Important Reading:Many Articles on The Spirko Case

Opposing views in Spirko clemency case

Associated Press

Major claims in the Betty Jane Mottinger murder case:

• The state says John Spirko, without public knowledge of Betty Jane Mottinger's purse, described it accurately, but his lawyers say a postal inspector had described to him.
• The state claims Spirko knew details about the case that only someone at the crime scene could have known, but his lawyers say many details had been in the media.
• Spirko's lawyers claim he spent the day of the killing with his sister and a parole officer, but the state says the officer kept no record of the time of Spirko's visit.

Spirko loses 2nd clemency hearing
Board backs execution of postmaster's killer

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BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU

COLUMBUS - A second bite at the apple did John Spirko little good as the Ohio Parole Board yesterday made exactly the same recommendation it did more than a month ago: Gov. Bob Taft should not stop his execution.

After a second hearing in which the credibility of a federal postal inspector and key witness against Spirko was challenged, the board voted 6-3 against recommending clemency.

Spirko, 59, was convicted in the 1982 kidnapping and brutal stabbing of Betty Jane (Janie) Mottinger, the 48-year-old postmaster in the Van Wert County village of Elgin.

"The information presented regarding the credibility of Postal Inspector Paul Hartman was not persuasive enough to convince the majority that any falsehoods he may have recently uttered tend to prove that he fed information to Mr. Spirko, added false information to his interview notes, or lied during his testimony at Mr. Spirko's trial in 1984," the majority's opinion reads.

But the three dissenters - including Jim Bedra, former assistant director of Toledo/Lucas County Victim Assistance - argued there is too much doubt to let the jury's 21-year-old decision to stand. They expressed particular skepticism at the state's claim that it truly believes Spirko committed the crime with best friend and former Kentucky cellmate Delaney Gibson in light of evidence Gibson may have been in North Carolina at the time and was prosecuted. Gibson is a free man, having been paroled on another murder conviction in Kentucky.

The dissenters refused to accept the prosecution's argument that it dismissed the indictment against Gibson late last year because Gibson was already serving time for murder and because of the deterioration of evidence over time, including the death of an elderly eyewitness who placed him at scene.

"We would point out that Opal Seibert's death did not occur until some 10 years after the Spirko trial, allowing ample time to bring Gibson to trial," the dissenting opinion reads. "Furthermore, standard prosecutoral practices consider capital charges more urgent than non-capital charges. Apparently, that was not the case regarding Gibson.

"If the state concluded that both men were culpable in the Mottinger crime, then, simply put, both men should have been fully prosecuted in the furtherance of justice and with respect to fundamental fairness and parity," they add.

Last month, Mr. Taft delayed Spirko's execution from Sept. 20 to Nov. 15 and ordered a new clemency hearing after it was revealed the state attorney general's office had misrepresented some facts in the original hearing held in August.

Spirko's lawyers have placed renewed emphasis on the credibility of Mr. Hartman, whose interviews with Spirko were key to his conviction. The prosecution says Spirko revealed information in those interviews that only someone who was present during the crime would know.

Spirko was paroled on another murder conviction shortly before Mrs. Mottinger's death

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Ohio Parole Board rejects Spirko clemency bid
Recommends Taft uphold death penalty

Thursday, October 20, 2005 Sandra Livingston
Plain Dealer Reporter

For the second time in two months, a divided Ohio Parole Board recommended Wednesday that death-row inmate John Spirko be denied clemency for the 1982 slaying of a rural Ohio postmaster.

By the same 6-3 margin in an August recommendation to Gov. Bob Taft, the board majority said Spirko's claims about a flawed investigation and trial were not persuasive and that the inmate's own words were enough to convict him in 1984.

"The majority is not convinced that any manifest injustice occurred in Mr. Spirko's case," the six wrote.

In a dissent, three board members said too much doubt has been raised about Spirko's guilt to execute him. They recommended that Taft commute his sentence to life in prison without parole.

Execution requires "the most stringent test of due process," they wrote. "We are left to wonder if that threshold has been met in Spirko's case."

Unless Taft rejects the board's recommendation, which he has never done in a death penalty case, Spirko is scheduled to die Nov. 15 for the murder of Elgin, Ohio, postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger.

Spirko still has a review pending before a federal judge, who has agreed to examine documents that could cast further doubt on the credibility of retired postal inspector Paul Hartman, the investigator most responsible for putting Spirko on death row.

No physical evidence ever connected Spirko to Elgin or Mottinger. But prosecutors said he committed the murder with his best friend, Delaney Gibson, and argued that Gibson was seen in Elgin the day of the crime.

The dissenters said they doubted that theory, and they noted that evidence putting Gibson 600 miles away from Elgin the evening before the murder was not given to the defense. The fact that Gibson was never prosecuted added to their doubts.

The six didn't agree that the Gibson evidence was intentionally withheld, saying Spirko's trial lawyers simply made a "strategic decision" not to pursue it.

They said that Spirko knew crime details that had not been made public and that they were not convinced that Hartman might have supplied them.

The six deferred to the 1984 jury's assessment of Spirko's alibi and certain other evidence, saying that "the jury was in the best position to assess credibility regarding this testimony."

Parole board recommends against clemency for Spirko

By GREG SOWINSKI
419-993-2090
10/20/2005
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COLUMBUS ? For a second time the Ohio Parole Board voted against clemency for John Spirko for killing the Elgin postmaster in 1982.

In a 6-3 decision Wednesday that matched the previous ruling and included the same three members who previously voted for clemency, the board recommend to Ohio Gov. Bob Taft that Spirko?s Nov. 15 execution take place.

The second clemency hearing, an unusual occurrence, came after The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer published a story accusing a state attorney of making misleading statements at the previous hearing. The state attorney, however, played portions of videotape of the previous hearing to show he did not make misleading statements, the board said in the report.

