Dec. 30 URGENT ACTION APPEAL ---------------------------------- 22 December 2005 Death Penalty UA 221/05 (Originally issued 24 August 2005 and re-issued 9 September 2005; 1 November 2005; 10 November 2005) USA/Ohio: John Spirko (m) John Spirko is scheduled to be executed on 19 January. He was sentenced to death in 1984 for the kidnap and murder of Betty Jane Mottinger in August 1982. He denies carrying out the murder and no physical or forensic evidence links him to the crime. Concerns about Spirko's guilt have been raised by the courts considering his case and by members of the Ohio Parole Board considering a clemency petition. Spirko had two execution dates postponed by Governor Taft in 2005, each time only days before he was due to be put to death. The first time was in September at the request of the Ohio Parole Board, which wanted more time to consider a clemency petition; the second was in November, to allow time for DNA testing of evidence from the crime scene, after the Board had voted against a clemency recommendation. The DNA testing is now in progress, and Spirko's attorneys are attempting to get more information on this. The state has now found fingerprint evidence from the crime scene, which it had lost, and Spirko's attorneys are urging the authorities to check these prints against the national database of criminal suspects' fingerprints. Prosecutors at John Spirko's trial are alleged to have knowingly presented a false case against him, linking him to the crime through the involvement of a co-defendant, Delaney Gibson, who they had evidence to suggest was 500 miles away at the time of the crime. Delaney Gibson was charged but never tried in the crime, and all charges against him were dropped in May 2004. One of the original state investigators was recently reported to have stated that he told prosecutors at trial that he believed Delaney Gibson did not take part in the murder. Spirko's attorneys have argued that this casts doubt on John Spirko's conviction and warrants reopening of the case. An appeal to review the case in US District Court was denied in October 2005. The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is now considering a further appeal. The Ohio Parole Board voted 6-3 against making a clemency recommendation to the Governor in October 2005. The three dissenting members reportedly concluded that there was too much doubt to allow the execution to go ahead, expressing concerns about these issues. Writing a dissent to the majority opinion in May 2004 which dismissed John Spirko's appeal for an evidentiary hearing on claims that the prosecution at trial knowingly presented false evidence, federal judge John Gilman said that ''the case against Spirko was far from overwhelming'' and left him with ''considerable doubt as to whether he has been lawfully subjected to the death penalty.'' He noted, ''a striking fact about the record in this case is the complete absence of any forensic evidence linking Spirko to the crime,'' and said that the state's case against John Spirko was built on ''three shaky pillars'' with ''a foundation of sand''. Former federal judge William Sessions, who has been active in an initiative to promote procedural safeguards in death penalty cases, two retired federal judges and a former federal prosecutor have reportedly raised concerns about John Spirko's conviction and death sentence. Betty Jane Mottinger, the postmistress of Elgin, a small town in Ohio, was kidnapped and murdered in August 1982. John Spirko contacted police two months later, offering to trade information about the murder in exchange for help with charges he was facing in another, unrelated case. He reportedly gave a series of differing accounts of the murder, according to one of which his best friend and former cellmate, Delaney Gibson, had admitted to him that he had carried out the murder. Prosecutors at trial argued that Gibson and Spirko committed the crime together, saying that the information John Spirko had provided could only be known by the murderer, and relying on the testimony of an eyewitness who testified that she was ''100 percent sure'' that she had seen Delaney Gibson outside the post office the morning Mottinger disappeared. The prosecution allegedly had evidence that Gibson was actually 500 miles away at the time. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Amnesty International opposes all executions, regardless of issues of guilt or innocence. This is a punishment that is an affront to human dignity and a part of a culture of violence rather than a solution to it. It has not been shown to deter crime more effectively than other punishment, and denies the possibility of rehabilitation and reconciliation. In the US the capital justice system is marked by arbitrariness, discrimination and error, and the US authorities have frequently violated international standards in their pursuit of judicial killing of prisoners including people whose guilt remained in doubt. