By Kathy Wray Coleman: Ariel Castro Victim Michelle Knight to appear this week on "Dr Phil," Imperial Women, other local Cleveland activists groups applaud her courage, want town hall in Cleveland with Knight, Dr. Phil on violence against women issue, Knight canceled an appearance at the 4th Anniversary of the Imperial Avenue Murders Rally and Vigil just last week, activists call for Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry to speak out too on violence against women
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| From left, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight |
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| Dr. Phil |
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| Ariel Castro at sentencing on August 1, 2013 at the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. Next to him is one of Castro's court appointed attorney's, though demolition crews found $22,000 when his home on the city's west side was demolished about a week after sentencing. |
Knight canceled a previously schedule appearance to speak Tuesday night at a 4th anniversary rally and vigil with a cadre of some 15 other speakers to remember the 11 Black women slain by since convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell at the site of his since demolished home on the city's largely Black east side. Sowell sits on death row as his convictions on 82 counts, including rape, aggravated murder and kidnapping, are on appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court.
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| Convicted serial killer of 11 Black women Anthony Sowell |
In an email to community activist Kathy Wray Coleman, a key organizer of Tuesday's rally and vigil who leads the Imperial Women Activist Group, a women's advocacy organization in Cleveland, Ohio, Knight's attorney, Peggy Foley- Jones, told Coleman that Knight had to cancel at the last minute but that she hopes to reschedule a meeting with Knight at another community activist forum in Cleveland around the unprecedented issue of violence against women.
Coleman said that her group supports Knight and commends her for rising above the throngs of serial rapist and kidnapper Ariel Castro to become a spokesperson for young women across America victimized by violence.
"We could not compete obviously with Dr. Phil, but we applaud both Dr. Phil and Ms. Knight in highlighting the epidemic of violence against women in greater Cleveland and across the nation," said Coleman. "We invite Dr. Phil to Cleveland and look forward to a potential town hall forum here with Michelle since her attorney said that she would likely reschedule with us. We are glad that Michelle is exposing some of what happened on Seymour Avenue and we urge Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry to speak out too, if at all possible."
Castro was found dead in his prison cell just over a month after Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Joe Russo, on August 1, sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In exchange for Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty (pictured below) lifting the death penalty from consideration, he pleaded guilty to 937 counts, including the rape and kidnapping of Knight, DeJesus, and Berry, and the murder of Knight's unborn fetus.
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| Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty |
A fired Cleveland schools bus driver and abusive widower with two grown children, Castro allegedly hanged himself at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio.
He was reportedly found hanged in his cell at about 9:20 pm when correction officers' staff were making rounds and was pronounced dead an hour and a half after he was transported to a nearby hospital.
He was not on suicide watch, prison authorities said.
He was not on suicide watch, prison authorities said.
Castro admitted at sentencing as part of a plea deal that he repeatedly raped DeJesus, Berry and Knight, and he told the judge moments before he was sentenced that the sex was allegedly consensual, though DeJesus and Berry were under-aged when he kidnapped the two of them. He told the judge that that they were all allegedly "one happy family," a claim the three previously captive women and authorities deny.
Over 100 feet of chain was found in the Castro home when police raided it after his neighbor Charles Ramsey, who is Black, rescued the women in May.
The three of them were kidnapped between 2002 and 2004, police authorities said.
Berry, who gave birth to a now six-year-old daughter to Castro while in captivity, was nearly 17 when Castro so boldly kidnapped her not even a mile away from her home, DeJesus, who knew his daughter, was 14, and also grew up close to the Castro home like Berry. And Knight, whom he treated with disproportionate disdain, was 21 at the time.
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