The majority of the board found the evidence showed Spirko, 59, was involved in the abduc-tion and murder of 48-year-old Elgin Postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger who disappeared Aug. 9, 1982, from the post office in that tiny town. The board cited Spirko?s own testimony as well as details about the crime he provided that were never released to the public as proof of his guilt.

The majority rejected claims by Spirko?s defense team that attacked the credibility of an in-vestigator and an alibi that Spirko offered for his whereabouts the day of the crime.

?Mr. Spirko?s own self incriminating trial testimony alone gave the jury sufficient evidence to convict him,? the majority wrote in its ruling.

The majority further said circumstances of the crime ?clearly establish that the death penalty was a proper sentence and should not be disturbed.?

The three who voted in favor of clemency wrote a dissenting opinion saying they have enough doubt to recommend Spirko?s sentence be commuted to life in prison without the chance for parole.

?Our recommendation for clemency is in no way an effort to exonerate Mr. Spirko as we are not totally convinced of his innocence,? they wrote in the dissenting opinion.

The minority expressed concern about issues raised by Spirko?s legal team such as whether another man had a role in the crime and the fact the state charged the man but did not pursue him after he was found to be in prison in another state.

They also expressed concern about claims that co-defendant may have been out of state at the time Mottinger was abducted. The minority also was disturbed over misleading information a postal inspector involved in the case recently made to the media and Spirko?s defense team. The minority said the investigator?s actions were reprehensible and further amplifies the claims made by Spirko?s attorneys suggesting a history of misconduct by the investigator.

After the report was issued, Alvin Dunn, an attorney on Spirko?s legal team, said he plans to ask the governor for a face-to-face meeting to ask for clemency and to follow the minority?s recommendation.

Dunn said he was disappointed by the ruling.

?We continue to maintain Mr. Spirko is innocent of this crime and should not be executed,? he said.

Spirko?s legal team, in the meantime, will continue with an attempt to reopen its appeal in federal court based on allegations of misconduct by a postal investigator.

The next critical decision in the case will come when Taft rules on clemency. In the past, Taft has never gone against a recommendation by the parole board. He will rule sometime between now and the execution date.

Spirko lawyers want FBI to follow up on old lead

Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Sandra Livingston
Plain Dealer Reporter

With John Spirko's execution a month away, his lawyers want the FBI to investigate an 8-year-old lead into the 1982 murder that put their client on death row, claiming that federal and state authorities have failed so far to pursue the information.

Spirko's lawyers say that failure is reason enough for the Ohio Parole Board to recommend clemency for Spirko.

The board plans to issue its recommendation Wednesday. Spirko is scheduled to die Nov. 15 for the murder of Elgin, Ohio, postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger.

Mottinger was kidnapped in August 1982 and stabbed more than a dozen times. Her body, wrapped in a paint-splattered shroud, was found six weeks later.

Spirko's lawyers want the FBI to interview the source of the 1997 lead and to conduct forensic tests on the shroud. They made their requests Monday in letters to the parole board and federal authorities.

The lead came from John Willier, a former house painter who told a Wyandot County investigator that the man he painted houses for during the summer of 1982 was involved in Mottinger's murder and threatened to kill him if he ever told. That investigator has said he tried to get federal authorities to pursue the tip, but nothing happened.

During Spirko's clemency hearing last week, a parole board member pointedly asked state officials why they never followed up.

Willier told The Plain Dealer he remains eager to meet with federal officials. He is convinced that the shroud Mottinger's body was wrapped in is the drop-cloth his boss, Dale Dingus, used on painting jobs that summer.

Dingus, currently in a Louisiana prison for rape, has denied any involvement.

Spirko lawyer Thomas Hill said he wants the FBI to interview Willier because of questions about the "competence and integrity" of the original investigation, conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

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Painter: Give me polygraph in Spirko case

Sunday, October 16, 2005
Bob Paynter and Sandra Livingston
Plain Dealer Projects Editor and Plain Dealer Reporter

The former house painter who divulged a 15-year-old secret in 1997 about who might have killed an Elgin, Ohio, postmaster is challenging federal authorities to give him a lie-detector test.

John Willier told a Wyandot County investigator eight years ago that the man he painted houses with in Findlay in the sum mer of 1982 was involved in Betty Jane Mottinger's murder that August and threatened to kill him if he ever told. But federal officials have never contacted him about the allegation.

With death-row inmate John Spirko set to be executed next month for Mottinger's murder, Willier told The Plain Dealer on Friday that he is just as willing to talk to officials now as he was in 1997.

He said he's just as convinced that the shroud Mottinger's body was wrapped in is the very tarp that his boss, Dale Dingus, used on a painting job about the time of the murder.

And he's just as troubled as Jim Bedra - a member of the Ohio Parole Board - that law enforcement officials have never followed up on his assertions about Mottinger's death.

Last week, at Spirko's second clemency hearing before the parole board, Bedra pressed state officials about why they have never reached out to Willier, even though the information he provided about a possible killer has been known for more than eight years.

It's "very strange," Willier agreed on Friday in a telephone interview. "Nobody has got ahold of me."

Mottinger was kidnapped from her tiny, rural post office on Aug. 9, 1982, and was stabbed at least 13 times. Her body, wrapped in a paint-splattered shroud, was found six weeks later in a soybean field a few hundred yards from the rented house trailer where Willier lived.

He was considered a suspect early in the investigation, but investigators lost interest in him in late 1982, as they focused on Spirko.

Dingus, Willier's boss that summer, was running his painting business out of a barn on U.S. 224, also less than a quarter-mile from the spot where Mottinger's body was found.

