2 20 256 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/419ea3700efda77917359ad5cecdd88c.jpg f82c30582539aac8b42be663cbd6830c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [heading] The Lawyer’s Bookshelf [subheading] Reviewed by Ursula Bentele [handwritten text] New York Law Journal (8/9/96) [title] Against the Death Penalty: The Relentless Dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall [author] By Michael Mello. [publishing information] Northeastern University Press, Boston, Mass. 331 pages. $45. [article start] Against the Death Penalty by Michael Mellow addresses a fascinating topic in its most compelling context. The question of what is the appropriate reaction of a judge to what he or she perceives to be an unjust law has plagued philosophers and jurists for centuries. When that law can result, as it now can even in New York, in putting a human being to death, the issue takes on additional urgency and drama. [end paragraph] [start paragraph] In a recent program at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York discussing this topic, speakers disagreed sharply about the “right” response of a judge, opposed to capital punishment, who is faced with the prospect of participating in a criminal justice system that carries out executions. On the trial level, might the judge be duty-bound to volunteer for capital cases, so as to ensure that the defendant will secure the most favorable possible rulings and instructions, or should the judge request that such cases not be assigned to her? Should the judge on an appellate court use all his persuasive powers to reduce the number of death sentences affirmed, while dissenting in all cases in which the majority disagrees, or, at some point, must the judge resign as a matter of conscience? [end paragraph] [start paragraph] Justice Robert Utter, a highly respected member of the Washington Supreme Court who had dissented in every case in which a death sentence was affirmed, finally resigned last year, announcing that “I can no longer participate in a legal system that intentionally takes human life in capital punishment cases.” He said his decision was prompted in part by similarities he observed in his own moral struggles with those reported in Ingo Muller’s Hitler’s Justice: The Courts of the Third Reich. [end paragraph] [start paragraph] Whether this analogy, or similar ones referring to the judges who upheld the apartheid laws in South Africa, is entirely appropriate to the situation of anti-death penalty judges operating within the American system of justice may be debated. Nonetheless, a book with the title Michael Mello gave to his book would, I had hoped, discuss in some considerable depth and from a wide perspective the different responses to cases in which current law and personal morality conflict. While the book does not touch on some of these issues, to my disappointment it does so only briefly and in a limited fashion. [end paragraph] [start paragraph] Like Michael Mello, I have represented scores of death row inmates. As counsel for those facing execution, I always appreciated the presence of Justices William J. Brennan and Thurgood Marshall on the U.S. Supreme Court in these cases, not simply for their inevitable votes against death, but for their eloquent voices in dissent. Yet at times a sense of disquiet tugged at my subconsciousness. Would I be so sure that they were acting appropriately if I happened to disagree with their position? [end paragraph] [start paragraph] Indeed, when Justice Antonin Scalia announced his intention no longer to follow the precedents, set by the Court in Woodson v. North Carolina and Lockett v. Ohio, requiring individualized consideration of all defendants charged with capital crimes, didn’t I think (as I would imagine Mr. Mello thought) that Justice Scalia acted improperly? After all, “relentless dissents” on both sides amount to stubborn refusal to abide by the well-established precedents of the highest court in the land. (Justice Scalia might even have the better of the positions, as he claimed that it was logically impossible for him to follow the Woodson-Lockett line of cases while at the same time remaining true to the Court’s insistence in other cases that the death penalty must be applied in a consistent, evenhanded fashion.) [end paragraph] [start paragraph] Mr. Mello’s book does present considerable background information relevant to the two Justices’ persistent voices against the death penalty. He begins with biographies of the two men, emphasizing particularly Justice Marshall’s long and passionate efforts on behalf of black Americans. He then chronicles the evolving practices of the Supreme Court in rendering its opinions, from Justice John Marshall’s focus on achieving unanimity whenever possible so as to enhance the Court’s credibility as an institution, through the “companions in dissent,” Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis D. Brandeis, to the modern era in which individual voices predominate over concern for the Court as an entity. [end paragraph] [start paragraph] Mello describes some of the most famous dissents in the Court’s history: Justice Benjamin Curtis dissenting from Dred Scott v. Sandford, the first Justice John Marshall Harlan delivering the lone dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson and dissenting along with Holmes and Brandeis from the Court’s decision in Lochner v. New York, the Holmes and Brandeis dissents from the Court’s incursions on the First Amendment, and similar dissents by Justices Hugo L. Black and William O. Douglas. From these examples, where once dissenting opinions ultimately persuaded the Court that its initial decision was wrong, Mello draws the conclusion that dissents have indeed been justified by history. [end paragraph] [start paragraph] Mello then surveys how various jurisprudential theories would deal with sustained dissents. Mello acknowledges that this discussion is only preliminary and limited in scope, but it does provide a basic framework for looking at the issue. At the extremes, the legal positivists would disapprove of such dissents as examples of failure to abide by the rule of law, while modern adherents to natural law would see Brennan and Marshall as abiding by a higher law, a position particularly justified when it serves to guarantee individual rights. The book does not explore what theoretical foundation actually might have influenced the Justices in their death penalty dissents beyond noting Justice Brennan’s partiality to modern natural law theory. Readers may find interesting Mello’s perception about how individual thinkers, including Herbert Wechsler, John Hart Ely and Jesse Choper, would assess these relentless dissents. [end paragraph] [start paragraph] The final chapter in the book is titled “Legitimacy in Judicial Politics.” Here Mello, with the assistance of the recently released papers of Justice Marshall, provides several instances of opinions starting as dissents that either persuaded a majority or, in the form of dissents from denial of certiorari, signaled to counsel issues that might in the future command the four votes necessary to obtain review. This section fives the reader an interesting flimpse into the workings of Marshall’s chambers, as well as demonstrating that, at least in some cases, these dissenting views not only spared some lives but affected the course of capital pubishment jurisprudence. [end paragraph] [start paragraph] Given the book’s important contribution, I consider it unfortunate that it includes gratuitous ad hominem attacks on Supreme Court Justices that are neither fully developed nor adequately supported. True, one would not expect a book dealing with the dissents of Brennan and Marshall to contain extensive critical assessments of the other members of the Court. It would therefore only have been improved, at least in this reviewer’s eyes, had it omitted such throwaway lines as “a cynical hack like Lewis Powell,” as well as a personalized diatribe against Clarence Thomas, “whose dismal performance as a Justice so far has already more than fulfilled by lowest and basest expectations . . . [who] does his speaking through groups of people plucked from the Rolodex of his best friend and through the brutal character of his judicial opinions . . ..” [end paragraph] [start paragraph] Perhaps my assessment of this book was unduly colored by my own high expectations. The question of what honorable men and women should do when faced with laws that they regard as supremely unjust is timely and of the utmost importance. Mr. Mello has performed a valuable service in gathering a lot of material relevant to this critical and difficult issue. In light of his outstanding advocacy on behalf of capital defendants, he was well qualified to analyze why the particular relentless dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall – dissents that essentially said “not in our names” when the state was determined to put one of its citizens to death – were different from other sustained dissents. By shortchanging this issue, Mr. Mello missed a valuable opportunity, at a time when no member of the Supreme Court adheres to this position, to provide thoughtful support for judges categorically opposed to the use of capital punishment in our country. [article end] [reviewer information] Ursula Bentele is a professor at Brooklyn Law School. