John Spirko

[thinkinkmesa]

John Spirko website.
www.johnspirko.com/

[pebbles]

Ohio attorney general requests 6th reprieve for condemned inmate


ASSOCIATED PRESS


COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Ted Strickland today was weighing a request for a sixth reprieve for a death row inmate to allow more time for DNA testing in a 25-year-old murder.

At the request of John Spirko’s attorneys, Attorney General Marc Dann on Friday asked Strickland to delay Spirko’s scheduled execution for four months.

Spirko, scheduled to die April 17, would have his execution date pushed to August should Strickland grant the request.

That means almost two years would have passed since Spirko received his first reprieve from Gov. Bob Taft in September 2005.

“In our effort towards developing all useful information for Spirko, as well as for the Governor’s clemency decision, we continue to accommodate Spirko’s ongoing requests for foresnic testing,” Heather Gosselin, head of Dann’s death penalty division, said in a letter to Strickland’s chief legal counsel.

Spirko, who says he is innocent, was sentenced to die for the 1982 murder of northwest Ohio postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger.

Spirko, 60, was convicted based on witness statements and his own comments to investigators.

No physical evidence ties him to the killing and charges against a co-defendant who linked him to the murder have been dropped.

Courts at all levels have previously upheld his conviction and death sentence

toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070305/DEVELOPINGNEWS/70305036

[pebbles]

Death row inmate gets 6th reprieve
3/27/2007, 4:27 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Gov. Ted Strickland has granted a sixth reprieve for a death row inmate to allow more time for DNA testing in the 1982 murder of a northwest Ohio postmistress.

At the request of John Spirko's lawyers, Attorney General Marc Dann asked Strickland on March 2 to delay Spirko's scheduled execution for four months.

Strickland on Tuesday issued the reprieve to last until Sept. 18. Spirko had been scheduled to die April 17. That means two years will have passed since Spirko, who says he is innocent, received his first reprieve from then-Gov. Bob Taft in September 2005.

Among the items tested, blood on duct tape used to wrap the victim and hair samples both matched postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger of Elgin.

Dann said he was willing to give more time for testing because the case is "totally dependent on circumstantial evidence."

Spirko, 60, was convicted based on witness statements and his own comments to investigators.

www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-30/1175028379288130.xml&storylist=cleveland


No physical evidence ties him to the killing and charges against a co-defendant who linked him to the murder have been dropped.

Courts at all levels have previously upheld his conviction and death sentence.

Mottinger was abducted and repeatedly stabbed, then wrapped in a tarp and dumped in a field. Her body was found three weeks later.

In a letter to Spirko's attorneys in 2005, then-Attorney General Jim Petro predicted the DNA wouldn't prove the inmate's guilt or innocence

[thinkinkmesa]

www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/07/30/spirko.html?jrl=167662&rfr=nwsl&clk=142905

Spirko gets 7th reprieve from execution
Strickland grants time for more DNA testing
Monday, July 30, 2007 12:24 PM
By Alan Johnson

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

ONN
John G. Spirko Jr.Convicted killer John G. Spirko Jr. will get another 120-day reprieve from execution, his seventh, to allow more time for DNA testing.

Gov. Ted Strickland signed the reprieve for Spirko today, spokesman Keith Dailey said.

Spirko, 60, was scheduled to be executed Sept. 18 for the August 1982 kidnapping and murder of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, postmistress of Elgin, a small town in northwestern Ohio.

His original execution date was Sept. 19, 2005.

As with the other six delays, this one was granted to allow additional DNA testing on a number of items, including clothing, cigarette butts and duct tape found at the post-office crime scene and the farm field where Mottinger's body was found six weeks after her abduction.

If any DNA is found, it is tested against samples from Spirko and other individuals.

As of March of this year, state officials said the testing, which has cost taxpayers in excess of $50,000, has been inconclusive.