On Aug. 1, 1997, while being questioned on an unrelated matter by William Latham, an investigator for the Wyandot County prosecutor's office, Willier disclosed that Dingus was involved in Mottinger's kidnapping and murder, both of which followed a botched drug pickup by Dingus and others at the Elgin post office.

In a letter in December from the Avoyelles Correctional Center in Louisiana, where he was serving a 25-year sentence for rape, Dingus told The Plain Dealer he had no involvement in Mottinger's death.

On Friday, Willier said authorities investigating the murder showed him a piece of the paint-splattered shroud and he recognized it as part of the dropcloth he and Dingus had been using to paint a Findlay house that summer.

"I am 99-point-nine-tenths sure that that tarp came from that painting job," Willier said. And, he said, besides the owner of the house, Dingus was the only one who had access to the tarp.

"That's the key thing that has me baffled over the years," Willier said. "Look, if this guy - this John Spirko - if he don't know me and I don't know him and he don't know Dingus and Dingus don't know him, how the hell did he get the tarp?"

Willier lives in a small town in Tennessee and works in the cable industry. He declined to discuss the specifics of his 1997 statement to Latham, although he said he stands by it.

But Willier did say he is more than willing to talk to federal authorities - and he's eager to take a lie-detector test about his assertions to Latham, both to finally clear his own name and to help reopen the investigation. He said he offered to take a lie-detector test in 1982 to prove he wasn't involved in the murder, but has never been given one.

"I've been out of trouble since 1988," Willier said, referring to a past scarred by drug involvement and criminal convictions. "I'm very clean now. I'm married. I go to church and everything. I just want this to leave me alone."

But he also expressed some sympathy for Spirko's situation.

"I think about it a lot," Willier said. "It has me bothered. Because what if there is an innocent person there. And what if the guy that actually did it - or guys or whoever - are walking free?"

Parole board member Bedra sounded a similar theme on Wednesday, although not necessarily on Spirko's behalf. Bedra described Willier's story as a legitimate lead, especially in light of 1984 testimony by a forensic scientist called by the defense. The expert testified that paint on the shroud matched paint that Willier and Dingus had been applying to Findlay homes that summer.

Bedra challenged state officials to pursue Willier's story in the interest of justice - for Mottinger and her family.

Everyone agrees that more than one offender was involved, Bedra said. Regardless of whether Spirko is guilty or innocent, he said, "we can all assume that one or more offenders is still out there. I think the state missed a window of opportunity."

Bedra urged officials - especially Van Wert County Prosecutor Charles Kennedy, in whose county the crime occurred - to follow up. "Who knows what you'll find?" Bedra said.

It could not be determined if Kennedy plans to heed Bedra's advice. He could not be reached Friday.

Charles Wille, an assistant Ohio attorney general, expressed skepticism at Wednesday's hearing that any evidence could be found now to corroborate Willier's account.

When asked Friday whether the attorney general's office would try to find Willier, spokeswoman Kim Norris said in an e-mail that a federal judge had already determined that the Willier issues weren't relevant because they didn't prove Spirko was innocent.

Bedra's suggestion followed the videotaped testimony of Wyandot County investigator Latham, who has broken ranks with the law enforcement community to appear on Spirko's behalf at both of his clemency hearings.

Latham has said he found Willier's story far more credible than the prosecution theory that put Spirko on death row.

No physical evidence implicated Spirko, and nothing was found to link the lifelong criminal and admitted con man to Elgin, Mottinger or the area outside Findlay where her body was found.

In fact, investigators had never heard of Spirko until he came forward, saying he had information about the crime he wanted to trade for lenient treatment for himself and his girlfriend in an unrelated case.

Spirko was convicted largely on the basis of his own testimony and a series of jailhouse interviews he gave to former postal inspector Paul Hartman. During both, state attorneys say, he revealed details about the case that only the killer could know - an assertion his attorneys vigorously dispute.

Spirko's lawyers offered an alternative theory at the 1984 trial that Mottinger was murdered in Willier's trailer. Dingus was also living there temporarily about that time.

Latham has said that Willier's story, coupled with recent challenges to Hartman's credibility and the quality of the evidence, raises questions about whether Spirko had anything to do with the Mottinger slaying.

Although he alerted the U.S. Postal Inspection Service about Willier's account several times by phone eight years ago, Latham said no attempt has been made to follow up.

Recently filed court documents show that Latham's calls in 1997 inspired a flurry of memos between postal officials in Washington and Cleveland, where Hartman was based at the time.

The documents had been in Hartman's files, which were made public only recently, after a federal judge's order.

According to the memos, postal officials in Washington seemed ready to come to Ohio to interview Willier.

But Hartman, the investigator most responsible for putting Spirko on death row, was dismissive of the Willier story, telling his boss in one September 1997 memo that "this whole thing sounds like a defense ploy to me."

Describing Willier at the time as a "goofy, 19-year-old kid," Hartman said a fellow investigator described him as so unreliable "that even if you knew it was raining, and Willier told you it was, you'd have to look out the window just to verify the fact for yourself."

In fact, Hartman wrote, "I read this as an ex-convict trying to do a favor for Spirko, a convict; and that Willier has a beef with Dingus."

Still, after speaking with Latham, Hartman recommended that if the Washington investigators wanted to interview Willier they "bring along the polygraph examiner, so that we can work this out and get to the bottom of the entire matter."

But after he spoke to Hartman on Sept. 9, 1997, Latham said he never heard from postal authorities.

Latham met with Willier again, along with Spirko's attorneys, two years later and reported that no one had contacted Willier either.

Willier said on Friday that he has heard nothing from anyone since.

He said he initially talked to Latham in hopes of bringing attention to the issues because things didn't seem right. Now he would like to clarify them for good and move on.

