Ohio high court hears appeal from condemned killer of 11

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Defense attorneys wasted time challenging evidence against a Cleveland man who killed 11 women and hid the remains in and around his home and should have focused instead on sparing him from a death sentence, according to arguments before the Ohio Supreme Court.

New lawyers for Anthony Sowell say a better strategy would have been to concede Sowell’s overwhelming guilt and push for life without parole based on his background, including a chaotic childhood.

Sowell’s attorneys “repeatedly directed the jurors’ attention to gruesome and painfully damning evidence,” according to a 2012 filing by attorneys Jeffrey Gamso and Erika Cunliffe.

As a result, the attorneys looked desperate, and jurors were likely irritated that it dragged out the trial, the filing said.

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 after a woman said she had been raped in the house.

Attorneys for both sides made their arguments Tuesday before the state’s highest court.

A decision isn’t expected for months. But even if the court upholds Sowell’s death sentence, an execution is years away. Sowell still could appeal through the federal courts, and Ohio lacks lethal-injection drugs.

Most of Tuesday’s hearing was taken up with a separate argument involving Sowell’s videotaped interrogation.

At issue is a 2010 hearing during which a Cleveland judge closed the courtroom while he heard arguments for and against allowing the interrogation, which lasts for more than 11 hours.

The judge ultimately allowed its use, and most of it was played during Sowell’s trial.

Sowell’s attorneys are seeking a new hearing over the interrogation and are hoping for a sentence of life without parole instead of death. Gamso acknowledges Sowell will never be freed.