US serial killer sentenced to death

A jury recommended the death penalty for a serial killer who kept the decomposing bodies of 11 women in and around his Ohio home for more than two years. The jury deliberated over Anthony Sowell's fate for less than seven hours before giving its verdict, which will be examined by a judge before the final sentence is delivered on Friday. Sowell, 51, showed no emotion as he stood in an orange prison jumpsuit to receive the verdict, though the clanking of his shackles could be heard as he fidgeted slightly. Several people in the courtroom could be seen crying as the judge read the jury's verdict. The former marine was found guilty of the gruesome murders last month. He apologized for his crimes and described his troubled childhood during a sentencing hearing on Monday in which two of his relatives and a former cellmate pleaded for mercy from the jury. "The only think I want to say is I'm sorry," Sowell said. "This is not typical of me... I know it's not a lot, but that is what I can give you." Relatives of several victims said Monday they did not believe his apology was sincere. "That sorry statement was not good enough for me but that is all we are going to get," said Lynnette Taylor, the sister of victim Amelda Hunter. Donnita Carmichael, whose daughter Tonia was among the victims, said she thought the apology was "rehearsed and weak. "At this point though we have justice, and I still want him to get life in prison because the death penalty would be too easy," she told AFP. Prosecutors for the case said Sowell was sexually motivated and acted alone when he killed the women, whose decomposed remains were found in his backyard and inside his home after his arrest. Sowell had blamed the smell emanating from his house on a nearby sausage factory. The gruesome case that unraveled on October 29, 2009 had officials scrambling to explain why the crimes weren't discovered sooner. The women killed by Sowell were exclusively poor, black and hampered by lifestyles that took them on and off the streets. Because of their socioeconomic situation, they were not always reported as missing immediately. The deceased victims are: Tonia Carmichael, Leshanda Long, Amelda Hunter, Crystal Dozier, Kim Smith, Diane Turner, Telacia Fortson, Janice Webb, Nancy Cobbs, Tishana Culver and Michelle Mason. Police have come under fire for ignoring cries for help which could have saved the lives of six of his victims. One bloodied woman flagged down police in December 2008, telling them of her desperate escape from the registered sex offender's house. But police found she wasn't a "credible" witness and declined to press charges even though they found blood and signs of a struggle in Sowell's home. A second woman was also ignored after she told police in April 2009 that Sowell had raped her repeatedly over a three-day period at his home after telling her that she needed to be "trained like an animal." Then, in September 2009, a third woman went to police and told them Sowell lured her to his house, raped and strangled her with a cord, then let her go when she regained consciousness. It wasn't until police knocked on the door of the yellow house a month later with an arrest warrant that the bodies were discovered. The officers went inside when Sowell didn't answer their knock and followed the unbearable stench to two rotting corpses laying on a bed on the third floor. A weeks-long search of the house and yard found eight more bodies and a human skull in a bucket. Sowell was arrested as he walked down the street two days after the first bodies were found.