The Plain Dealer Three On Parole Board Find 'Too Much Residual Doubt' Sunday, October 30, 2005 Bob Paynter, Plain Dealer Projects Editor, and Sandra Livingston Plain Dealer Reporter Three members of the Ohio Parole Board, not convinced that John Spirko committed murder 23 years ago, asked the state's lawyers a series of pointed questions during Spirko's Oct. 12 clemency hearing. Many of the doubts they raised about the case were fueled by information that was unknown to the jury that convicted Spirko in 1984 and to many of the appellate court judges who have since declined to grant him relief. Attorneys for the state argued, to the apparent satisfaction of the board majority, that Spirko's own words - to investigators and to the jury - were enough to convict him of robbing the tiny Elgin post office on Aug. 9, 1982, and of kidnapping and fatally stabbing Postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger in the process. And they produced recent declarations from four of the original jurors that they stand by their verdict. But that wasn't enough for board members Ellen Venters, Jim Bedra and Sandra Mack. "There is too much residual doubt," they told Gov. Bob Taft in their dissent, "to execute John Spirko." Email: Tracy Spirko, John Spirko's Representative