"Just to clear people's minds, hey, let's get it on. Let's do this lie-detector test and then leave me alone from then on for the rest of my life."

Plain Dealer news researcher Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this story.

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State prosecutors defend themselves against misstatements in Spirko case

By GREG SOWINSKI
419-993-2090
10/12/2005
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COLUMBUS ? After being accused of misrepresenting evidence at an earlier clemency hearing for John Spirko, state prosecutors on Wednesday systematically challenged each allegation waged against them.

The prosecution is trying to keep Spirko?s execution, scheduled for Nov. 15, intact after it was delayed to allow a second clemency hearing by the Ohio Parole Board. Spirko was con-victed in the 1982 abduction and killing of Elgin Postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger.

Using video recordings from the last hearing in August and from Spirko?s 1984 trial, prosecutors challenged allegations made by the Cleveland Plain Dealer that they misrepresented evidence.

State prosecutors also used newspaper clippings to show that Spirko made statements about the killing that never made it into the newspapers following the abduction and murder. The statements included a description of the clothing Mottinger was wearing when abducted, how many times she was stabbed and the curtain wrapped around her body.

Wednesday?s hearing came about after the Plain Dealer accused Senior Deputy Attorney General Tim Prichard of making false statements and mischaracterize evidence at the previous hearing regarding what Spirko knew about the murder and his whereabouts the day of the killing.

Spirko was convicted in the abduction and murder of Mottinger who vanished from the Elgin post office Aug. 9, 1982. Her body was found six weeks later in a soybean field in Findlay, some 60 miles away.

The parole board will issue its report with a recommendation on clemency to Gov. Bob Taft on Wednesday. The governor will issue a decision before Spirko?s scheduled execution.

Spirko?s attorneys continued with their same defense saying there was too much doubt and too little evidence to go forward with Spirko?s execution. They said Spirko was innocent and asked for clemency.

Spirko attorney Tom Hill said the case boils down to statements Spirko made and the credi-bility of U.S. Postal Service Investigator Paul Hartman. Hill also said there was no physical evidence to link Spirko to the murder.

?This is a classic case of he said he said. This is Paul Hartman versus John Spirko. Both have no credibility. Both are liars trying to outsmart the other,? Hill said.

Spirko?s team also challenged the state?s theory of the crime saying Hartman disagreed with it and believed Spirko?s former cellmate from a Kentucky prison was not involved in the crime.

Spirko?s original defense was he learned details of the crime that were not made public from his cellmate, Delaney Gibson. Spirko?s team now maintains Gibson was out of state when the crime occurred.

Spirko?s defense team also raised the issue of another postal inspector questioning Hart-man?s credibility. That inspector worked under Hartman. State prosecutors took a sworn statement from the inspector in which he admitted to not being part of the Mottinger investi-gation or having any evidence to show Hartman did anything wrong.

The defense team also suggested the jury might not reach the same verdict today given the allegations made since the trial. That was challenged by Parole Board member Peter Davis who disputed the statement.

?I think what really hung Mr. Spirko is Mr. Spirko,? Davis said. ?It was how he testified on his own behalf and he couldn?t explain away his own previous statements.?

After prosecutors finished defending their statements from the previous hearing, Mottinger?s family picked up with criticizing the media and specifically took aim at the Cleveland Plain Dealer for its coverage.

Jane Varley, whose brother is married to one of Mottinger?s daughters, said the Plain Dealer ?would have you believe that Spirko is a misunderstood saint and the state of Ohio is a bold-faced lying devil.?

Varley asked the board to execute Spirko.

Tom Varley, who is Mottinger?s son in law, read a statement from Mottinger?s son, Kent Mottinger, which also blasted the media for their coverage and government officials for allowing killers to be set free and kill again. The letter alluded to Kentucky parole officials who freed Spirko from prison just weeks before Mottinger?s abduction. Spirko was serving time for a murder conviction in that state.

2nd Spirko hearing lasts 9 hours

Thursday, October 13, 2005 Bob Paynter
Plain Dealer Projects Editor

In a second marathon session in as many months, attorneys for death-row inmate John Spirko and the state of Ohio squared off before the Ohio Parole Board Wednesday over whether Spirko should be executed for the 1982 murder of a rural postmaster.

Reprising arguments from his first clemency hearing in August, Spirko's lawyers vigorously attacked the credibility of former Postal Inspector Paul Hartman, whose dozen-plus untaped interviews with Spirko formed the spine of the prosecution.

Noting the absence of physical evidence linking Spirko to the murder of Betty Jane Mottinger or backing his statements, attorney Thomas Hill said the case boils down to little more than "Paul Hartman versus John Spirko -- two men, neither of which has any credibility.

"Both are liars," Hill said. "Each tried to outsmart the other. Both were wrong."

Given mounting questions about Hartman's investigation of Spirko, Hill said there is "far too much doubt" about his client's guilt to execute him. He is scheduled to be put to death on Nov. 15.

Hill urged the board to reverse its split decision of Aug. 30 and recommend that Gov. Bob Taft grant clemency. The board will make its recommendation on Oct. 19.

But attorneys for the state argued just as vigorously that nothing consequential has changed since a Van Wert County jury convicted Spirko in 1984. They urged the board to recommend execution.

What convicted Spirko was testimony that indicated he knew details about the crime that only the killer would know, said Senior Deputy Attorney General Tim Prichard. Prichard noted that four of the original jurors recently said they stand by their verdict.

"You've got to see his demeanor on the stand," Prichard said, while playing extended video clips of Spirko's 1984 testimony. "This is why the jury convicted him, and this is why none of those jurors would change their mind."

Wednesday's clemency hearing lasted a record nine hours and included some spirited questioning of both sides by board members.

The previous record of just over eight hours was set at Spirko's first clemency hearing on Aug. 23, one measure of how contentious his case has become.