[e-mail]





Copyright © 2007, The Columbus Dispatch

[thinkinkmesa]

OHIOANS TO STOP EXECUTIONS PRESS RELEASE ; GOVERNOR STRICKLAND'S
STATEMENT BELOW ...

___________________________
OHIOANS TO STOP EXECUTIONS
Press Release
For Immediate Release

Date: Wednesday, January 9th, 2008
Contact: Kevin Werner (c) 614-560-0654


Governor Strickland Commutes Sentence to Life Without Parole
Because of Doubts about His Guilt, John Spirko will not be Executed

Cincinnati , OH – On January 9, 2008, Governor Ted Strickland issued
a commutation to life without parole for Ohio death row inmate John
Spirko, 15 days prior to his scheduled execution on January 24, 2008.

Since November 2005, the State of Ohio has been conducting extensive
DNA testing to obtain any conclusive evidence that would have linked
Spirko to the 1982 murder of Betty Jane Mottinger. In over two years,
none has been found. Attorney General Marc Dann stated on January 3, 2008
that none of the DNA from the crime scene matches John Spirko.
During the investigation, John Spirko received a record 7 reprieves for more
DNA testing to be conducted (five from former Governor Taft and two
from Governor Strickland), setting a new execution date each time.

"The many problems within John Spirko's case demonstrate the crisis
existing throughout the death penalty systems in our country," states
Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Dieter continues, "Questionable eyewitness identification present
within John Spirko's case is one of the leading causes of wrongful
convictions. To date, 126 men have been exonerated from death row across the
country. Five of them were from Ohio. To address these errors, many
states are beginning to rethink capital punishment. In 2007, Tennessee
implemented a study, Illinois continued its Moratorium, New York choose
to not reinstate its death penalty, and New Jersey abolished its death
penalty."

"Confirming real doubts about an inmate's actual guilt after 20 years
is a clear indication that Ohio's death penalty system is seriously
flawed. Ohio must place executions on hold and conduct an unbiased study
of the State's death penalty system, to ensure we do not do the
unthinkable and execute an innocent person," states Sr. Alice Gerdeman, Chair
of Ohioans to Stop Executions.

In September 2007, the American Bar Association released a report based
upon a 30-month, in-depth investigation into Ohio's death penalty.
Failing 93% of the recommendations set forth as standards of fairness,
the ABA recommended that Ohio immediately halt all executions and
implement a study of the death penalty system.

###

OTSE is committed to a moratorium on executions in Ohio. Over 130
Ohio organizations have joined the call for a moratorium and thorough
review of the state's death penalty system, including the city councils of
Cincinnati, Dayton, Oberlin and Yellow Springs. Nationwide, over 4600
national and local groups, businesses, and faith communities have
called for a halt to executions, including 152 local governments
representing 28,964,007 people.
____________________________________________________
GOVERNOR STRICKLAND'S STATEMENT:

From: [e-mail]


Statement Regarding Clemency Application of
John G. Spirko

Columbus, Ohio - Governor Ted Strickland today issued the following
statement regarding the pending clemency application of John G. Spirko:

"John Spirko was convicted, by a jury, of a heinous murder. At times,
when he wasn't denying having committed the murder, he appears to have
admitted doing so. Ohio and federal trial, appellate and supreme
courts reviewed his conviction and upheld it. Alibi claims and claims
regarding evidentiary weaknesses, including more recently developed
theories and interpretations of evidence, were considered by those
courts and rejected. In addition, Governor Taft and I granted Mr.
Spirko, collectively, seven reprieves to allow for the analysis of DNA
related to the case. Once completed, these DNA tests neither
exonerated Mr. Spirko nor implicated him or anyone else.

The Ohio Parole Board twice unanimously recommended against clemency
for Mr. Spirko. Most recently, in 2005, six members of the Board
recommended against clemency and three recommended that Mr. Spirko be
allowed time to exhaust newly developed legal theories in the courts.
Mr. Spirko was ultimately allowed that opportunity and his claims were
rejected. Mr. Spirko's claims that his own lies led to his conviction
for an offense that he did not commit are unpersuasive in the face of
the judicial scrutiny this case has received. Nonetheless, I have
concluded that the lack of physical evidence linking him to the
murder, as well as the slim residual doubt about his responsibility for
the
murder that arises from careful scrutiny of the case record and
revelations about the case over the past 20 years, makes the
imposition of the death penalty inappropriate in this case.

