Michael Madison smirks in the courtroom at the father of Shirellda Terry, whom he killed in July 2013 in Cleveland.
Court footage has captured the moment a father threw himself across a courtroom table to attack the man who killed his daughter.
Van Terry, the father of Shirellda Terry, was giving a victim-impact statement at the court in Ohio on Thursday and turned towards killer Michael Madison, who smirked at him.
Mr Terry then lunged at Madison, hurling himself over the table as sheriff's deputies swarmed on him and pulled him clear over the defendant.
Officers then dragged Mr Terry out of the courtroom as family members wept in the courtroom.
During his statement, Mr Terry said: "Right now I guess we're supposed to in our hearts forgive this clown.
"He's touched our families, taken my child..."
He then paused, leaning his elbow on a table, as he stared at the killer before running across the courtroom to attack him.
Madison, 38, was sentenced to death for killing three people and wrapping their bodies in rubbish bags.
Judge Nancy McDonnell said the horrific nature of Madison's crimes outweighed evidence given to spare him the death penalty, including his abusive and chaotic childhood.
Madison was convicted last month of multiple counts of aggravated murder and kidnapping.
The bodies of 38-year-old Angela Deskins, 28-year-old Shetisha Sheeley and Shirellda Terry, 18, were found in July 2013 near the apartment building where Madison lived in East Cleveland.
He told police he strangled two of the women, but did not remember killing the third.
Prosecutors said the women were killed over a nine-month period: Ms Sheeley in October 2012, Ms Deskins in May 2013 and Ms Terry in July 2013.
Lawyers for Madison said he had suffered lasting psychological damage resulting from physical abuse as a child.
He was arrested after a cable television worker reported a putrid smell coming from a garage shared by Madison. Inside, police found the decayed body of a woman wrapped in rubbish bags sealed closed with tape.
Searchers then found bodies in the basement of a vacant house and in the back yard of a nearby home.
Any execution is likely to take years because of lengthy appeals and Ohio's lack of lethal drugs.
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