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Book Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Berrier, Carson Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Against the Death Penalty: The Relentless Dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mello, Michael Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-08-09 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Subject The topic of the resource Legal reform Capital punishment Supreme Court Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Description An account of the resource Review of Mello's piece discusses what the appropriate reaction of a judge should be to a law they believe to be unjust (specifically concerning capital punishment). Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Bentele, Ursula. Review of "Against the Death Penalty: The Relentless Dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall," by Michael Mello. New York Law Journal (August 1996). Language A language of the resource English https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/157bae4befc15b4e68a1c893aa2cf6e4.jpg 98fe43910567e74bf6b4fafad9b3194f https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/6ff940c444cbe44dcf3bae8e8e5be6c0.jpg db2ec8dc5782b53618f6e270334bef70 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [Start page] [Title] Against the Death Penalty—The Relentless Dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall by Michael Mellow. [Subtitle] Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1996, 331 pp., hardcover--$ [Article Begins] By any measure, the author of this new book, Michael Mello, is the leading law scholar-teacher-litigator in death penalty law and has been for several years. For the many others of us trying to make our marks in this field, Professor/Attorney Mello is both a hero and daunting presence. His most recent book-length effort, Against the Death Penalty, certainly reaffirms his leadership in this field and adds to death penalty scholarly literature a tour de force treatment of the roles of Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall in the current era of death penalty jurisprudence. The result of this first-rate legal scholar having zeroed in on this important aspect of two of the most important Supreme Court Justices of this century is a truly extraordinary volume. Justice Brennan served on the Court from 1956 to 1990, and Justice Marshall served from 1967 to 1991. As a result, they were there together for the stream of major death penalty opinions from 1972 through 1990. In all but one case, they voted identically; in all but two cases, they even took the same perspective on the key legal issues of the case. As the book title reveals, their opinions relentlessly argued against the death penalty, sometimes in the majority but most often in dissent. Death penalty opponents will find in these opinions (and in Mello’s commentary on them) ample support and encouragement for their positions. Death penalty supporters, while presumably rejecting the bottom lines of the opinions, nonetheless will find them fascinating to read. For those uninterested in the death penalty but students of the Court and the use of dissenting opinions, Mello’s exploration of the history, jurisprudence, and judicial politics of the sustained dissent will be equally valuable in that regard. The book is nothing if not thorough. In keeping with the traditions of legal scholarship, Mello documents his 210 pages of text with nearly 1,500 textual footnotes. While I tend to join those advocating for abolition of the footnoting style of traditional legal scholarship, in particular law review articles with longer textual footnotes than primary text, the delightful thoroughness of Mello’s work reminds me of the value of such detailed footnoting. In fairly striking contrast, the reader searches in vain for other than the most summary of the table of contents. Given the richness of the volume, a detailed guide to its contents somewhere up front would have been a valuable addition. As it is, the pages of text are divided into four chapters with the simplest of titles. Not that there aren’t subsections in the chapters; they just never made it into the sort of detailed table of contents so helpful to readers. Mello’s first chapter, “The Two Justices,” gives the reader 83 pages and 554 footnotes of background information on these two Supreme Court giants. This chapter not only documents thoroughly the background and experience of the Justices, but it also provides delightful up-close-and-personal snapshots of such episodes as Brennan’s prodigious notetaking in law school and Marshall’s coy response to notification of his nomination to the Court. This chapter tells us about the human beings inside the robes, while the rest of the book focuses upon their roles as Supreme Court Justices. [End first page] [Start second page] The second chapter, labeled with similar frustrating economy of words (“Legitimacy in History”), provides the reader with a quite interesting treatment of dissenting opinions in Supreme Court history and with forays into the products of such great dissenters as John Marshall Harlan, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis, and William O. Douglas. While this chapter largely leaves the focal point of the death penalty, it is excellent. I often have heard law students say they don’t pay much attention to the dissenting opinions because, after all, they are just the sour grapes of the losers in the decision-making process. Mello’s chapter on the legitimacy of dissenting opinions throughout Supreme Court history should be made required reading for such students. In chapter three, “Legitimacy in Theory,” Mello takes the concept of the dissenting opinion through a tour of a variety of viewpoints on law and legal development, ranging from natural law to sociological jurisprudence to critical legal studies. After comparing and contrasting the perspective upon dissenting opinions in each of these jurisprudential camps, Mello returns to struggle to put meaning into the Eighth Amendment and to “answer definitively the question of what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.” (155) Mello’s conclusion: “Some will find the answer in social or moral certainties; others will find those truths to be subjective. No one can have the ‘last word.’” (155) The final chapter, “Legitimacy in Judicial Politics,” takes the reader inside the day-to-day workings (and personal politics) of the Court. Noting that all death penalty cases are put on the “discuss” list by the Justices, it is clear nonetheless that Brennan and Marshall argued more strenuously for some cases than for others. This chapter includes excerpts from memo’s to Justice Marshall from his clerks, from other interviews of Supreme Court clerks, and from the intense behind-the-scenes maneuvering that occurred in several key death penalty cases. Yes, this extraordinary book is about death penalty jurisprudence at the Supreme Court level, but it is so much more. In addition to the detailed and copiously documented discussion of the death penalty opinions by Justices Brennan and Marshall, the volume contributes a major treatment of the fundamental notion of dissenting opinions in the American legal system and in jurisprudential thought. Serious death penalty scholars will find the book to be essential, but any student of the Supreme Court in general or of dissenting opinions in particular must also give this volume a prominent place in their library. The book is superb, and once again we are indebted to an extraordinary scholar, Michael Mello. Victor L. Streib Dean and Professor of Law Pettit