Spaziano's attorney asks court to halt execution
Dublin Core
Title
Spaziano's attorney asks court to halt execution
Subject
Spaziano, Joe
Capital punishment
Description
Joe Spaziano's attorney, Michael Mello, appeals the Florida Supreme Court to halt the execution.
Creator
Rado, Diane
Source
Rado, Diane. “Spaziano's attorney asks court to halt execution.” September 8, 1995.
Publisher
HIST 298, University of Mary Washington
Date
1995-09-08
Rights
The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source.
Format
2 JPGs
300 DPI
Language
English
Coverage
Tallahassee, Florida
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
[header]
Spaziano's attorney asks court to halt execution
By Diane Rado
Times Staff Writer
[start of the first column]
Tallahassee – The attorney for Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spaziano appealed to Florida’s highest court on Thursday for a last-minute chance to prove his client’s innocence.
“Mr. Spaziano is innocent, factually innocent, and I want to be very clear about that,” attorney Michael Mello argued before the Florida Supreme Court. “I believe if I had the opportunity to prove Mr. Spaziano’s innocence to a jury he would be acquitted.”
Spaziano is scheduled to be executed Sept. 21 for the 1973 murder of Orlando hospital clerk Laura Lynn Harberts, 18.
Thursday’s hearing was sometimes passionate and philosophical about the issues that arise as the clock ticks down toward an execution.
Among other things, Mello has asked the court to halt the execution, make public a secret police investigation that led to a fifth death warrant for Spaziano, and give Spaziano a new hearing based on the recantation of testimony from the state’s star witness of some 20 years ago.
“If they’ve (the state) got the evidence, if it’s so great, let them present it to the jury. If they want to convict him, if they want to kill ‘em, let them do it the old-fashioned way,” Mello said.
The state objected to a stay of execution and questioned whether Mello should be arguing before the Supreme Court at all. Justices also asked Mello whether the proper avenue would be to send the case back to the trial court to determine whether a new trial is necessary.
For that to occur, Mello would need to present new evidence and the reason why that evidence has not been presented before.
Mello said he does have new critical evidence: a recantation from Anthony DiLisio, who told reporters and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement this summer that it was police – not Spaziano – who took him to a dump where Harbert’s body was found. DiLisio now says he was
[end of the first column]
[start of the second column]
manipulated, hypnotized, and possibly drugged by police when he gave his earlier testimony, which provided a crucial link between Spaziano and the crime scene.
Justice Ben Overton questioned whether DiLisio had actually recanted under oath.
Mello said he did provide the court a videotape of the FDLE’s interview of DiLisio this summer. But a transcript of that tape does not indicate DiLisio was under oath. Mello told the justices that the governor’s office may have a different version of the videotape.
Gov. Lawton Chiles has refused to release the FDLE investigation of Spaziano that led to a fifth death warrant, fearing that witnesses would be in danger.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t go to him and get an affidavit does it?” Overton asked.
Mello argued that he needs resources to represent Spaziano, specifically to hire an investigator who could talk to DiLisio and look into other aspects of the case.
Assistant attorney general Margene Roper said she doesn’t believe DiLisio’s recantation and that it would be inappropriate at this stage to provide funding for further investigation of the case. Any investigation should have been completed by now, she said.
But Justice Gerald Kogan said: “Apparently there is an allegation out there – and a strong one – that the prime witness against the defendant in this particular case has recanted his testimony.
“What do we do as a court? Do we sit back and say, okay, you know, counsel didn’t do the job they should have done . . . so tough, Mr. Spaziano, we’re going to electrocute you because all of these things should have been done before.”
Kogan also noted that Spaziano had no luck with clemency.
“The fact of the matter is, the governor has already investigated this. The governor has a report that the governor refuses to release to anybody . . .” Kogan said.
The Supreme Court can act at any time on Mello’s motions.
[end of the second column]
[Under image at center of page] Michael Mello told the Supreme Court his client is innocent of murder.
Spaziano's attorney asks court to halt execution
By Diane Rado
Times Staff Writer
[start of the first column]
Tallahassee – The attorney for Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spaziano appealed to Florida’s highest court on Thursday for a last-minute chance to prove his client’s innocence.
“Mr. Spaziano is innocent, factually innocent, and I want to be very clear about that,” attorney Michael Mello argued before the Florida Supreme Court. “I believe if I had the opportunity to prove Mr. Spaziano’s innocence to a jury he would be acquitted.”
Spaziano is scheduled to be executed Sept. 21 for the 1973 murder of Orlando hospital clerk Laura Lynn Harberts, 18.
Thursday’s hearing was sometimes passionate and philosophical about the issues that arise as the clock ticks down toward an execution.
Among other things, Mello has asked the court to halt the execution, make public a secret police investigation that led to a fifth death warrant for Spaziano, and give Spaziano a new hearing based on the recantation of testimony from the state’s star witness of some 20 years ago.
“If they’ve (the state) got the evidence, if it’s so great, let them present it to the jury. If they want to convict him, if they want to kill ‘em, let them do it the old-fashioned way,” Mello said.
The state objected to a stay of execution and questioned whether Mello should be arguing before the Supreme Court at all. Justices also asked Mello whether the proper avenue would be to send the case back to the trial court to determine whether a new trial is necessary.
For that to occur, Mello would need to present new evidence and the reason why that evidence has not been presented before.
Mello said he does have new critical evidence: a recantation from Anthony DiLisio, who told reporters and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement this summer that it was police – not Spaziano – who took him to a dump where Harbert’s body was found. DiLisio now says he was
[end of the first column]
[start of the second column]
manipulated, hypnotized, and possibly drugged by police when he gave his earlier testimony, which provided a crucial link between Spaziano and the crime scene.
Justice Ben Overton questioned whether DiLisio had actually recanted under oath.
Mello said he did provide the court a videotape of the FDLE’s interview of DiLisio this summer. But a transcript of that tape does not indicate DiLisio was under oath. Mello told the justices that the governor’s office may have a different version of the videotape.
Gov. Lawton Chiles has refused to release the FDLE investigation of Spaziano that led to a fifth death warrant, fearing that witnesses would be in danger.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t go to him and get an affidavit does it?” Overton asked.
Mello argued that he needs resources to represent Spaziano, specifically to hire an investigator who could talk to DiLisio and look into other aspects of the case.
Assistant attorney general Margene Roper said she doesn’t believe DiLisio’s recantation and that it would be inappropriate at this stage to provide funding for further investigation of the case. Any investigation should have been completed by now, she said.
But Justice Gerald Kogan said: “Apparently there is an allegation out there – and a strong one – that the prime witness against the defendant in this particular case has recanted his testimony.
“What do we do as a court? Do we sit back and say, okay, you know, counsel didn’t do the job they should have done . . . so tough, Mr. Spaziano, we’re going to electrocute you because all of these things should have been done before.”
Kogan also noted that Spaziano had no luck with clemency.
“The fact of the matter is, the governor has already investigated this. The governor has a report that the governor refuses to release to anybody . . .” Kogan said.
The Supreme Court can act at any time on Mello’s motions.
[end of the second column]
[Under image at center of page] Michael Mello told the Supreme Court his client is innocent of murder.
Original Format
Newspaper
Contributor of the Digital Item
Spencer, Jacob
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Williams, Megan
Files
Citation
Rado, Diane, “Spaziano's attorney asks court to halt execution,” HIST299, accessed July 7, 2024, http://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/208.