Cleveland Serial Killer Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death

Anthony Sowell, a Cleveland serial killer convicted last month of murdering 11 women and dumping their bodies around his property, was sentenced to death Friday.

Judge Dick Ambrose imposed the sentence on the 51-year-old Ohio killer after the jury recommended the ultimate penalty Wednesday.

Jurors in the case had decided that "the aggravated circumstances outweighed the mitigating factors" on all 11 murder counts, Reuters said. The same jury convicted Sowell of killing 11 women whose decomposing bodies were found around his home in 2009 when police came to arrest Sowell for rape and assault.

The jury, seven women and five men, deliberated for about seven hours before recommending the death penalty for each of Sowell's victims.

"It screamed death penalty. I know that the jury worked hard and it was a difficult decision, but at the end of the day, they followed the law," Assistant Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Prosecutor Pinkey Carr told the Chicago Tribune. "They may not have liked the position that they were put in, but they worked hard and this is what justice is all about."

The judge had announced that Sowell deserved to die after a 45-minute analysis of his crimes and background factors in Sowell's favor, according to CBS News.

Prosecutors said Sowell lured the women to his home with the promise of alcohol or drugs. Many of the victims found in Sowell's home had been missing for weeks or months and some had criminal records.

CBS News also reported that the women were disposed of in garbage bags and plastic sheets, then dumped in various parts of the house and yard. All that remained of one victim, Leshanda Long, was her skull, which was found in a bucket in the basement. Most of the victims were nude from the waist down, strangled with household objects and had traces of cocaine or depressants in their systems.