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Toledo Blade
Friday, September 9, 2005
2-MONTH DELAY
By JIM PROVANCE COLUMBUS — Gov. Bob Taft yesterday postponed John Spirko’s date with death for nearly two months to give the Ohio Parole Board time to hold a new clemency hearing and rethink its recommendation that he doesn’t deserve mercy. Offering no opinion on Spirko’s guilt or innocence in the 1982 kidnapping and murder of a Van Wert County postmaster, Mr. Taft said he agreed with the board’s decision to hold a full rehearing as proposed by both Attorney General Jim Petro and Spirko’s lawyers. It was the first time in 18 death row cases that have reached his desk that Mr. Taft has granted a delay. He commuted the sentence of one death row inmate to life without parole in 2003. The parole board had voted 6-3 that Mr. Taft should not grant Spirko a pardon or a delay. But questions were raised later about Senior Deputy Attorney General Tim Prichard’s recitation of facts at the hearing. He argued that Spirko attempted to manufacture an alibi and revealed details of the crime only someone who was there could know. “The board considered the totality of the information presented at the hearing fairly and with due diligence,” board Chairman Gary Croft wrote in letter to Mr. Taft. “However, the persistent assertions that parties may have presented inaccurate information or misrepresented facts to the parole board causes serious concern.” Brian Niceswanger, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the board will start the process over, holding a hearing on Oct. 12 and issuing a new report to Mr. Taft. Spirko’s execution has been postponed from Sept. 20 to Nov. 15. Alvin Dunn, one of Spirko’s Washington attorneys, said Spirko was “very happy, very relieved, very thankful” with yesterday’s news, a dramatic change after news earlier this week that U.S. District Court in Toledo had rejected a last-ditch effort to reopen his appeals. “He’s just so happy that he’s gotten more time, another opportunity to make his case,” Mr. Dunn said. “I can sense that it is nerve-wracking for him.” The original Aug. 23 hearing lasted about eight hours, a parole board record. Mr. Prichard surprised at least one board member with his challenge of claims by Spirko and his sister that he was with her when Betty Jane “Janie” Mottinger, 48, was abducted about 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 9, 1982. In video testimony, Spirko’s sister, Cathy Bailey of Swanton, told the board she accompanied her brother to a meeting with his parole officer in Toledo, about 100 miles northwest of the village post office in Elgin. She said he then took her to her doctor’s office so she could be medicated for a migraine. Spirko moved in with his sister after being paroled in Kentucky on an unrelated murder conviction 12 days before Mrs. Mottinger’s disappearance. “Sometime later on that day Spirko does show up unannounced to try to meet with his parole officer,” Mr. Prichard told the parole board. “Well, that parole officer, [Steven] Lohmeyer, was a witness at Spirko’s trial. He did testify that Spirko showed up unannounced on Aug. 2, but Lohmeyer can’t testify to the time he was there.” A transcript of the trial, however, showed Mr. Lohmeyer testified that Spirko had an appointment and that he arrived with his sister. He couldn’t remember the time but said such a meeting would normally last 45 to 90 minutes. He testified that Spirko’s sister did not appear to be drowsy and did not slur her words. Spirko’s lawyers suggested that meant the interview took place before she was medicated. “We believe Tim Prichard provided truthful, accurate information to the board,” said Petro spokesman Kim Norris. “But, as the attorney general has said, anytime you have a capital punishment case, it’s appropriate to have an exhaustive process.” Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.
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