Ted's Death Row Test

I was struck by the depth of consideration Governor Ted Strickland gave John Spirko, the Death Row inmate who has big-city help in trying to overturn his execution sentence for the murder of western Ohio postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger in 1982.

I think it's important to make sure her name is included in the first paragraph of this story rather than as an afterthought.

Rather than rubber-stamping an expected politically correct call to give Spirko a pass the Governor fully explains just why it'll be life in prison for a killer rather than the needle.

“John Spirko was convicted, by a jury, of a heinous murder. At times, when he wasn’t denying having committed the murder, he appears to have admitted doing so. Ohio and federal trial, appellate and supreme courts reviewed his conviction and upheld it. Alibi claims and claims regarding evidentiary weaknesses, including more recently developed theories and interpretations of evidence, were considered by those courts and rejected. In addition, Governor Taft and I granted Mr. Spirko, collectively, seven reprieves to allow for the analysis of DNA related to the case. Once completed, these DNA tests neither exonerated Mr. Spirko nor implicated him or anyone else.

The Ohio Parole Board twice unanimously recommended against clemency for Mr. Spirko. Most recently, in 2005, six members of the Board recommended against clemency and three recommended that Mr. Spirko be allowed time to exhaust newly developed legal theories in the courts. Mr. Spirko was ultimately allowed that opportunity and his claims were rejected. Mr. Spirko’s claims that his own lies led to his conviction for an offense that he did not commit are unpersuasive in the face of the judicial scrutiny this case has received. Nonetheless, I have concluded that the lack of physical evidence linking him to the murder, as well as the slim residual doubt about his responsibility for the murder that arises from careful scrutiny of the case record and revelations about the case over the past 20 years, makes the imposition of the death penalty inappropriate in this case.

In making this determination, my staff and I conducted a thorough review of the judicial decisions associated with this matter, the Adult Parole Authority’s reports and recommendations, letters received in the Office of the Governor and by the parole board, the arguments and exhibits presented at the Parole Board hearing, the arguments presented by Mr. Spirko’s counsel in favor of clemency, recordings of various interviews, relevant photographs, newspaper analyses of this matter and Mr. Spirko’s institutional mental health records.

Based on this review, I have decided to commute Mr. Spirko’s sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.”

Here's the Governor's official order in the Spirko case:

Warrant of Commutation of Sentence

John Spirko, Jr., #A171-433 was convicted of the crime of Aggravated Murder with a Death Penalty Specification and sentenced by the Van Wert County Common Pleas Court to death.

Mr. Spirko is currently incarcerated in the custody of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and is scheduled to be executed on January 24, 2008.

I find that Mr. Spirko’s claim that his own lies led to his conviction for an offense that he did not commit is unpersuasive in the face of the judicial scrutiny this case has received.

I also find that the lack of physical evidence linking Mr. Spirko to the above-mentioned murder, combined with the slim residual doubt about his responsibility for the murder arising from a careful scrutiny of the case record and revelations about the case over the past 20 years, makes the imposition of the death penalty in this case inappropriate.

Accordingly, I direct that the sentence of death of John Spirko be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

I signed this Warrant of Commutation on January 9, 2008, in Columbus, Ohio.

It's noteworthy the Governor's commutation order so strongly considers the DNA evidence as neither clearing nor implicating Spirko, something missing from most of the media coverage (notably the Plain Dealer) which centers on the evidence not linking Spirko to the murder of Mottinger, whose body was found in a Findlay area soybean field six weeks after she was kidnapped, without noting it doesn't really clear him, either.

It is interesting to note Spirko escapes the death chamber because we think he did the deed but we're not sure enough to allow the sentence to be carried out.

The Governor's reasoning is plainly and clearly expressed and while it may not be a full endorsement of withholding lethal injection for any prisoner (it is important to note there have been a pair of executions in Ohio under Strickland's term: James Filiaggi and James Newton) it comes at the time when the U.S. Supreme Court weighs arguments on whether lethal injection poses "cruel and unusual punishment" enough to order different methods or procedures to be used.