College of Law Ohio Northern University Ada, Ohio 45810 [in handwriting] 419/772-2000 [End second page] Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Book Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Dhue, Helen Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Against The Death Penalty--The Relentless Dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall Subject The topic of the resource Book review Capital Punishment Description An account of the resource Dean and Professor of Law, Victor L. Streib's positive review of Michael Mello's book "Against the Death Penalty--The Relentless Dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streib, Victor Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPGs 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Washington D.C. https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/e97ad035787b82acd2cc25603544de4e.jpg e8014d43b6a004cfa43a7e129850179b https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/884fa9e95bc0de9de1bdaaa35704e9e2.jpg 3adb010b7e787a0715e8e87854412ad3 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/a0cd23992e7bd51e4ab0c89bf8e13885.jpg 49215f1b80a8991144bf9ffb7ff97864 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Leahey, Jordan Text Any textual data included in the document [start title page] [Name of Newpaper] The Miami Herald [heading underneath name] The Foremost Daily Newspaper of Florida [edition and date] Keys Edition – Sunday, December 1, 1996 [end title page] [Title] ‘Crazy Joe’ case takes bizarre turn [Subtitle]Justices won’t hear cops’ teeth theory [Authors] John D. McKinnon and Lori Rozsa [start page one] At 9 a.m. Wednesday, the seven justices of the Florida Supreme Court will part a black curtain and take their seats to hear the case of Florida vs. Joseph Robert Spaziano. What they won’t hear is the state’s latest theory in the bizarre case. Call it necrodentistry. Seeing its original murder case crumble in a Seminole County courtroom, Central Florida police are trying to link Spaziano to another unsolved murder. They now say the diminutive biker could have yanked the teeth from one corpse and put them in a second victim’s jaw. That might explain why the teeth don’t match. Farfetched? Sure – but [Footnote] Please see Spaziano 28A [end page one] [start page two] [Footnote] Spaziano, from 1A that’s nothing new in this case, which began with a psychic driving around the countryside with a skull in her lap and hypnosis of the state’s star witness. For Spaziano, now age 50 after 20 years on Death Row, the post-mortem dental theory is merely the latest indication that he still faces a long uphill climb proving his innocence. A jury convicted him in 1976 of the murder of Laura Harberts, an 18-year-old hospital clerk. Over the years, Spaziano survived five black-bordered death warrants. Last January, Circuit Court Judge O.H. Eaton Jr. conducted a six-day hearing in Seminole County and concluded, “In the United States of America every person, no matter how unsavory, is entitled to due process of law and fair trial. The defendant received neither.” He ordered a new trial. The state appealed, and that’s the issue before the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday. Orlando attorney James M. Russ will argue for the defense. Margene Roper of the State Attorney’s Office will represent the prosecution. In the past 11 months, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office investigators have labored to find evidence to make the Harberts case stick against the scrawny, cockeyed Outlaw biker, known as “Crazy Joe.” They visited Spaziano’s ex-wife, Linda, in South Florida. “They asked me a million questions. They believe he’s involved in lots of murders. He’s no killer. He’s no rapist, He is just an a------,” she said. “I have the feeling they’re looking hither and yon for some-thing to try him on,” said Gregg Thomas. He and Steve Hanlon, pro bono attorneys from the lar firm of Holland & Knight, also represent Spaziano. “It’s a vendetta,” charged Michael Mello, Spaziano’s on-again, off-again appellate attorney between 1983 and 1995. [heading] State denies ‘vendetta’ Florida officials deny it. Says Dexter Douglass, Gov. Lawton Chiles’ general counsel: “I’d venture to say that the state’s lawyers are more interested in reaching a just verdict than they are in vendettas.” But two factors intensify the emotional impact in the law enforcement community. One is Spaziano’s proud membership in the Outlaws, a notoriously brutal motorcycle gang. The other is Mello, Spaziano’s former lawyer. A law professor and former Florida Death Row defender, Mello is a harsh and persistent critic of capital punishment. Already, the Spaziano case has made Mello into something of a celebrity in highbrow legal circles. Last weekend, for example, he presented a paper on Spaziano’s case to the American Society of Criminologists’ annual meeting in Chicago. Police and prosecutors would hate to lose this one. To do so would put a serial killer that much closer to freedom, they say. [heading] Started with a corpse It began Aug. 23, 1973, when a man spotted a skeleton at a dump near Altamonte Springs. A dentist identified it as Harberts, who had disappeared a couple weeks earlier. The case went unsolved for months. Then amid a spate of publicity about crimes by local Outlaws, police got a call from a young woman who claimed that Spaziaono had raped her. That led police to her stepson, Tony DiLisio, a 16-year-old doper. Spaziano used to hang around his father’s boat marina. Tony offered little that the police could use. But the teenager seemed eager to help nail Spaziano. Finally, after police hypnotized him twice and took him to the dump, DiLisio suddenly remembered the biker showing him Harberts’ body. A jury in Sanford believed him in 1976, convicted and recommended life in prison. Judge Robert McGregor overruled and sentenced Spaziano to death. [heading] Witness recants On June 9, 1995, DiLisio recanted – 16 days before Spaziano’s scheduled execution. DiLisio said he had been a scared, troubled teen back then. He was only trying to get in good with police and his abusive father, who bore a grudge against Spaziano for having an affair with his wife. DiLisio might have had another reason for concocting a tale. He, too, was having an affair with his father’s bride-to-be, Keppie and secretly ached over the revelation that Spaziano was his rival, he says. After Eaton ordered a new trial, the Florida Attorney General appealed. And now the state Supreme Court must decide. [heading] ‘Decision will be final’ For the state, “the Supreme Court’s decision will be final for all practical purposes,” said Assistant Attorney General Richard Martell. Despite Eaton’s opinion, Spaziano’s lawyers wonder if some-how they will lose again, as they have so often in the past. Lately they’ve had one more thing to worry about. Orange County Circuit Court Judge Dorothy Russell recently read the testimony that Eaton heard. She came to exactly the opposite conclusion – that DiLisio also was a key witness in that case and now says he lied then, too. If the state wins before the high court, Spaziano could be back on Death Row. Chiles hasn’t changed his mind about Spaziano’s guilt, says Douglass, the governor’s top legal adviser. He’ll leave it to the courts. If Spaziano wins, the state must retry him within 90 days. The evidence is thin. The original trial prosecutor, Claude Van Hook, said that without DiLisio, there was “no case.” Other evidence: The victim’s roommate and boyfriend identified Spaziano – 2 ½ years after she disappeared – as a “traveling cook” who came to the apartment looking for Harberts. In a new trail, DiLisio’s original testimony could be presented – with a little legal maneuvering – although it would be subject to a strong attack by the defense. “It certainly is going to be a monumental undertaking to try to put something together,” Seminole County prosecutor Tom Hastings said. [heading] Linked to other murders? If the state can’t convict Spaziano for the Harberts murder, police want to connect him to other crimes. [image caption] Sentenced to death 20 years ago: Joseph Spaziano. [end page two] [start page three] Among the possibilities: [bullet point] The murders on New Year’s Eve 1974 of an Outlaw motorcyclist and his girlfriend in Chicago. Although police there cleared the case with another suspect years ago, a woman who lived with Spaziano and an Outlaw informant implicated Spaziano in 1995. [bullet point] Two unrelated murders of women