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• Mar 27, 2008 7:42 pm US/Eastern
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  Friends Remember Man Killed In Attack

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Friends Remember Man Killed In Attack

Reporting
Jessica Kartalija

Friends remember a Baltimore man who was attacked as he walked home from a Baltimore bar.

Jessica Kartalija reports after nine months in a coma Zach Sowers, who was being treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital, died late Tuesday night. 

A summer night out with friends left Zach in a vegetative state after four teens robbed and brutally beat him just feet from his Patterson Park home.

Friends and family gathered at a memorial service in Frederick Thursday to say goodbye.

But Zach's wife Anna is fighting to keep his memory alive. She's working on what she calls "Zach's Law."

It would allow for murder charges to be filed when an attack victim is left in a vegetative state.

"I just think the law needs to keep up with the advances in medicine. Just because they can keep him alive medically doesn't mean that he's still the Zach that I used to know," said Anna.

A plea deal for Zach's murderers states they would not be charged with murder if Zach died.
 
Three of his attackers are serving eight year sentences, while the 16-year-old who kicked and stomped him will stay behind bars for the next 40 years.

Now Anna is filing a civil suit out of principal.

"It's just a statement that I'm not going to get any money from any of this if anything did happen in the future where they were able to come into money, that money is then garnished and given back to me to pay for medical expenses and that sort of thing," said Anna.

Funeral services for Zach will be held this weekend in Ohio where he was born.

Donations for the Zach Sowers Brain Trauma Research Fund and/or Zach's Law can be made to:

Frederick County Bank
30 West Patrick Street
Frederick, MD 21701
Attn: Lori Cromwell

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