One year ago on this
day, the Cleveland Strangler Serial Killer, Anthony Sowell was sentenced to
death by Cuyahoga
County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose in Ohio. I personally doubt that Anthony
Sowell was truly repentant of his crimes as he kept his eyes closed as though
he was sleeping. Unlike Troy Davis, why do the abolitionists not wear T-shirts
with the words, ‘I AM ANTHONY SOWELL’. I care for murdered victims and their
families regardless of their race.
I put up this post in memorial of
the 11 victims murdered by Anthony Sowell, I would like to post those quotes by
the victims’ families who gave their impact statements from several news
sources:
Serial killer Anthony Sowell sentenced to death; journey into the unspeakable ends for jury and families
Published: Friday, August 12,
2011, 4:50 PM Updated: Saturday, August 13, 2011, 1:26 AM
By Leila
Atassi, The Plain Dealer
Serial
killer Anthony Sowell sentenced to death Judge Dick Ambrose sentenced serial killer Anthony
Sowell to death for the murder of 11 women found in and around his Imperial
Avenue home in Cleveland back in Oct. 2009. Before the sentence was handed
down, family members had a chance to address the court.
CLEVELAND,
Ohio -- Serial killer Anthony Sowell, who earlier this week briefly apologized
to the families of the 11 women he killed without admitting his guilt, had even
fewer words for them Friday -- when Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dick
Ambrose sentenced him to die for his crimes.
Sowell remained silent, was almost catatonically
still and kept his eyes closed, as if in sleep, for nearly the entire two-hour
long hearing.
But a procession of his victims’ families, taking
turns at a lectern, had plenty to say to the man who lured women to his
Imperial Avenue home, strangled them and discarded their remains in shallow
graves, crawl spaces or left them to decompose in the open air.
“Lethal injection is too nice a way for
you to go,” said
Donnita Carmichael, daughter of victim Tonia Carmichael. “You do not deserve to be put to sleep the way we do our
beloved pets. You should be made to look at (the women’s) faces every day as a
reminder of the lives you took and the pain you caused. You thought these women
were worthless, that no one knew they were gone, that no one cared about them.
And you were wrong.”
Sowell, 51, was convicted July 22 of multiple
counts of aggravated murder and a slate of other offenses for the women’s
deaths. He also was found guilty of attempting to kill three other women who
survived.
 |
Anthony
Sowell received the death sentence, which was recommended earlier by jury, from
Judge Dick Ambrose for the Imperial Avenue murders, Friday, August 12, 2011.
Sowell sat motionless with his eyes closed for most of the court session,
including when victims families spoke. The same
jury, after hearing a week’s worth of testimony on Sowell’s troubled
upbringing, cognitive problems, psychosis and other disorders, on Wednesday
recommended Sowell receive the death penalty.
|
All 12 jurors and one alternate returned to court
Friday to watch as Ambrose carried out their wishes. Although they remained
composed throughout the 10-week long trial, several wept openly as the
relatives of Sowell’s victims spoke about anger, loss-- and forgiveness.
“First of all, I must forgive Anthony
Sowell for what he did to all these women,” said Jim Allen, father of victim Leshanda Long. “I know love conquers hate, and it always will. But I think
this might be a hollow victory. There’s no winner, there’s no loser. Everybody
lost something today.”
Others could not find forgiveness as easily.
“I’m not a hateful person,” said Adlean Atterberry, mother
of victim Michelle Mason. “I never believed in the
death penalty until I met you. I never ever wanted anybody to die like that.
But now that I’ve met you, they need to set it on Public Square, put you in
there and...”
Atterberry, overcome with emotion, ended her
sentence short, apologized and left the lectern.
Dorothy Pollard, aunt of victim Diane Turner, told
Sowell he deserves to be killed and allowed to lie “helpless
and lifeless like our loved ones did in that disgusting house.”
And before turning away from Sowell, she
proclaimed, “And may your pacemaker stop and you die
tonight.”
Before Sowell was sentenced, defense attorney, John
Parker, asked Ambrose to consider the fact that Sowell was willing to plead
guilty to all of the charges before the trial began and waive his right to an
appeal in exchange for a life sentence rather than death.
