The Ohio Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday for a new trial for condemned serial killer Anthony Sowell, who killed 11 women and hid their bodies in and around his home.
Sowell, 56, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2011.
Sowell's new attorneys are fighting the death sentence for their client. They claimed that his original defense attorneys wasted time challenging the evidence against Sowell, when they should have focused on sparing him the death penalty, based on Sowell's chaotic childhood and background, ABC News reported.
Sowell's attorneys also said the judge in the case should not have closed a July 2010 hearing in which lawyers argued over a video of Sowell's police interview. In addition, they argued that the judge shouldn't have put the individual questioning of potential jurors off limits to the public, the Associated Press reported.
Sowell's victims were black, homeless, drug- or alcohol-addicted women, who ranged in age from 25 to 52; some of their families filed police reports, others were used to long unexplained absences and didn't bother, the Washington Post reported.
According to the authorities, he seemed harmless enough when he invited his victims inside and promised them a good time before raping and strangling them, the Post reported.
