Pictured are convicted serial killer and death row inmate Anthony Sowell and Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst. Judge Fuerst dismissed the lawsuit filed by the families of the victims of Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell, and lost on appeal, and then she forced some of them into a small settlement while others still await justice. Fuerst is also accused of harassing Blacks, women and community activists in malicious prosecution cases before her, including denying them indigent counsel, issuing arrest warrants for unjournalized trials they fail to appear for, refusing to docket or journalize when they appear for trial, and denying them their speedy trial rights. ACTIVISTS SAY VOTE NANCY FUERST OFF THE BENCH IN 2020
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio-Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell, who sits on death row for the murders of 11 Black women at his since demolished home on Imperial Avenue on Cleveland's largely Black east side, has asked the 8th District Court of Appeals for a second chance to seek to overturn his convictions and death sentence on the alleged grounds he was denied effective assistance of counsel on appeal to that court, his lawyers later losing an appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court and a via a request for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.
A three judge appellate panel, namely judges Patricia Ann Blackmon, Larry Jones and Eileen Gallagher, heard oral argument on Tuesday on the Appellate Rule 26 B motion filed by Sowell's attorneys that says the serial killer was denied effective assistance of counsel on appeal to the 8th district appellate court, or, in other words, that his appellate attorneys were inept for not raising on appeal that his trial court attorneys were ineffective in not demanding that he be given a brain scan to determine possible mental illness, among other claims.
The scholarly Blackmon, a former chief city prosecutor, and Jones, a former municipal court judge, are both Black.
Sowell did not attend oral argument before the appeals court.
The judicial panel will rule on whether Sowell should get a second appeal, which community activists object to.
His case before the 8th district
Dead at the hands of the sadistic Sowell are Tishana Culver, Leshanda Long, Michelle Mason, Tonia Carmichael, Nancy Cobbs, Amelda Hunter, Telacia Fortson, Janice Webb, Kim Yvette Smith, and Diane Turner.
"We ask that the 8th District Court of Appeals deny the Appellate Rule 26 B motion filed by Sowell's attorneys who argue that he was denied effective assistance of counsel on appeal to that court and deserves a second appeal after losing his first appeal," said Cleveland activist Kathy Wray Coleman, a founding member of the Imperial Women Coalition, the women's rights group derived from the unprecedented tragedy.
Activist Art McKoy, who leads Black on Black Crime Inc, said "activists will not rest until Sowell rots in hell."
Coleman has led every anniversary rally but did not lead this year's rally or the rally last year because she is being harassed and threatened by elected officials, City Hall operatives, crooked cops and corrupt and racist judges like Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst.
They say Coleman, who stood up when some other activists sold out and would come around only when called by the mainstream media for a news segment, should forget the dead women and that her activism on the issue is making the city look bad.
Public records reveal that she has been harassed extensively for fighting for justice for the murdered women and their families.
The now infamous serial killer, who is Black like his many victims, also raped three other Black women at his since demolished home on Imperial Avenue.
Dubbed the 'Cleveland strangler,' Sowell, 60, was convicted in 2011 by a Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas jury on 82 of 83 counts, including 11 counts of aggravated murder of the 11 Black women that he strangled to death at his home, and three counts of rape as to the rape of three other Black women, also at his home.
Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose, the trial court judge in the criminal case and a former Cleveland Browns football player, handed the serial killer a death sentence per the recommendation of the 12-member jury, the same jury that issued convictions weeks earlier.
Six of the 11 murdered women were killed by Sowell after Cleveland police released him from custody in 2008 on a rape complaint, the serial killer arrested again in 2009 on a rape complaint that stuck, but only after he murdered six more women.
Police also ignored reports by neighbors of a foul smell coming from the Sowell home, and missing persons reports filed by family members of the victims, allegedly because the victimized women, most, if not all of them, with substance abuse problems, were Black, and poor.
Ray's sausage company, which was next door to Sowell's home, settled with the city on lawsuit claims it was ruined after city officials falsely blamed it for the foul smell of dead bodies.
Last year the city of Cleveland settled with the families of the six women murdered after Sowell was erroneously released from custody in 2008 by the cops for a million dollars to share between them, the five remaining families still seeking justice via a lawsuit before Judge Nancy Fuerst, who had tossed out the suit filed by the 11 families altogether, only to have it reinstated on appeal.
After taxes and legal fees the shared $1 million settlement, $167,000 to each of the six families, is hardly $70,000 each, and the remaining five families have yet to reach a settlement, Judge Fuerst also threatening to toss that suit out again for her friends at Cleveland City Hall and the negligent cops and detectives involved in investigating the tragic murders, some of the families have said.
Fuerst is also accused of harassing Blacks, women and community activists in malicious prosecution cases before her, including denying them indigent counsel, issuing arrest warrants for unjournalized trials they fail to appear for, refusing to docket or journalize when they appear for trial, and denying them their speedy trial rights.
She is also appointed indigent counsel like attorney Brian mcGraw who works with her to get illegal convictions against Black beyond the speedy trial time.
A former U.S. marine, Sowell served 15 years in prison for attempted rape prior to the Imperial Avenue Murders.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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