in Orlando. “The information we received from the streets would indicate Spaziano was responsible for their deaths,” said Sgt. Dan Nazarchuk of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. The problem, he says, is that valuable witnesses are scared to testify. [bullet point] A second skeleton found at the dump in 1973 along with Harberts, never identified. [heading] A second skeleton Earlier this year, Seminole County deputies Ray Parker and Ralph Salerno reinterviewed witnesses from the original Harberts investigation. They took a statement from a woman who knew Spaziano then. She said that in the spring of 1973, she saw Spaziano at Daytona Beach with a “a young girl” riding on the back of his motorcycle. The girl asked her to hold her purse “for safekeeping,” according to the Seminole County sheriff’s office. The girl didn’t pick up her purse after the motorcycle ride. Five days later, she said, Spaziano showed up at her door “and demanded the purse.” She turned it over but not before peeking inside for the identification. She told Salerno and Parker that she remembered only that the girl was from Ann Arbor, Mich. Two months ago, Seminole police asked forensic anthropologist Dr. William Maples to examine the unidentified remains. They had been examined before. In 1973, Lawrence Angel of the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Anthropology concluded that the body was that of a white female 16 to 21, about five feet five inches, slender build. She had crooked lower teeth and two fillings in her upper teeth. According to a 1996, press release from the Seminole sheriff’s office, Maples concluded that the girl was 15 to 16 years old, five feet seven inches, 110 pounds and had crooked teeth. [heading] Help in ID Based on Maples’ description, a police artist drew a sketch of what the girl might have looked like. Seminole police asked Ann Arbor police and TV stations for help in identification. Deputies in Washtenaw County, where Ann Arbor is, came up with a missing persons case from 1970, three years before the Daytona Beach motorcycle ride. In April 1970, Cynthia Coon, 14, disappeared on her way to school. She was five feet four inches and weighed 110. She “looked a little bit” like the police artist sketch, Seminole sheriff’s spokesman Ed McDonough said. Dental records could establish and identification – the skull of the skeleton had crooked teeth and fillings, easy to match. But they didn’t match. Cynthia Coon had never been to a dentist in her life. Her father, Dr. William Coon, a pathologist, said “she had straight teeth,” no fillings. How to reconcile that? [heading] ‘Someone else’s teeth’ McDonough said Spaziano “had the habit of removing teeth from his victims.” Those found in the skeleton “probably weren’t her teeth. They could very well be someone else’s teeth.” Maples said that if anyone had tried to adhere teeth from one body into the jaw of this body, it would have showed. “If the corpse had fillings in places where there should not be fillings, there is a problem.” Maples said. Seminole police want the Coon family to give a blood sample for DNA testing. The family has not consented. McDonough still sees Spaziano as a suspect. “He was the type that removed teeth and put them back in other victims,” McDonough said. “He was very sick that way.” [image caption] Will argue for defense: Attorney James M. Russ. [end page three] Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 'Crazy Joe' Case Takes Bizarre Turn Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McKinnon, John D. Rozsa, Lori Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived McKinnon, John D. and Lori Rozsa. “‘Crazy Joe’ Case Takes Bizarre Turn: Justice Won’t Hear Cops’ Teeth Story.” The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), December 1, 1996, p. 1. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-12-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 3 JPGs 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Miami, FL https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/e7da01c8b81b0683584aa3442210a6bd.jpg 47bc3a00e57c5aca82a62662361025f9 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/12eaa3d1cc3dbf9ac1785acc1cceafcd.jpg aa103e5ca6186728d224e9bdd9d969e5 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/d25eb17789286307070891ccf96401f4.jpg 23bd598accdc014eb74ecd34fef8f77f https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/925b6e4f30feb7ae52523f60a9723fa9.jpg 936211b0001771cc3ceaff33d1002b3c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Vol. No./Issue No. Volume and issue number for the newspaper (if available) vol. 136, issue 229 Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Weber, Sophie Text Any textual data included in the document [Newspaper Title] Rutland H [Subheading] Vol. 136-No. 229 Rutland, Vermont Copyright Monday Morning, September 23, 1996 [Article Title] Cantini Case Highlights Board Action [Start column] MANCHESTER-Lawyer Gerald Cantini has hired many attorneys over the last few years-to handle his divorce, to defend him in malpractice suits, and now, to represent him in a pending professional misconduct investigation. But Cantini’s relationship with two lawyers who chaired the state panel that oversees legal ethics in Vermont has raised questions about whether the board failed to act promptly in a pair of disciplinary cases brought against him. J. Eric Anderson, who chaired the conduct panel from 1989 to 1993, waited nine months before finally blowing the whistle in 1994 on Cantini for allegedly cheating clients, according to former members of their staff. Cantini and Anderson shared an office at the time and Anderson was Cantini’s lawyer in a divorce. Deborah Banse, the lawyer who succeeded Anderson as head of the conduct board, signed a letter, meanwhile, dismissing a unrelated complaint against Cantini while also representing him. Anderson’s hesitancy to move against Cantini, and the appearance of conflict of interest on Banse’s part, may add fuel to the debate over the conduct of the Professional Conduct Board, the 15-member panel that polices lawyers in Vermont. Lawyers who have defended clients before the board have questioned recently whether the disciplinary process itself has adhered to the highest standards of ethics and fairness. Responding to some of these concerns, the Vermont Bar Association named a committee last week to review the lawyer disciplinary process. [Section Title] Possible Conflicts The Cantini case raises questions about lax enforcement and delayed investigation of misconduct allegations because of his ties to former chairs. Anderson, Banse and Cantini all practice in Manchester. The information about their cases comes from conduct board documents, affidavits filed with the board, Bennington County court files, depositions taken in connection with a malpractice lawsuit, and interviews with the principals. Both Cantini and his attorney, Peter Hall of Rutland, declined to comment last week. Cantini has been the target of five malpractice suits in recent years and two complaints to the conduct board, a 15-member panel that enforces the state lawyer disciplinary code. The first complaint dates back to 1989, when Dorset resident Katherine Graf accused Cantini of conflict of interest because he allegedly drafted a defective contract while representing both Graf and a building contractor she had hired. But this complaint-involving a serious allegation of ethical violations- languished at the board for years. Finally, in 1994, conduct board chair Banse wrote a letter dismissing the complaint, citing the length of time that had passed and the difficulty in finding witnesses. Banse said in her letter, however, that the panel had warned Cantini to “familiarize himself fully” with the profession’s conflict of interest standards. Banse said in an interview that she removed herself from all conduct board matters involving Cantini. She said she signed the letter because “it was my job.” [Bottom of page] See Page 9: Case [End page] [Start page] [Section title] Divorce Dispute [Start paragraph] But Banse was drawn into the next misconduct complaint filed against Cantini because of her work for him in his fiercely contested divorce case unfolding in 1994 in Bennington Superior Court. On the day after she wrote the letter dismissing the conflict of interest complaint, Banse appeared in Bennington Family Court on Cantini’s behalf. The conduct board chairwoman was fighting a motion for contempt brought by Cantini’s ex-wife in an alimony