|
THE PLAIN DEALER
Spirko Lawyers Want FBI To Follow Up On Old Lead Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Sandra Livingston With John Spirko's execution a month away, his lawyers want the FBI to investigate an 8-year-old lead into the 1982 murder that put their client on death row, claiming that federal and state authorities have failed so far to pursue the information. Spirko's lawyers say that failure is reason enough for the Ohio Parole Board to recommend clemency for Spirko. The board plans to issue its recommendation Wednesday. Spirko is scheduled to die Nov. 15 for the murder of Elgin, Ohio, postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger. Mottinger was kidnapped in August 1982 and stabbed more than a dozen times. Her body, wrapped in a paint-splattered shroud, was found six weeks later. Spirko's lawyers want the FBI to interview the source of the 1997 lead and to conduct forensic tests on the shroud. They made their requests Monday in letters to the parole board and federal authorities. The lead came from John Willier, a former house painter who told a Wyandot County investigator that the man he painted houses for during the summer of 1982 was involved in Mottinger's murder and threatened to kill him if he ever told. That investigator has said he tried to get federal authorities to pursue the tip, but nothing happened. During Spirko's clemency hearing last week, a parole board member pointedly asked state officials why they never followed up. Willier told The Plain Dealer he remains eager to meet with federal officials. He is convinced that the shroud Mottinger's body was wrapped in is the drop-cloth his boss, Dale Dingus, used on painting jobs that summer. Dingus, currently in a Louisiana prison for rape, has denied any involvement. Spirko lawyer Thomas Hill said he wants the FBI to interview Willier because of questions about the "competence and integrity" of the original investigation, conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
|