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Taft Delays Execution of Condemned Killer Professing Innocence
11/7/2005, 5:55 p.m. ET COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) Gov. Bob Taft agreed Monday to delay next week's scheduled execution of an inmate who claims innocence so that DNA testing can be conducted. Taft granted John Spirko a two-month reprieve at the request of Attorney General Jim Petro, the second time Taft has agreed to delay Spirko's execution over questions about information leading to his conviction. Petro informed Taft and Spirko's attorneys in letters Monday about his willingness to conduct the testing and his request for the 60-day reprieve. "I am a proponent of DNA technology," Petro said in the two-page letter to Thomas Hill, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney representing Spirko. "It is important to accommodate the use of DNA testing where practical and feasible." Petro, a Republican running for governor next year, said he does not believe the testing will be able to prove either Spirko's innocence or his guilt. "Notwithstanding, I believe that to the extent possible, all information should be made available for the parties, courts, and the Gov. to use for what purpose they feel necessary," Petro said. Spirko was scheduled to die by injection Nov. 15 for the 1982 killing of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, 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. Spirko, 59, was convicted on the basis of witness' statements and his own comments to investigators. No physical evidence linked him to the crime.
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