dispute. Cantini testified that both his health and deteriorating legal practice made it impossible to meet his obligations. He claimed to have earned only $15,000 in the first six months of the year, according to court records. But Cantini’s legal assistant, Judi Michel, said in an interview that Cantini was paid more than $15,000 for out-of-pocket expenses alone. In an affidavit filed with the conduct board, Michel said Anderson -- then a member of the conduct board and Cantini’s office-mate – returned to the office that day and referred to Cantini as “a master of deception.” Anderson was present in court as a spectator, according to Michel. As for Cantini, when he came back from the courtroom “he told me he cried in front of Judge (Richard) Norton and Norton ‘fell for it,’ ” Michel wrote. Norton denied the motion for contempt on the grounds that Cantini could not afford to pay alimony, according to court records. [section title] Early Warnings [start paragraph] Despite Cantini’s testimony, both Anderson and lawyer Robert Hartwell, who also shared offices with Cantini, did not report him, Michel said. Then in August 1994, Michel sat down with Anderson and Hartwell and reviewed the office’s trust account ledger, Cantini’s billings and other evidence she had compiled, according to the affidavit. “I told Eric (Anderson), ‘If you don’t report Gerry … I’m going to do it,’ “Michel said in an interview. “This is after being after him since Thanksgiving of ’93 to August of ’94. He (Anderson) didn’t want to get involved.” Bookkeeper Jan Kelley recalled in an interview that she met with Anderson around November 1993 and told him about Cantini’s orders “not to record income” and “to put certain bills through the office account that were really personal.” “I thought he should do something,” Kelley said of Anderson. “I didn’t think what was being asked of me was proper conduct. And I didn’t believe as a bookkeeper I should be doing what was asked of me.” Kelley also contends that she raised questions earlier about $5,000 that appeared to be missing from a client’s trust account. Anderson acknowledged in an interview that he did not act immediately when staff members came to him in 1993 with ledger sheets showing Cantini had allegedly dipped into a trust account. Although they shared an office, Anderson has denied legal claims that he was Cantini’s partner. But the allegations against Cantini did not gain momentum until he took the witness stand on the alimony issue and allegedly misled the judge, according to Michel. Anderson cited Cantini’s courtroom testimony in the complaint he filed with the conduct board, nine months after the staff members first came to him. Anderson, in his letter to the conduct board outlining his allegations, called attention to the fact that Deborah Banse, the conduct board chair, was also Cantini’s lawyer. The complaint accuses Cantini of taking money from the trust account, charging excessive fees and then hiding his income to avoid paying alimony. “I think its important that you know that Deborah Banse is representing Gerry in connection with his ex-wife’s efforts to collect alimony,” Anderson wrote to Shelley Hill, who prosecutes cases before the conduct board. “I hope that this matter will be discussed with Deborah and that you and/or Deborah will feel free to talk to me about this matter at any time.” Michel, the former legal assistant and office manager, said Anderson only files the complaint after she threatened to. And she said the conduct board bungled its initial investigation and has dragged its feet since then. Michel said in an interview that former conduct board investigator Anne Buttimer served Cantini with a subpoena in October 1994. “She wasn’t out that door a half hour and Gerry (Cantini) is pulling out filed to take out,” Michel said. Michel said she called the conduct board in a panic, urging them to protect the documents that would incriminate Cantini. “They’re supposed to be the policing agency. I’m a secretary,” said Michel. “Why am I calling them up to secure the records?” According to bookkeeper Kelley, the subpoena was served nearly a year after she and Michel first approached Anderson with their concerns about Cantini. But Anderson said he wanted to be convinced of the allegations. “I wanted to be sure myself of what the people on the staff were saying,” Anderson said. “This is nothing I did lightly. When other lawyers are faced with having to report another lawyer, it’s not done lightly.” [End page] [Start page] [section title] Banse’s role Anderson represented Cantini in Cantin’s divorce before Banse took that job. He said last week that he told Banse of his concerns about Cantini’s conduct around the time he filed the complaint. “I said she needed to consider that she stop representing him,” Anderson said. Banse was asked in an interview why, when she was the chairwoman of the Professional Conduct Board, she did not drop Cantini as her client after he had been accused of misconduct. “I was never told the substance of any complaint,” she said. But Michel confirmed Anderson’s version of the story, saying she and Banse discussed the allegations of misconduct in full. Court documents show that Cantini replaced Banse with another attorney six months after Anderson filed the complaint with the conduct board. By the time the board formally opened the second investigation against Cantini in July, Banse had finished her term as a member, Banse, however, was chair of the conduct board in 1994 when she signed the letter dismissing the conflict of interest complaint against Cantini. Banse’s letter of June 1994 did not mention that Cantini had been her client since February of that year. In the letter dismissing the complaint, Banse said the case was old and that the board had difficulty in finding witnesses. Conduct board records show, however, that cases equally old were resolved by either a private admonition or public reprimand. Anderson did not fault Banse for writing the letter dismissing the Graf complaint while she represented Cantini. “Those kinds of letters are completely ministerial. It could have been a secretary signing it. … I’m sure Deborah Banse had nothing to do with the decision” to dismiss the complaint, he said. But professor Michael Mello, who teaches constitutional law and legal ethics at Vermont Law School, said that Banse should not have signed the letter dismissing the Cantini complaint if she was also his lawyer. “As a technical matter I think she clearly should not have signed the letter,” said Mello. “Someone else in the chain of command can come forward and do it. The biggest problem it seems to me is that it creates an appearance of impropriety.” [section title] Praise for Banse The current chairman of the Professional Conduct Board, Middlebury lawyer Robert Keiner, said in an interview that Banse was “highly respected” as chairwoman of the conduct panel. But without commenting on the specifics of the Cantini case, Keiner said a conduct board chair should probably not sign a letter dismissing a misconduct complaint against a client. “I’m not sure under the circumstances you’ve spelled out that the code necessarily mandates that. But in order to avoid exactly what we’re going through now, apparently, it might have been more prudent at the time to simply … step aside and let the vice chair deal with it or let the entire board deal with it,” Keiner said. Although emphasizing he was not commenting on any specific case, Keiner said the code of professional conduct also requires lawyers to report allegations of attorney misconduct, as long as the information was not acquired through the attorney-client relationship. No public records are kept of the board’s votes when they dismiss a complaint. The board rules say that misconduct complaints that do not lead to formal charges are secret. Wendy Collins, a lawyer who serves as counsel to the Professional Conduct Board, said she could not comment on questions about Banse because of the confidentiality issue. [section title] Other Cases Cantin’s attorney, Peter Hall, cited the conduct board’s confidentiality requirements when declining to comment last week. “I’m not aware of any public complaint against Gerald Cantini, nor have I seen anything purporting to be issued by the Professional Conduct Board in this matter,” he said. “My understanding under the rules that govern the PCB is all such complaints are in fact confidential, and should not be, and as a result won’t be, the subject of any public discussion by me on behalf of my