Post by sclcookie on May 31, 2006 2:00:21 GMT -5
Sheriff's deputy expresses doubt over guilt of death row inmate
A former sheriff's deputy who was part of the investigation into the killing of a postmistress nearly 25 years ago now says he has doubts about the state's case against the man sentenced to death in her murder.
"I'm not aware of any tangible physical evidence," former Hanthingy County sheriff's deputy Brad Bell told The Columbus Dispatch and the Ohio News Network about the investigation in the 1982 killing of 48-year-old Betty Jane Mottinger.
After all this time, he said, "Something doesn't smell right to me as far as what went on there."
John Spirko was convicted of killing the Elgin postmistress, who was abducted and repeatedly stabbed, then wrapped in a tarp and dumped in a field. Her body was found 3 weeks later in Hanthingy County in northwest Ohio.
Back then, Bell believed postal inspectors had proved that Spirko was guilty, but now he has doubts.
The media organizations looked into the Spirko case, reviewing documents and conducting interviews over 2 months, for a story prepared for release on Sunday.
Gov. Bob Taft has delayed Spirko's execution 3 times, most recently in January to allow more time for DNA testing. It's now set for July 19.
"All I want is justice. Period," said Spirko, 59, being held at the Ohio Penitentiary in Youngstown. "I spent 24 years now in a cage for something I didn't do."
Relatives of Mottinger continue to believe Spirko is guilty.
"I hope we'll have peace of mind, what they call closure," said John Schroeder, 74, Mottinger's brother. "I just want to see this thing over with. She was my baby sister, and I loved her dearly."
Spirko was arrested after he contacted federal authorities about the murder. He said he only knew about the crime from reading newspapers and made the call to cut a deal for a girlfriend who had been charged with aiding him in an attempted escape from the Fulton County Jail.
Paul Hartman, a U.S. postal inspector, met with Spirko 16 times. Now 59 and retired, Hartman said he has no doubt that Spirko is guilty.
"Not withstanding all of the lies that he told, there were sprinkled among these various stories, various details, intimate details that could only have been known to the people who committed the offense," Hartman said. "Now he's trying to lie his way off of death row."
Among details Spirko told investigators were what clothes and jewelry Mottinger was wearing the day she was killed.
Hartman's notes from a Jan. 11, 1983, meeting show that Spirko told him, "Lay it all on me. I killed her." Spirko was indicted 8 months later on kidnapping and aggravated murder charges.
He denies making a confession.
Spirko was living near Toledo about 70 miles from Elgin at the time of Mottinger's death.
He said he visited his parole officer in Toledo the day she died before driving his sister to a doctor's appointment, stopping at home and heading to the Swanton post office. He said he could not have been in Swanton and Elgin, which are about 90 miles apart, that morning.
"I'm a liar. I'm not asking you to believe me. I'm asking you to believe the evidence and facts," he said. "There's a much bigger picture here and that's justice, not just for me, but for everybody."
Investigators, at the request of Spirko's lawyers, are conducting DNA tests on hairs found on duct tape wrapped around the tarp that contained Mottinger's body.
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 Spirko's friend and former cellmate, Delaney Gibson, at the post office.
Gibson had initially been charged in Mottinger's death but prosecutors dropped the indictment against him.
"This is the weakest death case I have ever seen," said Spirko attorney Steven Drizin, who serves as legal director of the Northwestern University School of Law's Center on Wrongful Convictions.
(source: Associated Press)
A former sheriff's deputy who was part of the investigation into the killing of a postmistress nearly 25 years ago now says he has doubts about the state's case against the man sentenced to death in her murder.
"I'm not aware of any tangible physical evidence," former Hanthingy County sheriff's deputy Brad Bell told The Columbus Dispatch and the Ohio News Network about the investigation in the 1982 killing of 48-year-old Betty Jane Mottinger.
After all this time, he said, "Something doesn't smell right to me as far as what went on there."
John Spirko was convicted of killing the Elgin postmistress, who was abducted and repeatedly stabbed, then wrapped in a tarp and dumped in a field. Her body was found 3 weeks later in Hanthingy County in northwest Ohio.
Back then, Bell believed postal inspectors had proved that Spirko was guilty, but now he has doubts.
The media organizations looked into the Spirko case, reviewing documents and conducting interviews over 2 months, for a story prepared for release on Sunday.
Gov. Bob Taft has delayed Spirko's execution 3 times, most recently in January to allow more time for DNA testing. It's now set for July 19.
"All I want is justice. Period," said Spirko, 59, being held at the Ohio Penitentiary in Youngstown. "I spent 24 years now in a cage for something I didn't do."
Relatives of Mottinger continue to believe Spirko is guilty.
"I hope we'll have peace of mind, what they call closure," said John Schroeder, 74, Mottinger's brother. "I just want to see this thing over with. She was my baby sister, and I loved her dearly."
Spirko was arrested after he contacted federal authorities about the murder. He said he only knew about the crime from reading newspapers and made the call to cut a deal for a girlfriend who had been charged with aiding him in an attempted escape from the Fulton County Jail.
Paul Hartman, a U.S. postal inspector, met with Spirko 16 times. Now 59 and retired, Hartman said he has no doubt that Spirko is guilty.
"Not withstanding all of the lies that he told, there were sprinkled among these various stories, various details, intimate details that could only have been known to the people who committed the offense," Hartman said. "Now he's trying to lie his way off of death row."
Among details Spirko told investigators were what clothes and jewelry Mottinger was wearing the day she was killed.
Hartman's notes from a Jan. 11, 1983, meeting show that Spirko told him, "Lay it all on me. I killed her." Spirko was indicted 8 months later on kidnapping and aggravated murder charges.
He denies making a confession.
Spirko was living near Toledo about 70 miles from Elgin at the time of Mottinger's death.
He said he visited his parole officer in Toledo the day she died before driving his sister to a doctor's appointment, stopping at home and heading to the Swanton post office. He said he could not have been in Swanton and Elgin, which are about 90 miles apart, that morning.
"I'm a liar. I'm not asking you to believe me. I'm asking you to believe the evidence and facts," he said. "There's a much bigger picture here and that's justice, not just for me, but for everybody."
Investigators, at the request of Spirko's lawyers, are conducting DNA tests on hairs found on duct tape wrapped around the tarp that contained Mottinger's body.
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 Spirko's friend and former cellmate, Delaney Gibson, at the post office.
Gibson had initially been charged in Mottinger's death but prosecutors dropped the indictment against him.
"This is the weakest death case I have ever seen," said Spirko attorney Steven Drizin, who serves as legal director of the Northwestern University School of Law's Center on Wrongful Convictions.
(source: Associated Press)