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The Toledo Blade Wednesday, August 31, 2005
No Clemency For Spirko, Parole Board Advises Taft
By JIM PROVANCE COLUMBUS - John Spirko wanted time to convince a federal judge he's innocent of the murder of a Van Wert County postmaster 23 years ago, but a divided Ohio Parole Board yesterday recommended that Gov. Bob Taft not stop Spirko's Sept. 20 execution. The board voted 6-3 against recommending clemency. The final decision belongs to Mr. Taft, but in his nearly seven years in office, he has never strayed from the parole board's recommendation in a death case. He has granted clemency once, commuting a death sentence to life without parole. Alvin Dunn, one of Spirko's attorneys, said he has been in contact with the governor's chief counsel in hopes of convincing Mr. Taft to make Spirko's case the first in which he disagrees with the parole board. Spirko's lawyers last week laid out before the parole board their contention that he is on death row because of overzealous prosecutors frustrated by their inability to solve the heavily publicized kidnapping and stabbing of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, postmaster in the tiny village of Elgin. The Toledo native's lawyers argued that no physical evidence tied Spirko to the crime and the prosecution relied on statements he fabricated in hopes of securing leniency for himself and his girlfriend on unrelated charges. The attorneys argued prosecutors forged ahead with the trial despite evidence suggesting Spirko's alleged accomplice, best friend, and former Kentucky cell mate Delaney Gibson may have been 600 miles away in North Carolina the morning of Aug. 9, 1982. Gibson, who reportedly had a full beard in contrast to witness testimony at Spirko's trial, was never tried and has been paroled in Kentucky on an unrelated murder conviction. Three board members, including Jim Bedra, former assistant director of Toledo/Lucas County Victim Assistance, recommended that Mr. Taft grant Spirko, 59, a temporary reprieve while he pursues his last-ditch appeal. "We are 100 percent sure that Mr. Spirko is a liar, but like [eyewitness] Mark Lewis, only 70 percent sure he was there," reads the dissenting opinion. "The fact that Mr. Gibson was 100 percent identified as being present, and the fact that Mr. Spirko and Mr. Gibson are friends, and therefore did the crime together is more than 'guilt by association' but rather 'death by association'?" The state claims Spirko revealed intimate details of the crime, including descriptions of Mrs. Mottinger's purse, the number of times she was stabbed, the paint-spattered curtain that shrouded her body, and a ring from which the stone had been pried. "Spirko's own words got him convicted," reads the majority's report. "Mr. Spirko, during his interviews with authorities, shared information about this crime that only someone who was present or involved in this crime would have known. "In fact, [Spirko] does not dispute the state's contention that these details could only be known to a participant in or an observer of the killing," it reads. "Mr. Spirko's counsel now argues, unconvincingly, that all such details were in fact published in various newspapers prior to trial." The majority rejected the argument that the jury convicted Spirko after hearing from postal investigator Paul Hartman, who has since reportedly claimed he told prosecutors before the trial he was convinced Gibson wasn't involved. Spirko has asked Mr. Taft for a full pardon or at least a reprieve from his execution date 21 days away as he attempts to convince U.S. District Judge James Carr, of Toledo, to grant him a new trial. A decision could come as soon as Friday. "Today we see that the safety-net clemency process that is supposed to catch cases like Spirko's - where there is a terrible risk that we are executing an innocent person - is not working," said Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "Why is it that we can come to an execution and still not be 100 percent certain that we have the right person?" Absent clemency from Mr. Taft or court intervention, Spirko would become the 17th man executed by injection by Ohio since it resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1999.
Contact Jim Provance at:
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