client. Although the conduct board warned Cantini in June1994 to “familiarize himself fully” with the profession’s standards on conflict of interest, he has been sued twice over that issue since. In September 1994, the former owners of the Arlington Inn filed a [new page] Mello, the law school professor, questioned whether the proceedings should be secret. Even frivolous complaints should be public, he said. “I think the whole thing should be open. If someone files a frivolous lawsuit there are ways to deal with that. It’s unfortunate frivolous complaints might be filed against a lawyer. It’s unfortunate frivolous malpractice cases are brought against doctors. That doesn’t mean we keep them secret,” he said. Anderson said that regardless of what the conduct board’s critics think, “the board members work very hard at this job. They take it very seriously. I think they are, at least when I was on the board, fair-minded.” Anderson served on the conduct board from 1984 to 1993. He was chairman during the last four years of his tenure, presiding over the board while the Graf complaint was pending. Anderson said he could not recall being involved in any conduct board case concerning Cantini. [End page] [new page; start paragraph] lawsuit in Bennington Superior Court claiming that Cantini failed to disclose a conflict when he helped them buy the property. Robert and Sandra Ellis paid nearly $1.5 million for the inn in 1991 and then lost it through foreclosure. They argue that Cantini should have told them he was connected to the real estate firm that represented the seller of the property. In the most recent malpractice case, Ernest Salo or Winhall contends that he was duped in 1992 by Cantini and his own brother intro signing a quit-claim deed rather that a mortgage deed on his house. Cantini is alleged to have represented both brothers. The lawsuit was filed in May. Two other malpractice lawsuits against Cantini were recently settled out of court for undisclosed sums. Cantini settled with the parents of a Manchester youth who was convicted of molesting two minors. The Vermont Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 1992, ruling that Cantini provided “ineffective” counsel. Cantini also settled with Cheryl Bentsen, who sued him for allegedly mishandling her divorce. Bentsen’s attorney, Deborah Bucknam, told the court that she would prove that Cantini failed to keep track of time he billed Bentsen for. Bucknam also said she would show that Cantini failed to adequately represent Bentsen because he was embroiled in his own divorce. Bucknam told the court that there would be “extensive testimony” that Cantini took “extraordinary, including illegal, steps to avoid alimony payments” in his own divorce case. [End page] Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Cantini Case Highlights Board Action Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Crabtree, Peter Dillon, John Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-09-23 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Crabtree, Peter and John Dillon. “Cantini Case Highlights Board Action.” Rutland H, September 9, 1996. Description An account of the resource Lawyer Gerald Cantini has been sued and gone to court many times because of his divorce, malpractice suits, and in multiple investigations. He has had multiple lawyers defending him during his trials but they tend to quit due to his difficult nature. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 4 JPGs 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Rutland, VT Subject The topic of the resource Divorce Malpractice--United States https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/82284e32b2cb8d5f02c84da3ecc2919b.jpg c3eb00ee5df408534d8545d8eb9991c3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bar Disgraces Itself In Hunter Case Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-08-13 Description An account of the resource This is largely a commentary by Michael Mello about all the flaws in the disbarment case against Will Hunter. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Newspaper article Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutland Daily Herald Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Scan of a Newspaper article 300 resolution DIP Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Vermont https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/c756d328c70696876432fa4c53f62174.jpg 88406e468c26db32bc8b9525ef6f7224 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Altersitz, Haleigh Text Any textual data included in the document [Title] Bar Disgraces Itself In Hunter Case [Content] I wish to thank the dozen or so people who called and wrote me responding to commentary on the Will Hunter case. Their feedback was Illuminating. The more I hear from other lawyers, the more I like Will Hunter. The four lawyers who published letters in support of the bar’s prosecution of Will Hunter revealed more about the writer’s own agendas than about L’Affair Hunter. [Title of main content] Commentary By: Michael Mello [Main Content] Stephen Ellis (July 25) missed my main point: that providing effective counsel to poor people is of paramount concern, and that the choice facing Mr. Hunter’s clients was not Mr. Hunter or some other, “better” Vermont lawyer. The choice was between Will Hunter or no lawyer. (The non-lawyer who contacted me didn’t seem to have any trouble under-standing this point.) As a longtime capital public defender in Florida, I think I have a pretty strong appreciation of poor people’s need for legal aid. By citing statistics that seem to me misleading, Leslie Black (July 30) makes the disappointing argument that poor people in Vermont already have sufficient legal aid. Her numbers are misleading because they don’t include the numbers of people who were not able to find a lawyer willing and able to work for free. Any legal aid attorney worth her salt will tell you she can represent only a fraction of people who need such aid. And if Ms. Black thinks the Vermont public defender system is sufficiently resourced, she really should talk to the people who work in those offices. There is one promising bit of news on the horizon. Last week, the Vermont Supreme Court rejected the bar’s recommendation of disbarment for Vincent Illuzzi – on charges far more serious than the niggling technicalities that from the basis of the bar’s persecution of Will Hunter. This suggests that the court does not simply rubber stamp whatever recommendations the court receives from the churls at the Couduct Board. That’s good news for anyone interested in seeing justice done to Will Hunter and his former clients. If Vince Illuzzi shouldn’t be disbarred, then Will Hunter shouldn’t be disbarred. The court ruled that the Conduct Board had over-stepped its authority. The court reiterated the legal test for disbarment: “Disbarment is warranted where the misconduct is done knowingly, the injury is serious or potentially serious, and there is some benefit to the lawyer or another. Moreover, conduct resulting in disbarment is generally criminal as well.” The Hunter panel did not even pretend to demonstrate why the blizzard of petty charges against Mr. Hunter met the test for disbarment. Even accepting the panel’s rendition of the facts, Mr. Hunter’s misconduct was not “done knowingly.” The injury caused by the misconduct was not “serious or potentially serious” – indeed, notably absent was any articulation of harm caused by Mr. Hunter’s peccadillos. Nor did the asserted “misconduct” result in “some benefit to the lawyer or another.” And none of the bar’s storm of petty charges is “criminal.” At most, all but one of the bar’s complaints against Mr. Hunter – the kinds of sins committed by busy and successful, albeit overworked, lawyers at one time or another. The potentially serious charge – the money accusation – does not come close to justifying disbarment under the legal test for disbarment ignored by the panel. Perhaps the bar’s biggest howler is that I am bringing the bar into public disrepute by criticzing the bar’s war on Will Hunter. But is seems to me that any wound to the bar’s public image is a self-inflicted wound. If the bar is worries that its persecution of Will Hunter is bringing the bar into public dishonor, than the solution is to stop the persecution. Find out whether the prosecutor did, in fact, attempt to strong-arm Mr. Hunter’s clients into becoming informants against him. Find out whether the “hearing” panel chair intimidated witnesses favorable to