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible: - expressing concern that John Spirko is scheduled to be executed in Ohio on 19 January; - expressing sympathy for the family and friends of Betty Jane Mottinger, explaining that you are not seeking to excuse the manner of her death or to minimize the suffering caused; - expressing concern at reports that prosecutors are alleged to have presented a false case against John Spirko at trial; - noting the dissenting opinions of the courts and the three members of the Ohio Parole Board, relating to doubts about John Spirko's culpability, and the lack of forensic evidence linking Spirko to the crime; - calling on Governor Taft to grant clemency to John Spirko. APPEALS TO: Governor Bob Taft 30th Floor 77 South High Street Columbus, Ohio 43215-6117 Fax: 1 614 466 9354 Email: (via website) http://governor.ohio.gov/contactinfopage.asp; governor.t...@das.state.oh.us Salutation: Dear Governor PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. All appeals must arrive by 19 January 2006. Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights. This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal. Urgent Action Network Amnesty International USA PO Box 1270 Nederland CO 80466-1270 Email: u...@aiusa.org http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/ Phone: 303 258 1170 Fax: 303 258 7881 ---------------------------------- END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL ---------------------------------- CALIFORNIA: Los Angeles County sends most murderers to death row Here is a breakdown by county of the 652 death sentences being served by 646 inmates on death row (some inmates have multiple sentences): Alameda: 42 Alpine: 0 Amador: 1 Butte: 3 Calaveras: 1 Colusa: 2 Contra Costa: 17 Del Norte: 0 El Dorado: 2 Fresno: 16 Glenn: 1 Humboldt: 2 Imperial: 2 Inyo: 0 Kern: 22 Kings: 4 Lake: 2 Lassen: 0 Los Angeles: 193 Madera: 3 Marin: 1 Mariposa: 0 Mendocino: 0 Merced: 2 Modoc: 0 Mono: 0 Monterey: 5 Napa: 2 Nevada: 0 Orange: 52 Placer: 2 Plumas: 0 Riverside: 57 Sacramento: 34 San Benito: 0 San Bernardino: 32 San Diego: 36 San Francisco: 1 San Joaquin: 9 San Luis Obispo: 3 San Mateo: 14 Santa Barbara: 9 Santa Clara: 26 Santa Cruz: 0 Shasta: 10 Sierra: 0 Siskiyou: 0 Solano: 2 Sonoma: 4 Stanislaus: 9 Sutter: 0 Tehama: 0 Trinity: 0 Tulare: 13 Tuolumne: 1 Ventura: 15 Yolo: 0 Yuba: 0 [source: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] (source: The Sacramento Bee, Dec. 24) USA: Leading the World in Real Moral Values "An eye for an eye and the whole world is blind"-- Gandhi A couple of years ago, I met Stanley "Tookie" Williams, who was put to death last week. He was a smart and affable man. He was also very likely responsible for the murders for which he was convicted. In my years in government, having served as chief of staff to Lieut. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, I often worked with the Board of Pardons, and met several inmates on death row. Some of them were seemingly warm people who may have been guilty of murder - others were cold and could very well have been innocent. I could never be completely sure, though, no matter how closely I read their cases or talked to them. One day, I hope to be a mother, and devote my life to my children. If my child were gunned down in the same way Tookie Williams' victims allegedly were, the murderer would be a dead man himself, by my own hands. Of course, I would go to prison for life, but that would be a small price to avenge my dead child. In that moment, I would be rejecting all the moral lessons I had been taught about the value of every human life. That is the precise reason we don't allow victims to determine the punishment of the perpetrator. It is also the reason no government should make decisions of life and death when there is an iota of doubt. Because of the sliver of doubt that always exists about the certainty of guilt of those on death row, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, declared a moratorium on executions in his state in the year 2000. Ryan was troubled by a report in the Chicago Tribune that examined almost 300 death penalty cases. It found that 33 people on Illinois' death row were represented by lawyers who had been disbarred or suspended and that in nearly 50 other cases, people were convicted on the basis of testimony from jailhouse informants, usually regarded as flimsy evidence. Illinois is not the only state with a questionable execution record. Indeed, while governor of Texas, George W. Bush refused to grant stays of execution to a man who was represented by a lawyer who constantly fell asleep at trial as well as a number of mentally retarded defendants. Bill Clinton, as governor of Arkansas, refused to grant clemency to a mentally handicapped man who shot out part of his brain at the time of his arrest. None of these people were fully able to grasp what they were being tried for, let alone capable of assisting in their defense. In fact, according