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The Columbus Dispatch A Pro Death Penalty Newspaper Governor Grants Spirko Reprieve Tuesday, March 27, 2007 2:38 PM
By Alan Johnson THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Gov. Ted Strickland today granted another reprieve for convicted killer John G. Spirko Jr., pushing his execution date until Sept. 18. It was the sixth reprieve granted to Spirko to allow time for additional DNA testing related to the 1982 kidnapping and murder of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, postmaster at Elgin in northwest Ohio. Attorney General Marc Dann asked Strickland to delay the execution which had been set for April 17. Spirko, 60, was originally set for lethal injection on Sept. 19, 2005, but his defense attorneys repeatedly requested additional DNA testing. They claim he is an innocent man convicted based solely on circumstantial and misleading evidence. More than 150 DNA tests have been done thus far on clothing, cigarette butts, duct tape and other items found at the scene of the crime or the rural location where Mottinger's body found was found six weeks after her abduction. Tests completed thus far have turned up nothing to prove or disprove Spirko's guilt, officials in the attorney general's office said.
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