Mr. Hunter. Find out why the panel’s recommendation opinion was so inept. Several letter writers implied that unsolicited client complaints were the genesis of the bar’s investigation of Mr. Hunter. I wonder. Whiffs of possible prosecutorial misconduct filter from the case’s factual record and beyond. For instance, on July 1 the Valley News published a letter from a client of Mr. Hunter: “I am one of his clients who was contacted by a female agent of the board, who was stated she worked for (Hunter’s bar prosecutor), and that if I wanted to make a complaint against Mr. Hunter she would take my complaint over the telephone. Though I told her I had been frustrated with Mr. Hunter’s actions many times in the past, I had no interest in making a formal complaint. She continued to press me until finally I ended the con-versation.” That was not the end of the pressure, however. “The very next day I received a second call from her reminding me that I could make a formal com-plaint if I wanted. Again, I told her no, but she pressed. She told me the complaint didn’t have to come directly from me – that they could act like the police and pursue a complaint on my behalf. I once more declined, and hung up.” These prosecutorial pressure tactics are more serious than allegations made by the bar disciplinary panel against Mr. Hunter. This client described how frustrating and down-right maddening Mr. Hunter could be. But, when push came to shove, she writes that he “has been a stead-fast ally when others have given up … He has been honest and honorable in all our legal dealings.” Anyway, the feedback from my column impelled me to dig a little further into the case of the Vermont Bar against Will Hunter. What I found was that this case is about far more than Mr. Hunter’s fitness to continue practicing law. The real issue here is whether the panel members and bar prosecutor are capable of conforming themselves to these selfsame ethical requirements. The disbarment opinion rendered by the three-per-son panel of the Professional Conduct Board is at best inept and at worst malicious. In either case, the opinion reflects and ethical obtuseness that would be laughable if a person’s career were not at stake. The opinion is a disgrace to the Vermont bar. There are two things wrong with the bar’s opinion recommending disbarment. The first is its slip-shod substance. The second is its malicious style. The opinion is more of a partisan press release thana reasoned articulation of grounds rendered by a neutral and unbiased tribunal. One Good test of the integrity of a legal document – and of its author – do, in fact, stand for the propositions for which they are cited. Again and again, the panel’s opinion in Mr. Hunter’s case fails this test. Key cases do not stand for the propositions for which the panel cites them, and holdings of cases are misrepresented. The panel’s reckless disregard of accuracy is not limited to its citation of case law; the opinion’s treatment of the factual record is equally cavalier. The panel made findings of fact that deviate from the stipulations that were submitted; failed to make findings and law in a manner that suggests a lack of impartiality and per-judgment. The references to the factual record are often misleading. But the panel gives away its game in what its opinion does not say, the evidence its simply ignores. Save for a few desultory and vacuous references, the panel’s opinion essentially ignores the large quantity of directly relevant evidence – evidence given by everyone from judges to lawyers to former clients – favorable to Mr. Hunter. In short, the opinion is a hatchet job. By contrast, one quality of Mr. Hunter’s legal documents is that they are trustworthy – when Mr. Hunter says a case stands for a proposition, then it does. Judge Cheever testified that Mr. Hunter’s “cases were well cited. He didn’t send me off to rely on a case that didn’t stand for the proposition that he was quoting for it. And the facts that he stated also turned out to be true.” Of course, the panel’s smear opinion ignored Judge Cheever’s testimony – as it ignored the testimony of two other judges and one magistrate who testified to Will Hunter’s effective representation of his clients in matters before them. One might think that an ethics panel would scrupulously avoid even the appearance of a lack of impartiality or bias. One would be wrong. In this case, shortly before things got nasty, Mr. Hunter had represented Vincent Illuzzi. In his capacity as counsel for Mr. Illuzzi, Mr. Hunter sued Professional Conduct Board – including the members of the panel – in federal district court. Thus, Mr. Hunter’s disbarment case was com-posed of individuals who were named defendants in a federal lawsuit brought by Mr. Hunter on behalf of Mr. Illuzzi. Given such ineptitude, it should surprise no one that the opinion’s blunderbuss methodology utterly misses the issue that is the heart of the Will Hunter affair; Does the entirety of Mr. Hunter’s practice his-tory command the conclusion that he is unfit to practice law in Vermont? This is a subtle decision requireing an appreciating of nuance – qualitied utterly lacking in the panel’s opinion. It is simply wrong for the panel to look only as Mr. Hunter’s sins in isolation and to conclude blithely that Mr. Hunter’s transgressions exhaust the entire truth of his life as a lawyer. By judging Mr. Hunter solely by his moments of weakness, lapses and limits, the panel was oblivious to the principle upon which the disbarment rule is based: proportionately. Proportionality is both a principle on which the laws of punishment are based and a commonly under-stood aspect of human affairs. Proportionality, for instance, prevents the police from shooting jaywalkers, even though the latter are breaking the law. In short, “proportionality” is the idea that the punishment should fit the crime. To be sure, the big sinners who flagrantly violate certain norms of professional conduct should be dis-barred. From what I know of Mr. Hunter’s case he is not a sinner. The panel's opinion does nothing to persuade me otherwise. William hunter is the kind of lawyer many of us wish we had the courage to be. The line between respect an jealousy can be fine. That, in the end, might explain the bars churlish persecution of one the finest attorneys in this or any other state. The Vermont Supreme Court should entirely disregard the panel's opinion. Further, the court should appoint an independent prosecutor and hearing board to investigate (1) the reasons for the shameful opinion issued by the panel, and (2) whether sanctionable or civilly actionable prosecutorial misconduct occurred in the case. Secrecy is a petri dish for governmental corrupttion, incompetence and misconduct. If any good is to come of the persecution of Will Hunter perhaps it will be this. Michael Mello is a professor of law at the Vermont Law School. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bar Disgraces Itself In Hunter Case Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Language A language of the resource English Description An account of the resource While Micheal Mello was a professor of a Law professor. He wrote a commentary pertaining to the disciplinary proceedings of the attorney Will Hunter by the Vermont Bar. