This thread discusses the Content article: John Spirko’s life hangs in the balance
Timeline of the conviction and appeals of John Spirko
Posted by kturner January 03, 2008 13:03PM
1982
August: Postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger kidnapped from the Elgin Post Office and stabbed to death. Her decomposed body is found six weeks later, wrapped in a painter's dropcloth, in a soybean field outside Findlay.
1984
August: John Spirko is convicted and sentenced to death for Mottinger's murder. Case rested largely on testimony of Postal Inspector Paul Hartman and an eyewitness, who said she was certain she saw Spirko's best friend, Delaney Gibson Jr., in Elgin the morning of the crime.
1991
August: First round of Spirko appeals ends when U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear case.
1992
Spirko attorneys renew appeal; sue state and federal government for access to investigative files.
1997
Hartman's files ordered opened; Spirko attorneys find never-before-disclosed photos and statements placing Gibson hundreds of miles from Elgin the night before the crime, undermining key prosecution testimony. Years-long legal battle begins over significance of the new
evidence.
2004
May: Federal appeals-court panel upholds Spirko's conviction and sentence by 2-1 vote, saying verdict rested primarily on what Spirko purportedly told Hartman during series of jailhouse interviews in 1982.
2005
January: The Plain Dealer publishes three-part series questioning case and credibility of those interviews. Stories note that they were untaped, full of lies and peppered with details that were either widely circulated in the media, inconsistent with the facts or suggested by Hartman. The investigator's notes had also apparently been embellished.
April: Hartman tells Spirko's attorneys that he knew before the 1984 trial, and told prosecutors, that Gibson was nowhere near Elgin the day of the crime - even though Gibson's alleged presence was pivotal to the case. Within the previous year, Hartman had said the same thing in taped interviews with a Mottinger family member and The Plain Dealer.
May: Spirko's appeals exhausted, the Ohio Supreme Court sets an execution date for Sept. 20, 2005.
August: In urging the Ohio Parole Board against recommending clemency for Spirko, a lawyer for then-Attorney General Jim Petro misrepresents the evidence on several key points. Petro stands by his staff, but suggests a second hearing to undo any damage.
September: Then-Gov. Bob Taft delays Spirko's execution until Nov. 19. After an unprecedented, second hearing, parole board votes 6-3 against clemency, with the three expressing serious doubts about Spirko's guilt. They questioned the quality of the evidence, the fairness of the prosecution and the credibility of Hartman, Spirko's primary accuser.
November: Petro asks for, and gets, a second three-month reprieve for Spirko, until Jan. 19, 2006, so that evidence could be subjected to modern DNA testing.
2006:
Spirko is granted reprieves in January (until July 19), June (until Nov. 29) and again in October, setting a new execution date for April 17, 2007. That places Spirko's fate in the hands of what would be a new attorney general and a new governor.
2007
Gov. Ted Strickland orders reprieves No. 6 in March (until Sept. 18) and No. 7 in July so that DNA testing first ordered in late 2005 might be completed. That seventh reprieve set Spirko's execution date for Jan.
24.
Oh, Great Spirit, grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins." - Old Indian Prayer My dad told me!! |
On the urging of Kenny Richey, I just phoned but was put through to an answer phone message. How do I get a message through?
Oh, Great Spirit, grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins." - Old Indian Prayer My dad told me!! |
Keep trying Peter. Also write if you can.
Oh, Great Spirit, grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins." - Old Indian Prayer My dad told me!! |
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