No parole option for Ohio serial killer Anthony Sowell
(CBS/WOIO/AP) CLEVELAND - A judge in the Cleveland strangler case has ruled that the jury will consider either life in prison without parole or the death penalty when sentencing convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell. Parole is not an option.
Pictures: Anthony Sowell's Alleged Victims
The 51-year-old was convicted Friday of aggravated murder and other charges in the deaths of 11 women whose remains were found at his Cleveland home.
Judge Dick Ambrose ruled Wednesday that Sowell was a repeat violent offender and sexual violent predator - specifications in the indictment that Sowell had waived his right for a jury to consider. The specifications eliminate the chance for parole.
According to CBS affiliate WOIO, The judge also granted a defense motion to lead Sowell through an unsworn question-and-answer statement during the sentencing phase, which begins Aug. 1.
"He really does need the guiding hand of counsel, so to speak, to make sure he hits on all the topics to assist in making this a more efficient and comprehensive presentation to the jury," Sowell's Attorney John Parker told WOIO.
The discovery of the bodies was an embarrassment for the city's police force, which was accused by victims' families of failing to properly investigate the disappearances because most of the women were addicted to drugs and lived in an impoverished neighborhood. Several victims' families filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city last year.
The women began disappearing in 2007, and prosecutors say Sowell lured them to his home with the promise of alcohol or drugs. Police discovered the first two bodies and a freshly dug grave in late 2009 after officers went to investigate a woman's report that she had been raped there. Many of the women found in Sowell's home had been missing for weeks or months, and some had criminal records. They were disposed of in garbage bags and plastic sheets, then dumped in various parts of the house and yard. All that remained of one victim, Leshanda Long, was her skull, which was found in a bucket in the basement. Most of the victims were nude from the waist down, strangled with household objects and had traces of cocaine or depressants in their systems. All of the victims were black.
He was acquitted of only one count in the 83-count indictment: a charge of aggravated robbery connected to one of the women he was convicted of attacking. Sowell was also convicted of rape, attempted murder, kidnapping and felonious assault in attacks on two other women who survived. He was convicted of attempted murder, attempted rape, kidnapping and felonious assault in an attack on a third woman who also survived.