Suspect in killings to be reclassified

June 5, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

A man accused of killing 11 women and dumping their remains around his home is among 26,000 sex offenders who will be reclassified and subject to less strict monitoring after a state Supreme Court ruling.

Anthony Sowell no longer will be classified as a Tier III offender, which meant that he had to report to law enforcement every 90 days and that neighbors would have been notified if he had moved, Cuyahoga County sheriff’s office spokesman John O’Brien said Friday.

Instead, Sowell will revert to his original classification of sexually oriented criminal, under which offenders must report to authorities once a year for 10 years, O’Brien said. Neighbors are not notified of the whereabouts of sexually oriented criminals, O’Brien said.

Sowell, 50, was deemed a sex offender in 2005, when he was released from prison after serving 15 years for a 1989 attempted rape. Authorities found the decomposing bodies of 11 women in and around Sowell’s Cleveland home last year. He has pleaded innocent to killing the women and is being held without bond as he awaits a September trial.

In 2008, Ohio was the first state to put substantially in place a new sex- offender registration and notification system required by the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. The 2006 law is named for a 6-year-old Florida boy who was abducted and killed in 1981 and whose father, John Walsh, is the host of TV’s “America’s Most Wanted,” which publicizes crimes and helps authorities catch criminals.

The law, signed by former President George W. Bush, sought to get states to better coordinate and expand their sex offender registries.

The Ohio attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday on how the ruling affects Sowell.

County prosecutor’s office spokesman Ryan Miday said the ruling is the least of Sowell’s concerns.

“He faces the death penalty for the murder of 11 women,” Miday said in an e-mailed statement. “The court’s ruling is being reviewed as it pertains to reporting requirements.”

Records of the 1989 assault show Sowell took a 21-year-old woman to his home, pushed her down on a bed and started to choke her. When she tried to scream, he said: “You can scream all you want. Nobody is home.”

He sexually assaulted the woman twice, gagged her, threatened to kill her and tied her up with a necktie, the records said.

Because of the viciousness of the crime, a parole board repeatedly denied him early release. In a parole hearing, he owned up to an alcohol problem and said he’d been drinking the day of the assault.

Thursday’s court ruling means that sex offenders convicted before the law went into effect on Jan. 1, 2008, would revert to the classifications they received under the old Megan’s Law — and potentially be subject to less stringent registration and notification requirements. The ruling leaves in place the new, tougher requirements for those convicted since.

In its 5-1 decision, the high court said that Ohio’s implementation violated the separation of powers among branches of government because the Legislature was forcing the executive branch to revisit decisions made by judges.

Under Ohio’s new Adam Walsh Law, old Megan’s Law classifications such as “sexually oriented criminal” or “sexual predator” were replaced with a tiered classification system. Offenders were moved into the new tiers based solely on the offenses they had committed, whereas Megan’s Law had allowed judges to hold hearings and use some discretion in assigning offenders categories.