Anthony Sowell faces lethal injection for the murder of 11 young women
A US man has been sentenced to death for the murders of 11 women whose remains he kept in his house in Ohio.
Sowell was found guilty last month of aggravated murder, kidnapping, and other charges in the gruesome 11 deaths. At court in Cleveland, the 51-year-old sat with eyes closed as Judge Dick Ambrose read aloud the details of each murder, before passing sentence.
The bodies were found after police went to arrest Sowell in October 2009 on a sexualassault allegation. His execution by lethal injection was scheduled for 29 October 2012, although it is likely to be delayed by appeals.
Judge Ambrose described how the women’s bodies had been disposed of in bin bags and plastic sheets, then dumped around Sowell’s house and backyard.
Nearly all of the women had been strangled and were nude from the waist down.
The judge – who gently warned spectators to refrain from outbursts – also read testimony on Friday from several women who survived Sowell’s attacks.
He said that evidence of Sowell’s troubled childhood, his eight-year service with honourable discharge from the US Marine Corps, and his lawyers’ assertions that he was psychotic did not mitigate the crimes. Judge Ambrose also noted Sowell had spent 15 years in prison for attempted rape.
The women began to disappear in 2007. Prosecutors said Sowell had lured them into a rundown three-storey house in Cleveland to drink alcohol and smoke crack cocaine and marijuana.
Sowell then had sex with or violently raped the women, before strangling them with rope, electrical cable or strips of cloth.
The bodies were discovered buried in shallow graves in the backyard or within the house, many wrapped in plastic sheeting or bin liners.
‘God have mercy’
Until the discovery of the bodies, many in the neighbourhood believed the bad smell was coming from a nearby sausage shop.
The family-owned business spent $20,000 (£12,260) on plumbing and other maintenance in attempts to get rid of the odour.
Sowell did not address the court on Friday, but on Monday he said in an unsworn
statement: “The only thing I want to say is I’m sorry.
“I know that might not sound like much, but I truly am sorry from the bottom of my heart.”
After passing sentence, Judge Ambrose urged those victims who had not forgiven Sowell to find a way to do so, suggesting that would be the only way they could move on.
Then, speaking to Sowell, who opened his eyes and looked attentively at the bench, he said: “And may God have mercy on your soul.”
As Judge Ambrose banged the gavel and Sowell was led away, the courtroom erupted into cheers, with prosecutors and victims’ family members embracing members of the jury.
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