From the Metro Desk of Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog, Tel: (216) 659-0473 (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio-Community activists and Black elected officials rallied yesterday in East Cleveland as the trial of suspected serial killer Michael Madison was to get underway today, January 12 at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center in downtown Cleveland in the courtroom of Common Pleas Judge Nancy McDonnell. Cleveland news channels 5, 8 and 19 Action News covered the rally.

The trial did not go forward as scheduled.

A convicted drug dealer and sex offender who served four years in prison for attempted rape prior to the most recent crimes he is charged with, Madison, 37, and also Black,  is accused of kidnapping and killing Shirellda Terry, 18, Angela Deskins, 38, and Shetisha Sheeley, 28 at the time. He is in jail on a $6 million bond.

Earlier today McDonnell postponed the trial due to an appeal pending in the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals that seeks to overturn an order by the judge that she issued last year for Madison to undergo a mental competency exam on whether he is fit to stand trial.

The trial court case docket, however, still reveals a trial date of Jan 12, and McDonnell could have gone forward with the trial since the appeals court denied a motion by Madison's attorneys for an order to stay the case or, in other words,  to put it on hold until it rules on the appeal.

Madison's public defenders contend on appeal that McDonnell erred when she ordered a psychological examination on whether Madison is competent to stand trial without them raising his mental health as a defense, and that it violates their client's Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination. In short, his attorneys say he is competent to stand trial and that his mental competency will not be raised by the defense at trial. The mental competency exam order, say his attorneys, is nothing more than an unconstitutional fishing expedition before trial.

Prosecutors have argued that Madison allegedly told police that he was on drugs and alcohol and had memory loss at the time of the crimes, and that due to the alleged confession, and because his attorneys have slated expert psychiatrists to testify at trial, McDonnell's competency exam order is legal, the latter of which the judge agrees with.

But Madison's court appointed attorneys, John F. Greene, Christine Julian and David Grant, told the trial court,  and the appeals court, that they do not intend to introduce psychiatric testimony at trial.

Though the appeals court has not yet ruled, it has indicated on the case docket that in the absence of slated psychiatric testimony by Madison at trial, McDonnell's order for a mental competency exam may lack grounds.

McGinty said today through his spokesperson that Madison's appeal against the order for a mental competency exam lacks merit.

"No we don't," said McGinty spokesman Joe Frolik when asked by Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's leader in Black digital news, whether prosecutors and McGinty's office see any merit to the appeal.

Frolik said also that if the state appeals court rules in favor of Madison that McGinty will ask the Ohio Supreme Court to hear the matter.

The remains of the three murdered Black women were wrapped separately in Black plastic bags, and the women, say activists, were treated like garbage, their bodies uncovered by police in the city of East Cleveland, and near the intersection of Shaw and Hayden Avenues.

During Sunday's rally activists called for police to do more to find missing women and their killers, and they want more resources on violence against women. And the Imperial Women Coalition, the lead sponsoring group of the rally,  demanded that the federal government step in.

"We call for an investigation by the U.S.  Department of Justice on systemic problems in Cuyahoga County on violence against women, including impropriety around missing person's reports," said Kathy Wray Coleman of the Imperial Women Coalition, who led the rally and said that the murders of poor Black women have not been a priority by police and city officials across the county.

Coleman also said that if greater Cleveland police can rally some 2,500 cops to Public Square in Cleveland in response to national and local out cries of police brutality,  that those same police officers can do more to"find missing women and our killers."

Angelique Malone, whose mother was killed in 2013 on Cleveland's east side and the killer remains at large, agreed that police and city officials need to do more.

"They are not doing enough," said Malone, one of eight children of Christine Malone, and who attended the rally with her father and two brothers.

State Rep Bill Patmon (D-10) and Cleveland Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell also spoke and both called for an end to violence against women.

Other rally speakers include a spokesperson for Puncture the Silence, Marva Patterson of the Carl Stokes Brigade, Valerie Robinson of Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Dr Eugene Jordan, who is a local dentist, tthe Rev. Gwendolyn Pitts, the Rev. Pamela Pinkney Butts, and the Rev. Billy Thomas Jr.

Terry's body was found on July 19, 201 in a garage leased to Madison, and the remains of  Deskins and Sheeley were uncovered the following day in the same vicinity, one in a nearby vacant house, and the other in the backyard.

Missing  persons reports had been filed by the families of all three women, two of whom resided in neighboring Cleveland.

The Madison case follows that of convicted serial killer and death row inmate Anthony Sowell, who strangled and killed 11 Black women at his home on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland. Their remains were discovered in late 2009.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)