Court faces a quandary on Spaziano
Dublin Core
Title
Subject
Description
Creator
Source
Publisher
Date
Rights
Format
Language
Coverage
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
[start of page one]
[header]
Despite the lack of paperwork, some justices seem to favor caution in the case, but has been under various appeals for the last 20 years and which the state wants to conclude.
[title]
Court Faces a Quandary on Spaziano
[start of the first column]
TALLAHASSEE – Florida’s Supreme Court appears torn over the plight of Joseph ”Crazy Joe” Spaziano, facing execution in 13 days for murder he claims he didn't commit.
It's clear from a heated debate at the court Thursday that justices are torn over a lack of proper paperwork and last-minute pleadings in the case.
They are torn to buy the news that the central figure in Spaziano’s 1976
[end of the first column]
[start of the second]
[image]Spaziano
[start of the second column]
conviction for the killing of 18 year old Laura Harberts says he lied when he tied Spaziano to the murder.
Despite the lack of paperwork, some justices seem to favor caution and the case, which has been under various appeals for the last 20 years and which the state wants to conclude.
“Remember, the U.S. Supreme Court has said death is different,” Justice Gerald Cogan said Thursday.
Incredulously, Cogan ass Estates prosecutor:
”It's up to us? As a court? 'To say, ‘We're sorry, Mr. Spaziano, you cannot get any relief fromus, despite the fact that there may be evidence out there that you should get a new trial? It's tough, Mr. Spaziano, we're going to electrocute you because of all the stuff should have been done before?'“
It's unknown when, or how the court will rule on Spaziano’s plea to
[end of the second column]
[start of the third column]
postpone an execution scheduled for Sept. 21 at Florida State Prison near Starke. This is Spaziano’s fifth appointment with electric chair since 1985.
Witness Recants
Spaziano’s lawyer, working without pay and without benefit of hiring investigators, is asking for time and money. He wants to show that he witnessed Tony DiLisio was lying in 1975 when he testified that Spa-
[end of third column]
[start of the second page]
[Image with caption]
In court: Chief Justice Stephen Grimes, left, and Justice Leander Shaw Jr. have conference.
[start of the fourth column]
ziano, a member of The Outlaws motorcycle gang, let him to a wooded site and showed him the body of Harberts and another unidentified woman.
This year, DiLisio told the herald that he invented the tail and lied on the stand. Spaziano never showed him anybody's, says DiLisio.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and an inquiry prompted by DiLisio's recantation, concluded that DiLisio told his original story to so many people at the time that he was voicing the truth and lying today. On the strength of this report, which has not been made public, Governor Lawton Chiles ordered Spaziano’s execution.
The Supreme Court, particularly senior Justice bin Overton and Justice Harry Lee Anstead, expressed concern that Spaziano’s attorney, Michael Mello, had it included an affidavit from DiLisio that he has recanted his testimony.
DiLisio said Thursday that he's ready to sign an affidavit.
”We can put it on the fax machine to them right now if they want,” he said. ”What's the big deal?”
DiLisio's attorney, Kelly McGraw, said Mello ask for the affidavit earlier this summer. ”He
[end of the fourth column]
[start of the fifth column]
[image] Associated Press
[caption] Appeal for time; Michael Mello. attorney for Joseph Spaziano makes his case.
[text resumes]
asked me to do it, we meant to do it, we just didn't get around to it,” she said.”We have no problem in doing one.”
‘Out of Claims’
Margene Roper, Assistant Attorney General, argued that Spaziano faced his last legal chance in the governor's examination of the case.
”For the past 20 years Joseph Spaziano has had fly-specking
[end of the fifth column]
[start of the sixth column]
review from all the courts,” she said.”Mr Spaziano is out of claims.”
Justice Overton counted the times the court has reviewed Spaziano's death sentence - eight - and complained that Mello didn't come in January after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review it an execution appeared imminent.
Overton added angrily:”you have not filed in this record anything that says, quotation I swear quotation. . . An oath by DiLisio.”
Mello said he lives in Vermont, and that DiLisio in Pensacola, and that DiLisio is ”difficult to deal with."
“If I messed up and not filing. . . In January, please don't take that out on my client,” Mello said.
Justice Leander Shaw sounded sympathetic toward Mello’s argument.
”He is out of resources,” Shaw said of Spaziano, ”he has no investigator.”
Imagine this were you, days away from death, shot told the prosecutor :”why shouldn't he be given a continuance, to see if he can get an investigator for one thing?
“I'll grant you,” Kogan agreed that Spaziano’s appeal should already have been filed.
”But we are to tell him that, with all that information out there, we're going to let your execution procedure becaU.S.e the attorney didn't file the right motion?”
Herald staff writer Lori Rozsa contributed to this report.
Original Format
Contributor of the Digital Item
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Files