to mental health experts, there is a danger that the mentally retarded will admit to a crime because of their desire to please. Even if we were 100 % sure that every single person executed was guilty, the death penalty would still be wrong because the only reasons for execution would be revenge and the belief that the guilty party was beyond redemption. Personally, as a Catholic, I have been taught that seeking revenge against sinners is a paved road straight to hell. But leaving beside religious beliefs, our own government has put these moral values into our law for good practical reasons. For example, if someone is fired from their job for reasons they believe to be unjust, it does not give them the right to steal from the company from which they were fired. When slavery was outlawed, it did not give the right to former slaves to capture their former owners and force them into servitude. To allow for acts of retribution in the law would lead to mass chaos. Likewise, the belief that a life can be redeemed, while a part of my church's doctrine, is not exclusive to it. Indeed, all the great leaders of our time, who were victims of the most heinous crimes against them, believed that the hope for redemption lives within all of us. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Pope John Paul II and Nelson Mandela are just a few. Virtually all civilized western nations have adopted this principle of redemption in their law, especially in Europe, which had seen the institutionalized nihilism of Nazi Germany. The United States ought not do things just because Europe and the rest of the world does. But on these issues of morals, human rights and human dignity, the U.S. ought to lead the world. It is time for people to demand that the United States, which is a beacon of hope and freedom, reclaim its place as the world's leader in establishing real moral values in the way it operates. There would be no better way to set ourselves down that path than ending execution. (source: Bruce Shapiro, Huffington Post, Dec. 22) FLORIDA: Murderer ready to die before execution Readers: Last week we told you about what's believed to be the last hanging in Palm Beach County before the state centralized executions and instituted the electric chair in 1923. Shelby Wise was accused of stabbing Claude Brown to death in April 1914 in West Palm Beach during a fight. On June 26, 1914, after deliberating for 2 1/2 hours, a jury found Wise guilty of 1st-degree murder. "Hopeless, no possible chance for life, the prisoner sat with downcast eyes," said a June 26, 1914, story in the Tropical Sun, a predecessor to The Palm Beach Post. "From not one face left in the courtroom did he read a sign of mercy, showing plainly that for him, death had already begun." Wise spent his time in jail singing gospel songs and preaching to fellow inmates and even the press. "My soul is right with my maker, and I am ready to die," he told reporters. "Whiskey and bad women were the cause of it," he said of Brown's murder. "Indeed, I am sorry. But then, it is all over. And I am not worrying about it any more." At the county jail, on First Street in downtown West Palm Beach, work on the scaffold began. Gov. Park Trammell delayed the hanging by 2 weeks to let Wise's lawyers appeal for a lesser sentence. But the state's pardoning board turned Wise down. Told of his fate, Wise smiled and said, "All right." On the morning of July 2, Shelby White smoked a cigarette, then stood as deputies placed a black hood over his head. The lever was pulled, and he fell through the trap door. (source: Palm Beach Post, Dec. 28) INDIANA: Execution date set for man convicted of 2 murders The Indiana Supreme Court set a Jan. 27 execution date for a man condemned in the 1981 shooting deaths of a Russiaville couple. The court, in a ruling dated late Wednesday afternoon, rejected the latest appeal by Marvin Bieghler and ordered that his death sentence be carried out. The high court gave Bieghler until Tuesday to petition for a rehearing, but said he had received extensive judicial review and should not seek a rehearing if he intended to raise arguments already addressed. Bieghler was convicted in 1983 of two counts of murder in the execution-style shooting deaths of Tommy Miller, 20, and his pregnant wife, Kimberly Jane Miller, 19. The couple were found dead Dec. 11, 1981, in their mobile home near Russiaville. Howard Superior Court Judge Dennis Parry sentenced Bieghler to death on a recommendation from the jury. Bieghler, a reputed supplier and dealer of marijuana, was convinced that Tommy Miller told police about his drug operation, according to court documents. He also claimed Tommy Miller owed him a drug debt. Bieghler dropped a dime on each of the dead bodies, according to court records. By dropping the dimes, Bieghler was sending a message to other possible informants that snitches won't be tolerated, authorities have said. But authorities said Tommy Miller was not a police