|
THE PLAIN DEALER
Murder Conviction Based On Lies, Attorneys Say
Thursday, August 18, 2005 With John Spirko's execution less than five weeks away, his attorneys have directly attacked the integrity and credibility of the former federal agent most responsible for putting their client on death row for the 1982 murder of a rural postmaster. In a request for clemency filed with the Ohio Parole Board on Wednesday, the lawyers argued that Spirko's conviction flowed almost entirely from the work of a man who has recently been discredited by his own statements under oath and on tape, and who has shown himself "able and willing to misrepresent the truth" to preserve Spirko's conviction. Since April of last year, former Postal Inspector Paul Hartman has told at least three individuals - two of them in tape-recorded interviews - that he never believed a key element of the case brought against Spirko in 1984, and that he told prosecutors of his doubts before the trial began, according to court documents. Hartman has since offered inconsistent explanations for those statements. Hartman's apparent doubt about evidence that he was so pivotal in assembling, meanwhile, has gotten the attention of a federal judge in Toledo, who is considering a request from Spirko's lawyers to reopen the case. U.S. District Judge James Carr last month noted Hartman's central role in Spirko'sconviction and said that the issues raised by the former agent's recent statements deserve further scrutiny. Carr even suggested that the state join in a request by Spirko's lawyers that the Ohio Supreme Court delay the Sept. 20 execution to give him time to conclude his review. But Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro's office declined, insisting that Spirko be put to death on schedule. Petro has argued that nothing in Hartman's recent statements undermines Spirko's conviction, which has been upheld during several rounds of appeals. A spokesman reiterated that position Wednesday. With the clock ticking, Spirko's lawyers are scheduled to appear before the parole board Tuesday. The board will then recommend to Gov. Bob Taft whether to grant clemency. Arguing that Spirko was wrongly convicted because of errors and misconduct by the state, the inmate's attorneys said their client deserves a full pardon from the governor. Taft should at least grant clemency from execution, they said, arguing that far too much doubt exists about Spirko's guilt to allow the "ultimate punishment" to be carried out. In the meantime, they said, the governor should issue a reprieve while the federal case plays itself out in Toledo. Hartman said Wednesday that it was Spirko's lawyers who have misrepresented the truth. "All they're trying to do," Hartman said, "is try the police rather than try the facts, because they have no facts to try." Postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger was abducted from the tiny Elgin, Ohio, post office in the summer of 1982 and fatally stabbed. Dozens of officers participated in the investigation, but it was Hartman - during a series of jailhouse interviews with Spirko - who generated virtually all of the evidence used to convict him. In jail on an unrelated matter, Spirko came forward in late 1982 saying he had information about the Mottinger case and was willing to share it in return for lenient treatment. In a dozen interviews over the next two months, Spirko told Hartman a series of elaborate lies, attributing the crime to an ever-changing cast of shady characters, all of whom Hartman said he investigated and ruled out. But in their next-to-last interview, documents show that a frustrated Hartman steered their conversation toward Spirko's best friend and former prison cellmate, Delaney Gibson, by bringing up Bear Branch, Ky., Gibson's tiny hometown. Spirko took the bait, disavowing everything he said before and telling Hartman that it was Gibson who killed Mottinger and later told him all about it. This Gibson connection provided a linchpin for prosecutors - even though Hartman, according to his recent statements, never believed it, developed evidence that tended to disprove it and shared his doubts about it before the trial with then Van Wert Prosecutor Stephen Keister. Keister has denied being told that. Keister argued in court that Spirko and Gibson abducted and killed Mottinger together. The strongest link to the scene of the crime came from an eyewitness, who identified a years-old photo of Gibson as the clean-shaven stranger she saw in Elgin the morning of the murder. But what prosecutors didn't tell the jury - or Spirko's lawyers - is that Hartman had collected photographs and witness statements that placed a bearded Gibson more than 500 miles away the night before the crime. Spirko's lawyers didn't even learn of this evidence until 1996, 12 years after Spirko was sentenced to death. They have argued on appeal ever since that prosecutors hid key evidence and convicted Spirko using a theory they knew to be false. But beginning in early 2004, Hartman disclosed to a number of people - including Connie Mottinger, the second wife of the slain postmaster's widowed husband; a Plain Dealer reporter and Spirko's attorneys - that he never believed Gibson was involved and shared his doubts with Keister. Asked under oath about those statements this summer, Hartman said that, in a deliberate attempt to mislead, he had lied to Spirko's attorneys and to The Plain Dealer in a taped interview. When asked about nearly identical statements he made in 2004 in a taped conversation with Connie Mottinger, Hartman said he either misspoke or the transcript was in error. But Spirko's lawyers now contend that Hartman's apparent lack of candor raises even more doubts about the legitimacy of Spirko's conviction. In opposing Spirko's appeals, attorneys for the state have downplayed questions about Gibson, arguing that Spirko was convicted because he revealed "intimate details" about the crime during his jailhouse interviews with Hartman that only the killer could have known. But Spirko's lawyers say some of those details were wrong. Some were in the news before Spirko met with investigators. And some, the lawyers say, may have been suggested by Hartman - just as he led Spirko to Gibson by dropping the name of Bear Branch, Ky. Because Hartman didn't tape any of his sessions with Spirko, the lawyers said, there's no way to know where the critical information came from.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: Reprinted with permission.
|