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| Death Row Inmate Seeks Hearing |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/12/2005 |
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An Ohio death row inmate convicted of killing a rural postmistress wants a federal appeals court to order a new hearing on evidence his attorneys say was fraudulently withheld at trial. John Spirko, 59, has been sentenced to die by injection for the 1982 killing of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, the postmistress in Elgin in northwest Ohio. On Sept. 6, U.S. District Judge James Carr denied Spirko's request for a new evidentiary hearing, saying there was no reason to believe investigators fraudulently hid evidence from Spirko's attorneys. Spirko attorney Thomas Hill argued before a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that fraud was committed on the court at trial when the state continued to stand behind a theory that Spirko committed the crime with his friend, Delaney Gibson. The state knew that investigator Paul Hartman had decided before trial that Gibson was innocent and also knew prosecutors planned to dismiss the case against Gibson, Hill said. Gibson was convicted of an unrelated murder and served time in prison in Kentucky from 1983 to 2001. Prosecutors dropped the indictment against him in Mottinger's death. "The star witness for the state did not believe the very theory that he was a proponent of," Hill told appeals judges, referring to Hartman's original theory linking Gibson and Spirko. No physical evidence tied Spirko to the murder. He was convicted based largely on his statements to police and an eyewitness who had claimed to see Gibson at the post office. Prosecutors have argued that Spirko convicted himself by telling investigators details of the slaying. Spirko's attorneys have said he got some of the details from the media and some were supplied or suggested to him by investigators. Charles Wille, assistant Ohio attorney general, argued against a new hearing, saying the case still rests on what Spirko knew and when he knew it - evidence that he says a jury heard before finding Spirko guilty. Wille also argued there is no evidence that any information was fraudulently withheld from the defense. He said the last thing Spirko's attorneys would have wanted to do in the trial was to establish Gibson might not be guilty. "A man who said that he was innocent because his best friend committed the crime is now saying that he is innocent because his best friend did not commit the crime," Wille said of Spirko. The appeals court panel took the arguments under review. Spirko was scheduled to die by injection Nov. 15, but Gov. Bob Taft granted a 60-day reprieve for DNA testing on items found on or near Mottinger's body. Attorney General Jim Petro requested the delay, but said he does not believe the testing will prove anything. Mottinger was abducted and repeatedly stabbed, then wrapped in the tarp and dumped in a field. Spirko's attorneys have requested that the tarp and duct tape around the body be tested along with a cinder block found near the body. |
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