Ambrose rejected that argument along with every
other factor the defense team presented last week in an effort to save Sowell’s
life. Ambrose said that testimony from the defense’s psychological experts that
Sowell suffered from post-traumatic stress stemming from an abusive childhood,
obsessive-compulsive disorder, psychosis and cognitive impairment was cancelled
out by the state’s witnesses suggesting the contrary.
The judge added that, in deciding whether Sowell
should live or die, he placed no weight on Sowell’s apology.
“Even though he said he was sorry, sorry from the
bottom of his heart, he failed to take responsibility for his crimes by adding,
‘I don’t know what happened. I can’t explain it.’”
Ambrose also said his decision was effected by
Sowell’s courtroom demeanor. Sowell seemed emotionless and disengaged while
coroner’s officials showed photos of the decomposed bodies, yet he smiled,
laughed and cried when his half-sister Tressa Garrison or former girlfriend,
Lori Frazier, took the stand, Ambrose pointed out.
Ambrose said he is not certain that Sowell will
ever feel remorse for what he has done.
“If you did feel bad, then I would have some hope
for you,” Ambrose told Sowell, who remained seated with his eyes closed. “Not
for your physical well-being here on earth, because that’s been decided in
court - but for your eternal well-being.”
Sowell is scheduled to die by lethal injection on
Oct. 29, 2012 -- the third anniversary of police’s discovery of the first of
the women’s remains.
After Sowell was sentenced and families of victims
applauded his departure from the courtroom, defense attorney Rufus Sims told
reporters the case is far from over.
Sowell’s death sentence entitles him to an
automatic appeal. And Sims said in the coming weeks the defense team plans on
filing a motion claiming that a comment one juror made to media after the trial
implied that their client was prejudiced by her personal feelings against him.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, flanked by
Assistant Prosecutors Rick Bombik, Pinkey Carr and Lauren Bell, said in a news
conference after the sentencing that he is unconcerned by the motion and will
defend Sowell’s conviction rigorously.
The prosecutors also commented for the first time
on a petition that some family members had signed months ago, demanding Sowell
be offered a plea deal to avoid a lengthy trial and decades of appeals.
Prosecutors said the story of the women who died on
Imperial Avenue was one that needed to be told.
And the death penalty, they said, was designed for
killers like Anthony Sowell.
Families to Sowell: 'Hell awaits your arrival'
4:06 PM, Aug 12, 2011
CLEVELAND
-- Families of Anthony Sowell's murder victims held little back as they
addressed the court which sentenced him to death on Friday. One after another
they expressed their anguish, anger, and even forgiveness toward the serial
killer.
"Anthony, you are an animal, and hell awaits your
arrival," said
Donnita Carmichael, whose mother Tonia disappeared on November 10, 2008. Her remains,
and those of 10 other women, were found in and around Sowell's house on
Imperial Avenue on Cleveland's east side one year later.
As
the families talked, Sowell sat passively,
eyes tightly closed and head tilted downward, feigning sleep.
He kept that posture during the entire two hour sentencing phase of his trial,
refusing to acknowledge the family members, his own attorneys, and even the
judge.
"I'll never forgive you," Carmichael continued, "the
way you sat through these court proceedings without an ounce of remorse. You
are going to hell for your actions."
Adlean Atterberry,
whose daughter Michelle Mason was strangled by Sowell, looked his way and said,
"I'm not a hateful person. I didn't believe in the
death penalty until I met you."
Cuyahoga
County Common Pleas Court Judge Dick Ambrose had accepted the jury's
recommendation of a death sentence, finding that the circumstances of the 11
murders outweighed any mitigating factors. He set an execution date of October
29, 2012.
Speaking
from his wheelchair, Don Smith, the father of murder victim Kim Smith said of
Sowell, "He took my heart. He took my life. I
might as well die, too."
The
packed courtroom sat in near reverent silence as groups of family members
approached a podium in the courtroom.
Dorothy
Pollard, whose niece Diana Turner was killed by Sowell, ended her statement by
looking at Sowell and saying forcefully, "May your
pacemaker stop and may you die tonight."
