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The Beacon Journal
Mon, Jan. 09, 2006
JOHN McCARTHY COLUMBUS, Ohio - Gov. Bob Taft on Monday delayed for the third time the execution of man who says he's innocent of a 1982 murder to allow more time for DNA testing. Attorney General Jim Petro last week asked Taft to delay John Spirko's execution, set for Jan. 19, by six months to allow for the testing of evidence as requested by Spirko's lawyers. Taft's reprieve sets the new date for July 19. Investigators are testing hairs found on duct tape wrapped around the tarp that contained Betty Jane Mottinger's body. Petro needs the extra time because of complications presented by testing in a 24-year-old case, he said Monday. The evidence was handled by police and prosecutors whose DNA must be identified, so it will not be confused with that of a suspect. The testing so far has not yielded any substantive clues, he said. Spirko, 59, was convicted of killing Mottinger, the postmistress in Elgin in northwest Ohio. She was abducted and repeatedly stabbed, then wrapped in a tarp and dumped in a field. Her body was found three weeks later. Petro's office also will need time to find other potential suspects - including some whose names came up earlier in the case - if the hairs are found to come from someone other than Spirko or Mottinger, he said. Some of the previous suspects live out of state and Ohio might need court orders to demand tests. Among those individuals is Delaney Gibson, a friend of Spirko's who initially was charged along with Spirko in Mottinger's slaying. A large part of the prosecution's original case was based on witnesses who identified Gibson through his photograph as being at the post office the day of the killing. Spirko heard about the reprieve Monday and was "gratified that the testing was going to go forward," said Thomas Hill, one of his attorneys. "It's been a long ordeal, so I think under the circumstances he's doing pretty well," Hill said. In November, Taft granted Spirko a 60-day reprieve at the request of Petro, who said he needed that long to test several items that Spirko's attorneys want reviewed. In September, Taft delayed Spirko's scheduled Sept. 20 execution to look into whether prosecutors presented inaccurate information at his clemency hearing in August. In a similar case, the Summit County prosecutor determined last month that DNA evidence showed that a man could not have committed the rapes and murder for which he was serving a life sentence and ordered him released. Petro, a Republican running for governor this year, had sought Clarence Elkins' release for more than a month. However, his office has argued for Spirko's execution in court and at his clemency hearings. He says the state had proven its case based largely on Spirko's knowledge of details investigators say only someone at the scene could have known. He also points out that every state and federal court upheld Spirko's conviction and sentence.
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