OTSE Press Release JOHN SPIRKO

With no physical evidence to link him to the crime, having a strong alibi and requesting biological testing, John Spirko just moved one step closer to execution. When asked by the Clemency Board at the October 12 clemency hearing, Attorney General representatives could not put together a credible timeline to debunk Spirko?s alibi. Yet, the board voted 6-3 to recommend that Governor Taft to deny clemency to Mr. Spirko.

?The fact that the state parole board was deeply divided speaks volumes,? said Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. ?Too much doubt exists for this execution to proceed. This case truly represents a fundamental flaw in Ohio?s administration of the death penalty. Do we really want to carry out an execution when a person?s guilt is in question??

Defense attorney Thomas Hill emphasized, ?You just can?t know. If you can?t know you can?t execute - there is too much doubt.?

Ohioans to Stop Execution say there is far too much doubt. OTSE calls upon Governor Taft to grant clemency for John Spirko. ?Any reasonable person can note the facts and say there is far too much room for error in this case,? said OTSE President Sister Alice Gerdeman. ? The state should always proceed cautiously and with justice in mind. Justice is not served by killing the wrong man. The people of Ohio are actually less safe when investigations are left incomplete. Mr. Spirko?s case proves again that the death penalty system is irreparably broken. Governor Taft must grant clemency despite the Board?s recommendation, if justice is to be served and Ohioans reassured that innocent people will not be put to death in our name.?

Spirko faces a death date of November 15, while the alleged accomplice is a free man in Kentucky. Delaney Gibson, once extradited to Kentucky on non-capital offenses, was later released from Kentucky; Ohio then dismissed all charges. Many ask how one alleged accomplice could be executed while the other goes free. The questions of doubt don?t stop there. No DNA testing of evidence, including anything possibly left on the cloth that wrapped the body, has been performed though defense counsel has requested. It was just such DNA testing that convinced the Clemency Board in 2003 to recommend clemency to Jerome Campbell.

Professor Steven Drizen, Legal Director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University finds this case troubling and appeared at Spirko?s clemency hearing. The clemency board report notes, ?he [Drizen] is concerned that an innocent man may be executed.? This is the third case outside of Illinois for which Drizen has appeared. The two other cases, in Indiana and Michigan, resulted in exonerations.

Wyandot County Prosecutor?s department investigator Mr. Latham appeared as a witness for the defense at both clemency hearings. Mr. Latham is concerned that John Willier, a man he questioned in 1997 in connection with an unrelated crime, had significant information about this crime. But investigators in the Mottinger case never followed up after Investigator Latham advised them of Willier?s revelations. Mr. Willier is free today in Tennessee and he is willing to take a lie detector test in Spirko?s defense .

OTSE reiterates ? There is too much doubt ? Governor Taft must stop the scheduled execution