Convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell dies: Activists to rally in response to death of Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell in prison at 4:30 pm on Thursday, February 11, 2021 on Imperial Avenue where he murdered 11 Black women and raped three others who escaped his wrath...."We are pleased that Anthony Sowell and his attorneys can no longer file frivolous appeals of his convictions on 82 of 83 counts and that the families of Sowell's victims have gotten some degree of closure but so much more work is needed to protect Black women in Cleveland from these heinous types of crimes and violence in general," said Imperial Women Coalition founder and Cleveland activist and organizer Kathy Wray Coleman, who has been the head organizer of nearly every anniversary rally and march relative to the Imperial Avenue Murders since 2010, including the anniversary rally held last October. "Men will be at Thursday's rally in support of Black women on this issue as we have always done," said Black on Black Crime President Alfred Porter Jr. "Sowell and his attorneys can no longer misuse the system"....By Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's leader in Black digital news

 

Convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell

 

                           

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Greater Cleveland community activists, elected officials, and community members in general, led by the Imperial Women Coalition, Peace in the Hood, and Black on Black Crime Inc., will rally  on Thurs., Feb 11, 2021 at 4:30 pm on 12205 Imperial Avenue on Cleveland's largely Black east side in front of where convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell's home once stood and where he murdered 11 Black women and raped three others who escaped his wrath (Call the Imperial Women Coalition at (216) 659-0473 for more information. Masks  and social distancing are required).

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE FOR THE RALLY 

Sowell, 61, died Feb 8 at the end-of-life care unit at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus after being transferred there on Jan 21 from the Chillicothe Correctional Institution in Ohio where he was awaiting the death penalty. 

He suffered from a terminal illness, but it was purportedly not the coronavirus, a spokesperson from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said on Monday. 

Dead at the hands of the infamous Sowell are Tishana Culver, Leshanda Long, Michelle Mason, Tonia Carmichael, Nancy Cobbs, Amelda Hunter, Telacia Fortson, Janice Webb, Kim Yvette Smith, and Diane Turner.

The 11 women were strangled and murdered by serial killer Sowell at his since demolished home on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland's Mount Pleasant Neighborhood on the city's largely Black east side.

And while three other women were raped and escaped, they were left with emotional scars.

Activists will remember the 11 fallen women and other women subjected to heinous violence at Thursday's public event on Imperial Avenue and will give speeches.

"We are pleased that Anthony Sowell and his attorneys can no longer file frivolous appeals of his convictions on 82 of 83 counts counts  and that the families of Sowell's victims have gotten some degree of closure but so much more work is needed to protect  Black women in Cleveland from these heinous types of crimes and violence in general," said Imperial Women Coalition founder and Cleveland activist and organizer Kathy Wray Coleman, who has been the head organizer of nearly every anniversary rally and march relative to the Imperial Avenue Murders since 2010, including the anniversary rally held last October.

"Men will be at Thursday's rally in support of Black women on this issue as we have always done," said Black on Black Crime President Alfred Porter Jr.  "Sowell and his attorneys can no longer misuse the system."

Other participating groups for the upcoming rally include the Cleveland Peacemakers, the Black Man's Army, Black Women's PAC of Greater Cleveland, the Brickhouse Wellness Center, International Women's Day March Cleveland, Find Our Children The Missing-Ebony Alert, Survivors and Victims of Tragedy, the Laura Cowan Foundation, Refusefacism Ohio, the Carl Stokes Brigade and Women's March Cleveland.

Dubbed the "Cleveland strangler," Sowell was convicted in 2011 by a Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas jury on 82 of 83 counts, including 11 counts of aggravated murder and three counts of rape.

Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose, the trial court judge who presided over Sowell's criminal case and a former Cleveland Browns football player, handed the serial killer a death sentence following  a recommendation from the same jury that convicted him. 

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 another rape complaint that stuck, but only after he murdered six more women.

Police also ignored missing persons reports filed by family members of the victims, allegedly because the victims were poor Black women.

Sowell and his lawyers exhausted all appeals that sought to overturn his convictions and death sentence, including to the U.S. Supreme court, which refused to hear his case in 2017.

The city settled with the families of the six women murdered after Sowell was  released from custody in 2008 in spite of a pending rape report to police.

The settlement was for $1 million, which was split between the six families.

Sowell was arrested again in 2009 on a rape complaint and that is when the 11 bodies were discovered at his then home on Imperial Avenue. 

Five other families that sued await settlement.

A former U.S. marine, Sowell served 15 years in prison for attempted rape prior to the Imperial Avenue Murders.

See below, the 11 Black women strangled and murdered on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio by convicted serial killer and death row inmate Anthony Sowell. 

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.