John Spriko

[MXB]

www.johnspirko.com

The case of John Spirko who has evidence of innocence and has a serious date for execution on July 19th 2006.

[scotkaz]

Postal inspector’s credibility at issue in murder case
Saturday, June 10, 2006


The May 28 Dispatch story on the imminent execution of John G. Spirko Jr. ("After life of lies, Spirko hopes DNA will free him") conspicuously failed to address the most important issue: the dubious credibility of U.S. Postal Inspector Paul Hartman. Spirko is to be executed by lethal injection on July 19 for the murder of Betty Jane Mottinger, who was abducted from the Elgin post office in 1982.

The article recognized that minus "any physical evidence or eyewitnesses (positively identifying Spirko), the prosecution’s case relied largely on Hartman’s testimony." We now know that the case that the state presented at the trial – in large part through the testimony of Hartman – was false and that Hartman knew this at the time of the trial.

The state’s case was not simply, as Hartman told The Dispatch, that Spirko knew crucial details of the crime. Faced with the absence of any physical evidence linking Spirko to the crime, the state argued that Spirko acted with his friend, Delaney Gibson.

The article mentioned Gibson only at the very end, but Gibson’s alleged involvement played a prominent role in the state’s case. The only positive eyewitness at the trial placed Gibson, not Spirko, at the scene of the abduction.

We now know that Hartman knew at the time of the trial that Gibson had no involvement in the crime. Recently, evidently feeling secure that Spirko’s conviction and death sentence were finally immune from attack, Hartman began telling various people in taped conversations that he had never believed that Gibson was involved and that he had shared this conclusion and the facts underlying it (facts he had developed in large part himself) with the prosecutors. Yet at the trial, Hartman and the state argued that Gibson was involved, all the while hiding from Spirko and his attorneys extensive evidence that Gibson was hundreds of miles away, wearing a full beard. This fact is critical, because the witness who placed Gibson at the scene identified a clean-shaven man. Evidence belying the state’s theory was concealed until many years after Spirko was convicted.

The question of Gibson’s involvement became a central issue in Spirko’s most recent attack on his death sentence and conviction. Hartman denied ever concluding that Gibson was not involved. When confronted with the fact that he had made such statements separately to us and on tape to a reporter, Hartman admitted under oath that he made those statements. In a bizarre twist, Hartman claimed that he did so in a calculated effort to mislead us and the reporter.

The people of Ohio should ask themselves why any law-enforcement officer would do such a thing.

There is more. Hartman asserted at the trial that Spirko knew intimate details of the crime. We now know that most of those details were in news reports before Spirko allegedly provided them to Hartman. In addition, it appears that Hartman may have added many critical details to his interview notes after the fact, and Hartman has admitted feeding facts to Spirko only to have Spirko parrot them right back to him. We may never know whether information in Hartman’s notes came from Spirko or was fabricated by Hartman because Hartman did not taperecord his interviews and never asked Spirko to write a statement or to read or sign any of the notes Hartman took, all contrary to standard investigative techniques.

The Dispatch article also stated that notes of an interview by Hartman show that Spirko told him: "Lay it all on me. I killed her." This critical statement simply is not true. The handwritten notes that Hartman took during that interview with Spirko contain no such statement by Spirko, and Hartman admitted at the trial, "I don’t believe that that is in my notes." That alleged statement by Spirko appears only in the typewritten Memorandum of Interview that Hartman prepared well after the actual interview with Spirko. One would expect that if Spirko actually had made the statement in his interview with Hartman, Hartman would have written it down in his original notes of the interview.

The article also did not mention that Hartman took early retirement after a number of postal inspectors filed complaints against him. One complainant wrote that Hartman had engaged in conduct "bordering on criminal" that might lead to the execution of an innocent man. Few Ohioans should be surprised to learn that Spirko, a "career criminal," turned out to be a liar. But they should be very perplexed and troubled by such behavior from a sworn federal lawenforcement officer, a man upon whose word the state of Ohio seeks to execute Spirko. THOMAS C. HILL ALVIN DUNN Attorneys Washington, D.C

[scotkaz]

On behalf of John Spirko and his wife Tracy, I have been asked to thank everyone for the many birthday cards John recieved for his 60th birthday.

John says they really made his day and he appreciates the thoughts and support everyone is giving him.

So thank you all. You made his birthday feel special and thats just what he deserves

Karen
www.johnspirko.com
Justice for John Spirko

[MXB]

Good to hear. Thank you for posting this Karen....MXB