informant. Wednesday's ruling rejected Bieghler's successive petitions for post- conviction relief and a claim that Indiana's form of execution, lethal injection, was unconstitutional because there was no guarantee it was pain free. He also argued that executing him 24 years after the murders violated his constitutional rights, and there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction and sentence. If Bieghler seeks a rehearing by Tuesday, the state would have until Jan. 9 to respond. Indiana has executed 5 people this year, the most since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIA: Moussaoui Trial Offers Close View for a Few Hundreds of Northern Virginia residents will soon get a front-row seat at a key legal event in the war on terrorism. Officials plan to summon 500 people to the federal courthouse in Alexandria, where a judge will determine whether they will sit on the jury in the death penalty phase of the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in a U.S. case in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Under a recent order from U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, the court will mail summonses to prospective jurors in Alexandria and in Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford and Fauquier counties. Recipients will be instructed to report to the courthouse Feb. 6, where they will fill out extensive background questionnaires and, a week later, be questioned about their responses. It is the 1st step in jury selection for the death penalty trial of Moussaoui, a French citizen who pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al Qaeda in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The 12-member jury will determine whether Moussaoui will be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison. The process of selecting a jury is expected to take a month, far longer than most cases at the Alexandria federal courthouse, which is known for hosting high-profile proceedings. In the recent case of Ahmed Omar Abu Ali -- a Falls Church student charged with plotting with al Qaeda to kill President Bush -- jury selection took less than 4 days. Abu Ali was convicted and faces up to life in prison. But picking a jury to decide Moussaoui's fate will be more complicated. The trial is expected to last several months, at a courthouse just miles from the Pentagon, and the jury pool is filled with government workers. The case has received extensive publicity. Perhaps the most significant challenge will be finding jurors who can be objective about Sept. 11, one of the most traumatic events in American history. "September 11 is what sets this case apart from the others," said Thomas Munsterman, director of the Center for Jury Studies in Arlington, part of the National Center for State Courts. "Who has not been touched by 9/11?" he said. "And then the question becomes how closely have you been touched by the event." Prosecutors declined to comment on jury selection in the Moussaoui case. Defense lawyers expressed concern in a recent court filing that finding unbiased jurors will be difficult. "The problem will be finding jurors who can set their pre-existing notions -- and emotions, for that matter -- about September 11 aside," the lawyers wrote. Moussaoui, 37, pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiring with al Qaeda and said that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had personally instructed him to fly an airplane into the White House. But he denied he was planning to be a Sept. 11 hijacker and said his attack was to come later. Moussaoui has been in the Alexandria jail for 4 years. He was arrested on immigration violations more than 3 weeks before Sept. 11. The conspiracy charges were brought against him in December 2001. The trial has been delayed several times, most recently because of a constitutional showdown over access to top al Qaeda detainees. Moussaoui wanted to interview the captives, saying they could clear him. Brinkema agreed, but the government vehemently resisted on national security grounds. Eventually, a federal appeals court ruled that Moussaoui could not interview the detainees but could present to the jury portions of statements they made to interrogators. A spokesman for the U.S. District Court in Alexandria declined to say when summonses would be mailed for Moussaoui's trial. Under Brinkema's order, the 500 prospective jurors will come to the courthouse in 2 groups, 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. After completing the questionnaire, they will be called back in small groups starting Feb. 15 to be questioned by the judge. A pool of 85 prospective jurors who are deemed qualified to sit on the panel will be whittled down March 6; prosecutors and the defense can each use as many as 30 peremptory challenges to strike individual jurors. A panel of 12 jurors and six alternates will be selected, and opening statements are scheduled to begin the same day. (source: Washington Post)