In making this determination, my staff and I conducted a thorough
review of the judicial decisions associated with this matter, the Adult
Parole Authority's reports and recommendations, letters received in the

Office of the Governor and by the parole board, the arguments and
exhibits
presented at the Parole Board hearing, the arguments presented by Mr.
Spirko's counsel in favor of clemency, recordings of various
interviews, relevant photographs, newspaper analyses of this matter and Mr.
Spirko's institutional mental health records.

Based on this review, I have decided to commute Mr. Spirko's sentence
to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole."

[thinkinkmesa]

Remind him the fight will go on!!

John Spirko 171-433
2001 East Central Avenue
P.O. Box 80033
Toledo, Ohio 43608

Statement of Spirko's attorneys

John Spirko is an innocent man who has spent 25 very long and hard years in prison -- 23 on death row -- for a crime he did not commit. There can be no joy in the commutation of an innocent man's sentence to life without parole. The positive thing about Governor Strickland's commutation is that the State will now not execute an innocent man and that we can, and will, continue to fight for Mr. Spirko's complete exoneration and release.

We had told Governor Strickland that Mr. Spirko was prepared to waive all his constitutional rights to allow the Van Wert County Prosecutor to again try him and seek the death penalty in a fair and honest trial -- not the trial he got in 1984, filled as it was with false evidence and a false theory of the case. All Mr. Spirko has ever asked for was to be judged fairly and honestly. We all now know that there is absolutely not one shred of evidence -- physical, forensic or otherwise -- linking Mr. Spirko to this crime. The recent DNA and fingerprint results for which we waited more than two years confirm that Mr. Spirko was not present at the crime scenes. Objectively corroborated evidence confirms that Mr. Spirko was meeting in Toledo with his parole officer at the very time this crime was being committed in Elgin, 100 miles away.

We will continue to urge Governor Strickland and Attorney General Dann to review Mr. Spirko's claims of actual innocence so that justice will be served by Mr. Spirko's release from prison and by finally prosecuting those actually responsible for Mrs. Mottinger's murder.

Tom Hill
Alvin Dunn

www.torley.org

"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. . Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all..." Elie Wiesel Nobel Prize for Peace in 1986

[thinkinkmesa]

Please pass this petition around BUT ALSO PLEASE WRITE TO THE GOVERNOR.
www.ipetitions.com/petition/trialforJohnSpirko/

Gov Strickland may not get to see emails, or they can be deleted easily.

This campaign for John Spirko wants to use the old fashioned way......... .......actual letters, to be sent to the Governor. He can ignore a few but he cannot ignore thousands and this is what we need done. We need mail going into that office by the sackload.

Please write to the Governor telling him that John needs a new trial. Residual Doubt is not a reason to give a man who has already spent 25 years on death row, Life without Parole.

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!! !!!

HOW TO CONTACT GOV. STRICKLAND:

If you choose to send an electronic message through e-mail, you'll need to go to the website at http://governor. ohio.gov/ and select the tab on the right-hand side labeled "contact us." From this point, there is a link to "Constituent Affairs" on the right-hand side of the page where you are given an option to contact the Governor. If you choose this option, make sure you keep your message to under 5000 words.

If you choose to call the governor's office, dial the number for constituent issues, not the general information line, at 614-644-4357. If you speak to a person, let him/her know that you're calling to urge the Governor to grant clemency for John Spirko. Leave your name and let them know where you're calling from.

If you choose to fax your message, send it to 614-466-9354 with the subject line "Clemency for Spirko."

The Governor's mailing address is:
Governor's Office
Riffe Center, 30th Floor
77 S. High Street
Columbus, OH 43215-6108