trial, really showed him how the drug policy in the United States needs to change, because crack addiction is running rampant.
“A drug that made these women abandon their kids, live on the street and not take showers for weeks at a time, and go into a house of death?” he said.
“House of Horrors,” published by Kent State University Press, is available for $10.91 on amazon.com and through Sberna’s website, robertsberna.com.
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Post by raine1953 Tue Mar 12, 2013 11:36 pm

CINCINNATI — A man found guilty of killing 11 women and hiding their remains around his Cleveland home got a fair trial, and his conviction and death sentence should stand, state prosecutors told the Supreme Court.

Responding to an appeal by convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell, prosecutors told the court in Monday's filing that he is "the worst offender in the history of Cuyahoga County and arguably of the State of Ohio."

"Sowell brutally murdered 11 innocent women by strangling them to death," prosecutors wrote. "He left their bodies lying around his house like garbage."

In their appeal in October, Sowell's attorneys argued that their client's original lawyers were his "chief saboteurs" and wrongly wasted time by arguing to jurors that there was reasonable doubt about Sowell's guilt in the face of the overwhelming evidence against him and his own confession.

Instead, his current attorneys argue, Sowell's previous defense team should have conceded that he was guilty and focused on sparing him from the death penalty in favor of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"Counsel repeatedly directed the jurors' attention to gruesome and painfully damning evidence," Sowell's attorneys wrote. "This quixotic undertaking damaged counsels' credibility, made them look desperate in the process and likely irritated the jurors by unnecessarily dragging out the trial. Counsels' strategy was not justly chosen; it was irrational."

State prosecutors say that argument amounts to Sowell saying that he was denied a fair trial by getting one.

"Sowell had an absolute constitutional right to go to trial and to force the state to prove his guilt on every charge in the indictment beyond a reasonable doubt," according to the prosecutors' filing. "Sowell's position has no support in case law or in the Constitution, and he cannot demonstrate deficient performance (of counsel) based on the exercise of his own constitutional rights."

Sowell's attorneys will get a chance to respond to the prosecutors' filing, and then the Ohio Supreme Court can rule whether to uphold Sowell's conviction and death sentence.

Jurors found Sowell guilty of killing 11 women from June 2007 to July 2009. Police found their mostly nude bodies throughout the house after a woman escaped and said she had been raped in there.

Sowell's victims ranged in age from 24 to 52, all were recovering or current drug addicts and most died of strangulation; some had been decapitated, and others were so badly decomposed that coroners couldn't say with certainty how they died.

In interviews with police, Sowell said he targeted black women who reminded him of his ex-girlfriend, who had been addicted to crack and left him shortly before the killings began.
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Post by Wrapitup Tue Mar 12, 2013 11:40 pm

No WAY was he going to win this appeal. Now, he will sit on death row just like Scott Peterson who should have died almost a decade ago.

Sowell w/probably die of something else in prison before getting Electric Chair
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Post by raine1953 Tue Mar 12, 2013 11:57 pm

agreed
The DP insures that the convicted has years, decades of appeals.
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