Ohio Supreme Court hears appeal from condemned serial killer

COLUMBUS (AP) — A Cleveland man who was convicted of killing 11 women and sentenced to death deserves an open court hearing to challenge the admissibility of his hourslong police interrogation, his attorney told the state's highest court today.

That hearing should take place even if it wouldn't affect the outcome of a new trial, said Jeffrey Gamso, who represents Anthony Sowell.

"An open trial with the press and the public present imposes on everybody involved a greater sense of propriety and the importance of getting everything and doing everything right," Gamso told the Supreme Court justices.

A Cuyahoga County prosecutor said the evidence against Sowell was overwhelming with or without the videotaped interrogation.

"The law and the facts are what they are," said assistant prosecutor Christopher Schroeder. "They're not going to change because a couple of people are sitting in the gallery in an open courtroom versus doing it in a closed courtroom."

Sowell, 56, was indicted in 2009 and convicted and sentenced in 2011. Jurors found Sowell guilty of killing 11 women from June 2007 to July 2009. Police found their mostly nude bodies throughout his home after a woman escaped and said she had been raped in the house.

A decision isn't expected for months.