Several
family members said they had to forgive Sowell so that God would forgive them
for whatever they may have done. "I didn't want to
go around being the angry victim," said Shawn Morris, one of three
women who survived Sowell's attacks.
"I'm not a victim. I'm a survivor and I thank God for
that," she went on. "The anger has washed off me. I gave it to God. And now
it's time to reap what he has sown, and I forgive him."
"I have to forgive him so I can move on with my life," Gladys Wade Thomas, another survivor,
stated. "If I keep the anger inside, I can't
budge."
Judge
Ambrose concluded the proceedings by offering a few words of his own. He talked
about a suggestion by one of the families that Anthony Sowell be forced to look
at pictures of his victims every day while he sits in his prison cell.
"I
can't do that, but I don't think he would feel bad about what he did,"
Ambrose said from the bench. He then looked at the condemned serial killer and
added, "If you did feel bad then I would have some hope for you."
WKYC-TV
Ohio
serial killer Sowell gets death penalty
Fri, Aug
12 2011
By Kim Palmer
CLEVELAND (Reuters) - A judge on Friday sentenced
Ohio serial killer Anthony Sowell to death and set his execution date,
accepting the recommendation of the jury that convicted the ex-Marine.
Sowell was convicted last month of murdering 11
women over a two-year-period and dumping their bodies around his Cleveland
home.
Earlier this week, the jury recommended he be put
to death for the crimes -- a recommendation Judge Dick Ambrose could have set
aside.
Instead, Ambrose agreed with the panel -- which
asked to be in the courtroom for Friday's sentencing -- and ordered that Sowell
die by lethal injection on October 29, 2012.
Police discovered the remains of the 11 victims in
the fall of 2009, when they went to Sowell's home to investigate rape and
assault charges.
Sowell, handcuffed and shackled, had his eyes
closed as the sentence was imposed.
He was unresponsive as the judge asked if he
understood his responsibility as a sex offender and his right to automatic
appeal.
Before sentencing, defense attorney John Parker
asked Ambrose to "consider all the mitigation evidence" and to take
into account that Sowell attempted to plead guilty before the trial began.
Family members of the dead, and two surviving
victims, spoke in open court before the sentence was delivered.
Some family members, like Jim Allen, the father of
victim Leshanda Long, said they forgave Sowell.
"Love conquers hate," Allen said. "It is a hollow victory. There is no winner and no loser
today."
But many others spoke of judgment and retribution.
One family member even yelled, "dead man walking" as she left the podium.
"You are going to hell for your
actions. You are an animal and hell awaits you," said Donnita Carmichael, mother
of Barbara Carmichael, one of Sowell's victim.
Defense attorney Rufus Sims told reporters the
defense plans on asking for a new trial based on comments jurors made to the
press shortly after delivering their verdict.
Ohio has sent 152 people to death row since
re-establishing capital punishment in 1999. The average time from sentencing to
execution is 14 years, 6 months.
Sowell's 11 victims were Diane Turner, Telacia
Fortson, Janice Webb, Nancy Cobbs, Tishana Culver, Amelda Hunter, Michelle
Mason, Crystal Dozier and Kim Smith as well as Long and Carmichael.
Many of the victims had histories of drug problems
or were transients, and their disappearances were not always immediately
reported to police.
Sowell, who had a previous conviction for raping a
pregnant woman, had claimed that bad smells in the area came from a nearby
sausage factory.
Family members of some victims have filed suit
against the city, complaining about the police's handling of the case. The
father of one of the victims said his concerns were dismissed by police
because of his daughter's history of drug use.
Anthony Sowell moved to Youngstown death row
5:37 PM, Sep 14, 2011
CLEVELAND -- The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections confirms that convicted killer Anthony Sowell has been moved to the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.Sowell, 52, has been placed on death row there.
Last month, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Dick Ambrose sentenced Sowell to die on Oct. 29, 2012, three years to the day that the first of the bodies of his 11 victims was discovered at his Imperial Avenue home.
Sowell was convicted on 82 counts and the jury recommended the death penalty.
Sowell is appealing his sentence. Sowell had been held in the Cuyahoga County Jail since Oct. 31, 2009.
WKYC-TV
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