The second hearing was scheduled after The Plain Dealer reported that Prichard had made misstatements about the evidence the first time.

Prichard questioned some of the details Wednesday, while acknowledging others.

"Whether misstatements were made or not," he said, "there was no attempt to mislead. We're human and can make mistakes."

COLUMBUS (AP) --If lawyers for an inmate sentenced to die next month for the 1982 murder of a village postmistress have any new evidence, the Ohio Parole Board is still waiting to hear it, a lawyer for the state says. Lawyers for the state and for John Spirko each stated their case on Wednesday at a rare second clemency hearing before the board.

Ohio GovernorBob Taft delayed the death sentence for Spirko until Nov. 15 after a newspaper report that, at the first clemency hearing, the state presented inaccurate information about what Spirko knew about the slaying and his whereabouts on the day it happened. For the first time since the state resumed executions in 1999, Taft allowed a second clemency hearing.

But no news came from it, said James Canepa, chief deputy attorney general of criminal justice. Overall, Spirko's attorneys stayed away from criticizing Tim Prichard, the attorney who presented the state's case at both hearings. "The parole board was there the first time, so to say to them things were wrong doesn't resonate because they have their own memories," Canepa said. "That hasn't been the angle Spirko has taken this time around. It's just a reiteration of what their basic message was the first time around."

Prichard said that over a long case like Spirko's, mistakes are made. "We are human. Misstatements can occur," Prichard told the board, without mentioning a specific instance. "The proper place to flesh that out is here, not in the media four days later."

Prichard had given the board a videotape of Spirko's original clemency hearing on Aug. 23. The tape backs Prichard's claims, Canepa said. The board did not ask Prichard any questions about what he said on Aug. 23. Prichard also played the board a videotape of Spirko on the witness stand at his trial.

On the tape, Spirko acknowledged he was not coerced by a former postal inspector to discuss details of the crime with investigators, as defense lawyers have claimed. ``I don't believe he (the inspector) would bum-rap someone for any price,'' Spirko says on the tape.

Prichard said Spirko's words sealed the case for the jury. "The whole thing is what convicts John Spirko. This is why none of those jurors would change their minds," Prichard said. Defense attorney Thomas Hill said board members did not have all the evidence at Spirko's first hearing in August when they first recommended going ahead with execution. Now the board must "examine the totality of everything we now know," Hill said. "There are just too, too many doubts," he said.

Spirko, 59, says he didn't kill Betty Jane Mottinger, the postmistress in Elgin, in 1982. Mottinger, 48, was abducted and stabbed nearly 20 times, wrapped in a curtain and dumped in a field. Her body was found three weeks later.

No physical evidence linked Spirko to Mottinger or to the town of Elgin. Investigators never located the murder weapon or the car used in the crime. But prosecutors have said Spirko convicted himself by telling investigators details of the slaying, including what clothes and jewelry Mottinger was wearing the day she was abducted.

A comparison of Prichard's statements to the parole board with the case record shows how he mischaracterized evidence, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported after the first clemency hearing. For example, Prichard told the parole board that a description of Mottinger's purse had to have come from Spirko because investigators didn't know what the missing purse looked like.But according to the case record, an investigator was given a very similar description of the purse by Mottinger's husband on the day his wife disappeared, 12 weeks before investigators discussed the purse with Spirko.

Spirko was scheduled to die by injection Sept. 20, but Taft ordered the execution delayed. After the first hearing, the parole board recommended with a 6-3 vote that Taft should not reduce the death sentence to life in prison. The parole board will make its second recommendation on Oct. 19.

On the Web:
Ohio Parole Board: http://www.drc.state.oh.us/web/parboard.htm

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Clemency hearing for Spirko heated
Decision on death row inmate expected by Wednesday

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Dayton Daily News

COLUMBUS | Death row inmate John Spirko's second clemency hearing was more contentious and lengthy than the first one, as attorneys for both the state and defense analyzed the case in microscopic detail to alternately paint Spirko as a killer deserving of the ultimate penalty and a hapless loser about to be executed for a crime he didn't commit.

Tools

Following Wednesday's nine-hour hearing, Ohio Parole Board Chairman Gary Croft said the board will make its recommendation to Gov. Bob Taft on whether Spirko's life should be spared on Wednesday. Spirko, on death row at Mansfield Correctional Institution, did not attend. Spirko is scheduled to die by lethal injection Nov. 15. Board member Slayman N. Bedra quizzed prosecutors about why FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service officials apparently didn't investigate a 1997 lead brought to their attention by Wyandot County sheriff's investigator William Latham. Latham testified that the feds didn't act when Latham told them that a local house painter said he had information that another painter with no known links to Spirko killed rural postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger on Aug. 9, 1982.

"It doesn't matter which side of the argument you take, shouldn't that be followed up on?" Bedra said. "If there are other offenders out there, shouldn't they be brought to justice? I think the state missed a window of opportunity. I think that window may still be there and I hope the state will pursue it."

Defense attorney Thomas Hill said the parole board should recommend clemency.

"The evidence the jury heard was in large part false and certainly incomplete," Hill told board members. "You are the protectors against injustice. You have to be absolutely certain you have it right."

Second clemency hearing for inmate

By John McCarthy
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - The state's top lawyer for enforcing the death penalty acknowledged Wednesday that he made misstatements at a hearing about whether a condemned inmate's life should be spared.

Regardless, the evidence is overwhelming that John Spirko committed murder, Deputy Attorney General Tim Prichard said at a rare second clemency hearing.

Gov. Bob Taft delayed the death sentence for Spirko, convicted of killing a northeast Ohio postal worker, after a newspaper reported that the state presented inaccurate information about what Spirko knew about the slaying and his whereabouts on the day it happened. For the first time since the state resumed executions in 1999, Taft allowed a second clemency hearing by the Ohio Parole Board.

