State ex rel. Cleveland v. Indus. Comm. (Slip Opinion)State ex rel. Cleveland v. Indus. Comm. (Slip Opinion)
Harlan D. Karp, Tina R. Haddad, and Tanya Linetsky, pro se, urging reversal as amici curiae.
Law Offices of Jennifer Peyton, Jennifer I. Peyton, and Daniel Natalie; Margaret Wong & Associates Co., L.P.A., and Scott Bratton, urging reversal for amicus curiae American Immigration Lawyers Association, Ohio Chapter.
Russell S. Bensing, urging reversal for amicus curiae Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
John T. Forristal, urging reversal for amicus curiae Cuyahoga Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
{¶ 1} It is ordered by the court, sua sponte, that the oral argument scheduled for Wednesday, January 11, 2017, is canceled. The judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed on the authority of State ex rel. BF Goodrich Co., Specialty Chems. Div. v. Indus. Comm., 148 Ohio St.3d 212, 2016-Ohio-7988, 69 N.E.3d 728.
O‘CONNOR, C.J., and PFEIFER, LANZINGER, FRENCH, and O‘NEILL, JJ., concur.
O‘DONNELL and KENNEDY, JJ., dissent and would hear oral argument in this case for the reasons stated in the dissenting opinion in State ex rel. BF Goodrich Co., Specialty Chems. Div. v. Indus. Comm.
Michael DeWine, Attorney General, and Cheryl J. Nester, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee Industrial Commission.
Shapiro, Marnecheck & Palnik, Matthew Palnik, and Elizabeth M. LaPorte, for appellee Jacqueline Johnson.
O‘DONNELL, J.
{¶ 1} Anthony Sowell appeals from the judgment of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in connection with 11 capital convictions and sentences of death arising out of the serial killing of 11 women in Cleveland, Ohio. Sometime before October 28, 2009, Sowell kidnapped and murdered these 11 women and buried or concealed them at his home located at 12205 Imperial Avenue on the east side of Cleveland. Members of the Cleveland Police Department investigating a rape complaint against Sowell discovered the bodies of Diane Turner and Telacia Fortson in Sowell‘s house. Police later found the bodies of eight more women and the skull of another woman in or around the home, and they obtained additional evidence demonstrating that Sowell had attempted to kill three other women.
{¶ 2} A grand jury returned an 85-count indictment against Sowell, and following trial in common pleas court, a jury convicted him of 11 counts of aggravated murder, each containing death-penalty specifications, and recommended death sentences for each of the 11 aggravated murders. The trial court