Clemency hearing set for Spirko

John Spirko?s clemency hearing is less than a month before his Sept. 20 scheduled execution. Spirko will not be at the hearing, which takes place before the nine-member parole board, but a member of the board will interview Spirko and relay his remarks to the rest of the board, said Andrea Dean, a spokeswoman for the state prison system.

Spirko was sentenced to death for the 1982 murder of Elgin Postmistress Betty Jane Mot-tinger. Mottinger was abducted from the post office Aug. 9, 1982. Her body was found Sept. 18, 1982, in a soybean field in Findlay. She had been stabbed multiple times.

At the hearing, Spirko?s attorneys, family, friends and spiritual adviser will have a chance to speak on Spirko?s behalf. Prosecutors and the victim?s family also will have a chance to explain their side to the board. Each side is given an hour, state prison officials said.

The parole board will not issue a decision that day, instead will issue a report with its find-ings and a recommendation on clemency to Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, who makes the final decision, Dean said.

Spirko has exhausted his appeals but recently has asked a federal judge to reconsider his conviction after prosecutors dismissed charges against his alleged co-defendant who was in an out-of-state prison for two unrelated murder convictions. That man, Delaney Gibson Jr., was released from prison last year.

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