"We are human. Misstatements can occur," Prichard told the board, without mentioning a specific instance. "The proper place to flesh that out is here, not in the media four days later."

Prichard played the board a videotape of Spirko on the witness stand at his trial in which Spirko acknowledged he was not coerced by a former postal inspector to discuss details of the crime with investigators, as defense lawyers have claimed.

"I don't believe he (the inspector) would bum-rap someone for any price," Spirko says on the tape.

Prichard said Spirko's words sealed the case for the jury.

Defense attorney Thomas Hill said board members did not have all the evidence at Spirko's first hearing in August when they recommended going ahead with execution.

Now the board must "examine the totality of everything we now know," Hill said.

Spirko, 59, says he didn't kill Betty Jane Mottinger, the postmistress in Elgin, in 1982. Mottinger, 48, was abducted and stabbed nearly 20 times, wrapped in a curtain and dumped in a field.

No physical evidence linked Spirko to Mottinger or to the town of Elgin. Investigators never located the murder weapon or the car used in the crime.

But prosecutors have said Spirko convicted himself by telling investigators details of the slaying.

A comparison of Prichard's statements to the parole board with the case record shows how he mischaracterized evidence, the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported after the first clemency hearing.

For example, Prichard told the parole board that a description of Mottinger's purse had to have come from Spirko because investigators didn't know what the missing purse looked like.

But according to the case record, an investigator was given a very similar description of the purse by Mottinger's husband on the day his wife disappeared, 12 weeks before investigators discussed the purse with Spirko.

Taft asked to help build death-row inmate's case

Friday, September 30, 2005 Sandra Livingston
Plain Dealer Reporter

Lawyers for death-row inmate John Spirko have asked for Gov. Bob Taft's help to ensure that recent claims about the credibility of a key federal agent can be fully explored at Spirko's clemency hearing next month before the Ohio Parole Board.

In a letter Thursday, Spirko's lawyers requested that Taft ask the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for any documents dealing with an investigation into the behavior of former Postal Inspector Paul Hartman, the key witness in Spirko's 1984 murder conviction.

The lawyers also want to interview current Postal Inspector Gregory Duerr, who recently disclosed in a letter that he had witnessed conduct by Hartman "bordering on criminal" and that more than a dozen colleagues had filed complaints about Hartman's behavior in the late 1990s.

Hartman played the key role in developing evidence that landed Spirko on death row for the 1982 murder of an Elgin, Ohio, postmaster. But persistent questions have been raised about his credibility and investigative techniques.

Duerr's Aug. 31 letter said that, based on press reports and conversations with inspectors in the Cleveland office at the time of the murder, "it appears an individual who did not commit the crime is going to be executed." Duerr has said he has no firsthand knowledge about the murder investigation.

Spirko's lawyers have already asked a federal judge in Toledo to allow testimony on issues raised by Duerr. But the judge won't rule before Oct. 7, leaving insufficient time to explore the issues before Spirko's Oct. 12 clemency hearing.

If the information isn't provided by then, Spirko's lawyers suggested that Taft consider a delay until the Duerr issues are explored.

Taft spokesman Mark Rickel said the governor's office is reviewing the request.

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Spirko's attorneys ask for judge to examine witness' credibility

Article published Friday, September 23, 2005
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU

COLUMBUS - John Spirko has received approval from a federal appeals court to challenge the credibility of a postal inspector whose testimony helped to convict Spirko in the 1982 murder of a Van Wert County postmaster.

Spirko's lawyers hope to convince Toledo-based U.S. District Judge James Carr to reconsider his Sept. 6 decision rejecting Spirko's motion to open a new avenue of appeals. If Judge Carr declines, the matter would become part of the appeal that already has been filed with the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is letting Spirko pursue the witness credibility issue.

Barring court intervention and clemency from Gov. Bob Taft, Spirko faces execution on Nov. 15 for the kidnapping and stabbing of Betty Jane "Janie" Mottinger, postmaster in the village of Elgin.

In an Aug. 31 letter to U.S. Chief Postal Inspector Leroy Heath, Gregory Duerr, an inspector in Cleveland, said 15 complaints were filed by employees against Postal Inspector Paul Hartman, who testified at Spirko's trial.

While questioning whether an innocent man might be executed, Mr. Duerr did not purport to have first-hand knowledge of the Spirko case.

The Ohio attorney general's office did not oppose the move to return the case to Judge Carr.

It argued, however, that the letter is irrelevant to the Spirko case.

Emily Hamlin
Plain Dealer Reporter

Lawyers for convicted murderer John Spirko are asking a judge to let them investigate the credibility of a man who helped put their client on death row.

Spirko's lawyers filed a motion with U.S. District Judge James Carr on Friday asking for a chance to respond to questions raised about former Postal Inspector Paul Hartman.

Hartman's testimony was key to winning Spirko's 1984 murder conviction for the death of a rural Ohio postmaster.

That conviction was based largely on a series of jailhouse interviews by Hartman, during which Spirko reportedly revealed details of the crime.

The motion Friday stems from a letter that one of Hartman's former co-workers wrote to a supervisor criticizing Hartman's conduct and expressing concern Spirko will be executed for a crime he didn't commit.

Postal Inspector Gregory Duerr, who worked with Hartman in Cleveland during the 1990s, wrote that about 15 postal inspectors filed complaints in 1998 against Hartman for actions that sometimes were "bordering on criminal."

Duerr also wrote that press reports and conversations with other postal inspectors have led many in his office to believe the wrong person was convicted of murdering Betty Jane Mottinger.

Alvin Dunn, one of Spirko's lawyers, said the letter raises serious questions about Hartman. "We need to learn what's at the bottom of all this before an innocent man is put to death," Dunn said. Spirko is scheduled to be executed Nov. 15.

No one in Attorney General Jim Petro's office was available for comment Friday afternoon.

Hartman testified in June that he didn't know of any complaints against him when he worked as a postal inspector.

Dunn said that if Hartman had been truthful, Spirko's lawyers would have investigated the complaints months ago.

"We're not asking for them to delay the execution," Dunn said. "We're just asking for the opportunity to gather more information." Dunn was not sure when Carr would decide on the motion, but he said he hoped for a quick response.

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Convicted killer to get new hearing

Posted on Mon, Oct. 10, 2005

Parole board to discuss second appeal of inmate in 1982 stabbing death

Associated Press

COLUMBUS - The Ohio Parole Board is scheduled to hold a second clemency hearing this week for a condemned inmate for the first time since the state resumed executions in 1999.

John Spirko, 59, said he is innocent of the 1982 stabbing death of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, who was in charge of the post office in the tiny town of Elgin.

His second appeal to the board is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

The board voted 6-3 against clemency in August.

Spirko was scheduled to be executed Sept. 20 but Gov. Bob Taft ordered the execution delayed until Nov. 15 after reports that the state presented inaccurate information at his clemency hearing. The parole board called for a second hearing.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Timothy Prichard, director of the attorney general's capital crimes office, made false statements and mischaracterized evidence regarding Mottinger's slaying and Spirko's whereabouts on the day of the killing.

"Based on the current record, Spirko believes he is entitled to a full pardon from the governor," defense attorneys said in their revised clemency application.

"At the very least, Spirko submits there is far too much doubt to permit the state to carry out the death penalty here."

Attorney General Jim Petro has said he thinks Spirko's execution should proceed.

State attorney acknowledges misstatements that led to rare hearing

Posted on Wed, Oct. 12, 2005  
JOHN McCARTHY

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The state's top lawyer for enforcing the death penalty acknowledged Wednesday that he made misstatements at a hearing about whether a condemned inmate's life should be spared.

Regardless, the evidence is overwhelming that John Spirko committed murder, Deputy Attorney General Tim Prichard said at a rare second clemency hearing.

Gov. Bob Taft delayed the death sentence for Spirko, convicted of killing a northwest Ohio postal worker, after a newspaper report that the state presented inaccurate information about what Spirko knew about the slaying and his whereabouts on the day it happened. For the first time since the state resumed executions in 1999, Taft allowed a second clemency hearing by the Ohio Parole Board.

"We are human. Misstatements can occur," Prichard told the board, without mentioning a specific instance. "The proper place to flesh that out is here, not in the media four days later."

Prichard had given the board a videotape of Spirko's original clemency hearing on Aug. 23. The tape backs Prichard's claims, said James Canepa, chief deputy attorney general of criminal justice. The board did not ask Prichard any questions about what he said on Aug. 23.

"What is also sort of noteworthy here is that Spirko's presentation this time around surprisingly had nothing to do with what Tim did or didn't say at the first hearing," Canepa said.

Prichard also played the board a videotape of Spirko on the witness stand at his trial. On the tape, Spirko acknowledged he was not coerced by a former postal inspector to discuss details of the crime with investigators, as defense lawyers have claimed.

"I don't believe he (the inspector) would bum-rap someone for any price," Spirko says on the tape.

Prichard said Spirko's words sealed the case for the jury.

"The whole thing is what convicts John Spirko. This is why none of those jurors would change their minds," Prichard said.

Defense attorney Thomas Hill said board members did not have all the evidence at Spirko's first hearing in August when they first recommended going ahead with execution.

Now the board must "examine the totality of everything we now know," Hill said.

"There are just too, too many doubts," he said.

Spirko, 59, says he didn't kill Betty Jane Mottinger, the postmistress in Elgin, in 1982. Mottinger, 48, was abducted and stabbed nearly 20 times, wrapped in a curtain and dumped in a field. Her body was found three weeks later.

No physical evidence linked Spirko to Mottinger or to the town of Elgin. Investigators never located the murder weapon or the car used in the crime.

But prosecutors have said Spirko convicted himself by telling investigators details of the slaying, including what clothes and jewelry Mottinger was wearing the day she was abducted.

A comparison of Prichard's statements to the parole board with the case record shows how he mischaracterized evidence, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported after the first clemency hearing.

For example, Prichard told the parole board that a description of Mottinger's purse had to have come from Spirko because investigators didn't know what the missing purse looked like.

But according to the case record, an investigator was given a very similar description of the purse by Mottinger's husband on the day his wife disappeared, 12 weeks before investigators discussed the purse with Spirko.

Spirko was scheduled to die by injection Sept. 20, but Taft ordered the execution delayed until Nov. 15. After the first hearing, the parole board recommended with a 6-3 vote that Taft should not reduce the death sentence to life in prison.

The parole board will make its second recommendation on Oct. 19.

ON THE NET

Ohio Parole Board: http://www.drc.state.oh.us/web/parboard.htm

COLUMBUS (AP) --A condemned inmate who was given a two-month reprieve by Gov. Bob Taft after questions were raised about the actions of an investigator and the attorney general's office, is still maintaining innocence. John Spirko, 59, says he didn't kill Betty Jane Mottinger in 1982. His lawyers will begiven a chance to plead his case again during a rare second clemency hearing scheduled for Wednesday before the Ohio Parole Board.

Spirko was scheduled to die by injection on Sept. 20, but Taft ordered the execution delayed until Nov. 15 after reports that the state presented inaccurate information at his clemency hearing. The parole board called for a second hearing, the first time it has done so since Ohio resumed executions in 1999.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Timothy Prichard, director of the attorney general's capital crimes office, made false statements and mischaracterized evidence regarding what Spirko knew about Mottinger's slaying and his whereabouts on the day of the killing.

The parole board, which had voted 6-3 against recommending clemency, requested the rehearing, and the attorney general's office recommended it. Spirko's lawyers have asked for any documents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service that involve an investigation into the behavior of former postal inspector Paul Hartman, the state's lead investigator and a star witness in the Spirko case.

Gregory Duerr, a current postal inspector, wrote in a letter that more than a dozen colleagues filed complaints about Hartman in the late 1990s.

Mottinger, 48, who was the postmaster in Elgin in northwest Ohio, was abducted and stabbed nearly 20 times, wrapped in a curtain and dumped in a field. Her body was found three weeks later.

Count on News 11 to follow the clemency hearing as it develops.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Prosecutor says his mistakes don't absolve death-row inmate

Posted on Wed, Oct. 12, 2005

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The state's top death-row prosecutor says today that the misstatements he made in a condemned inmate's case don't affect the man's guilt.

Deputy Attorney General Timothy Prichard admits he made mistakes in a clemency hearing in August for inmate John Spirko. But he says the evidence is still overwhelming that Spirko killed a postmistress in northwest Ohio in 1982.

The 59-year-old Spirko received a two-month reprieve by Gov. Taft following reports that the state presented inaccurate information at his first clemency hearing. His execution is now set for November 15th.

Today's second clemency hearing is the first rehearing granted by the Ohio Parole Board since the state resumed executions in 1999.

Spirko's lawyers plead for his life
He has a good alibi, defense says of man convicted in 1982 slaying

By CHRISTOPHER D. KIRKPATRICK
BLADE STAFF WRITER

COLUMBUS - Death penalty lawyers pleading for the life of convicted murderer and Toledo native John Spirko argued yesterday that the 23-year-old case was so flawed and his alibi so tight that the state parole board has little choice but to recommend mercy.

The case is unprecedented in Ohio because Spirko already had one clemency hearing, which was nullified by the governor over charges that Tim Prichard, senior deputy attorney general, misrepresented some of the case the first time around.

After that first hearing, the panel voted 6-3 to recommend Gov. Bob Taft not block the execution. But the governor delayed it to Nov. 15 to allow for another hearing. A second recommendation is due Wednesday.

During about nine hours of testimony yesterday, attorney Thomas Hill argued that during the investigation of the 1982 kidnapping and murder of Elgin postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, postal investigator Paul Hartman behaved improperly and forwarded a theory of the crime that he did not even believe was true.

Mr. Hill also said that Spirko admitted to knowing some details about Ms. Mottinger's murder, such as the exact dimensions of her purse and the number of stab wounds, because he read them in newspaper accounts and was fed the information by Mr. Hartman and others - not because he was guilty.

At the time, he acted as if he had special knowledge of the crime from sources so he could help prosecutors and curry their favor to become eligible for the federal witness protection program, Mr. Hill said. He also wanted to lessen a prison sentence for his girlfriend, who had tried to help him escape from jail and was facing a possible prison term.

At his trial, Spirko claimed his friend and former Kentucky cell mate Delaney Gibson, who has been convicted of murder in the past, committed the crime. He said he saw the purse in his car back seat shortly after the murder. A jury did not believe him and sentenced him to death.

Later, Spirko changed his story, saying that Mr. Gibson could not have committed the crime because he was picking tomatoes 600 miles away in North Carolina, and so the state's theory that the two committed the crime together does not wash with the facts.

The defense also claims that he was with his sister all day, including at a meeting with his parole officer in Toledo.

Prosecutors yesterday pounced upon the defense, saying that Spirko's guilt or innocence had nothing to do with Mr. Gibson or his whereabouts at the time of the murder. They also contended that newspaper accounts did not provide the level of crime scene detail that Spirko supplied, and said he had used his friend to divert suspicion. Claiming that Mr. Gibson could not have committed the crime does not clear Spirko, Assistant Attorney General Chuck Willie argued.

Spirko's sister, Cathy Bailey of Swanton, told the board through a videotaped statement that she was with her brother in Toledo about 100 miles northwest of the village post office in Elgin. She said he took her to a doctor to be treated for a migraine.

Spirko moved in with his sister as a parolee in Kentucky after serving a sentence for murder 12 days before Mrs. Mottinger's disappearance. He also placed a call that day to the prison from his sister's home to inquire about his television, which had not been delivered with the rest of his belongings. "Far too much doubt exists to permit Spirko's execution," Mr. Hill said.

Parole Board member Jim Bedra, who is former assistant director of Toledo/Lucas County Victim Assistance, said evidence suggests that more than one person committed the crime and said he was concerned that investigations into the crime had appear to have stopped, including not bringing Mr. Gibson to trial in Ohio for his potential role in Ms. Mottinger's murder.

Contact Christopher D. Kirkpatrick at:
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or 419-724-6077.

RECENT RELATED ARTICLES

• Spirko loses 2nd clemency hearing | 10/20/2005
• Spirko lawyers seek Taft's help before 2nd clemency hearing | 10/01/2005
• Spirko's attorneys ask for judge to examine witness' credibility | 09/23/2005
• Appeal lost, Spirko attempts again to beat execution order | 09/13/2005
• Governor postpones Spirko?s execution; parole board plans new hearing Oct. 12 | 09/09/2005
• Judge rejects latest appeal by Spirko | 09/07/2005
• No clemency for Spirko, parole board advises Taft | 08/31/2005
• Delay for Spirko execution denied | 08/26/2005
• 'No mercy' urged for Spirko | 08/24/2005
• State urges parole board to reject pardon plea | 08/19/2005
• Spirko asks governor for full pardon, claims wrongful conviction | 08/18/2005