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-08-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 300 DPI 2 JPGs Subject The topic of the resource Hunter, Will Vermont Legal Aid Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Rutland Daily Herald The Bar William A. Hunter https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/4955d7d829a26de046034cde3a7de378.jpg fbda1189e56a50e7b659e18410ed0d1d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [Publisher] The Gainesville Sun [Date] Wednesday, July 31, 1996 [Title] 'Killer to get new sentence' [Subtitle] 'An appeals court orders resentencing for the Death Row inmate who raped and killed a 94-year-old woman.' [Author] Aaron Hoover A man sent to Florida's Death Row nearly 20 years ago for the rape and murder of a 94-year-old Gainesville woman must be sentenced all over again, an appeals court has ruled. Steven Todd Booker, convicted of first-degree murder and a survivor of at least three death warrants for the 1977 rape and murder of Duck Pond resident Lorine Harmon will appear before a jury in a Alachua County and be resentenced in the case as a result of the decision this month by the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeal. Prosecutors decried the development as an example of a flawed system that allows death penalty appeals to drag on for decades quote this is an example of why the appeal IT system is entirely broken," said state attorney rod Smith. "No one is saying he didn't do it. . . but 20 years after the fact we're deciding to reconstruct a penalty phase on a brutal murder." But a lawyer who has represented Booker had a decidedly different view. Michael Mello a Vermont law professor who has worked extensively on Booker's case, said the state is to blame for much of the delay. U.S. Judge Maurice Paul first ruled Booker should be resentenced in 1988, but appeals by the Attorney General's Office delayed a final decision until this month, said Mello, a law professor at Vermont Law School. "Steve Booker's case is the case I always use in our capital punishment seminar to illustrate these delays in death penalties that prosecutors and politicians are always talking about - they're as often or not caused by prosecutors," Mello said. A jury in Alachua county convicted Booker, now 42, of first degree murder, rape by force, and burglary for breaking into Harman's apartment, raping and killing her on Nov. 9, 1977. After his conviction, Booker wrote to Circuit Judge John Crews, now deceased, asking to be put to death. Harman, an assistant post master in her native Maryland, had moved to Gainesville in 1956 when her husband retired. She went back to Maryland briefly after Frank Harman died, but later settled permanently in Gainesville, where she was known for her independence - frequently walking into the now defunct Primrose Inn restaurant downtown for lunch, for example. according to Mello, jury instructions at the time of Booker's sentencing directed juries to consider only certain narrowly defined reasons why he might be spared. Those instructions prevented the jury form considering crucial evidence about Booker's mental health, he said. "The list of mitigating circumstances said the jury should consider some kinds of craziness, and Booker didn't have those kinds of craziness, he had other kinds of craziness," Mello said. Those included alcohol abuse and "a hideous family background," he said. A 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Florida Death Row inmate James Hitchcock's case found identical jury instructions unconstitutional, meaning that all relevant evidence could be introduced in death penalty defenses, Mello said. The decision affected "two or three dozen cases" including Booker's cases, he said. The date for the new sentencing hearing has not been set, but Smith indicated he was not pleased to face the challenge. "you have to reconstruct somewhat what's already occurred and represent what occurred at the trial phase so the jury will understand at the penalty phase what you're talking about," he said. "It's an outrageous assignment to any office to go back and try any portion of a case under those circumstances." Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Armel, Ryan Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Killer to Get New Sentence Subject The topic of the resource Mello, Michael Booker, Steven Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-07-31 Language A language of the resource English Description An account of the resource Steven Booker, a man sentenced to Death Row for the rape and murder of a 94-year-old woman nearly 20 years ago is being resentenced due to a decision made by Florida's 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hoover, Aaron Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Gainesville, FL Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Hoover, Aaron. “Killer to Get New Sentence.” The Gainesville Sun, July 31, 1996. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/3f112562bfb8e8c33439c9ca7bdc7060.jpg 2b3c8096bdbdde6240a6a018f6a3ebbe https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/b8ad860aee948e44060b6eac5d2a23d1.jpg bece773b9f1852144c2f1ad43e5e248f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [Title] In Hunter Case, Blame is Widespread [Author] by Michael Mello I teach legal ethics at Vermont Law School, and not infrequently I offer Mr. Hunter's practice to my students as an example of how it is possible for a person to be both a good lawyer and a good person. Now that Mr. Hunter faces disbarment I will use his case to illustrate a point about law and power: that if you take on the hard cases and the un-popular clients, the establishment will come after you. Clarence Darrow was indicted for jury tampering; William Kunstler was held in contempt in Chicago. In weighing Will Hunter's fitness to practice law in Vermont, it is important to remember that, in representing poor people and unpopular causes, Mr. Hunter was not only acting as a good person and a good citizen, he was acting as a good and ethical lawyer. In living the bar's directive to serve the community and its injunction never to turn away a client because the client is unpopular, Mr. Hunter was acting in the finest and most noble traditions of the legal profession in America. "Obey the little laws and break the great ones. That's the preamble to their Constitution." Andre Lorde wrote. Mr. Hunter got it backwards, but that, I think, is to his credit. I have never met Will Hunter, but I have met some of his former clients. The voices of the indigent people for whom Mr. Hunter was the "lawyer of last resort" have been conspicuously absent from the public conversation about whether Mr. Hunter is fit to continue practicing law. Mr. Hunter's principal sin seems to have been overcommitment, an inability to say "no" to those in need of legal aid. But it seems to me that the very legal establishment that seeks to banish Hunter from its midst is partially responsible for the reality that no lawyer other than Will Hunter would accept these people as clients. The bar ought to be asking why Will Hunter has been the lawyer of last resort for so many indigent people in need of legal aid. Where were the Vermont lawyers? Where, indeed, were his prosecutor and judges? And just when government is getting out of the business of providing legal aid for poor people, many private firms are becoming less and less willing or able to take on pro bono work. Now that paying clients are becoming harder to find, private practitioners are becoming less likely to work for free. A few years ago, John Dooley and Alan Housman wrote that proposed budget cuts to the Legal Services Corp. would "not meet the legal needs of poor people; in fact they would deny poor people the full range of legal services available to those who can afford an attorney." Those words were published 13 years ago. The funding cuts feared by Dooley and Housman are now reality. Mr. Hunter is not perfect- he's not a perfect lawyer, and he's not a perfect human being. None of us is- including Mr. Hunter's prosecutor and his judges. Give me an unlimited budget and the power to compel disclosure, and I'll find enough evidence to convince a gung-ho prosecutor that my target has acted "unethically." The ethical rules are by nature vague, and anyway complex human behavior doesn't lend itself to pigeonholing by codification. Look hard enough into any lawyer's practice, and you'll find at least some arguable improprieties. At a time when legal services for the poor are being crippled by funding cuts, we need the few Will Hunters among us- we need them now more than ever. And it is fair to ask his prosecutor and his judges: With Will Hunter banished from the bar, who will do the important work he has been doing for such a long time? Will Mr. Hunter's prosecutor fulfill that role? Will his judges? Will the regular members of the Vermont bar? Will Hunter performed an honorable role within the Vermont legal establishment. He took on the cases other attorneys wouldn't. Those other attorneys wouldn't say these poor people don't deserve any lawyer; they deserve some other lawyer. For years, Will Hunter was that "other" lawyer. So, if Will Hunter is disbarred, those most in need of legal help- and least able to pay for it- will lose one tireless, brilliant, quirky advocate. He will be missed by his community and his clients, and [end page one] [start page two] that's not a claim many attorneys can make. Will Hunter has already paid a high price for taking seriously the bar's injunction to represent the poor and the unpopular. His home was ransacked by federal agents. His name and his reputation have been tarnished by the commissars of ethics. Now those same commissars want to disbar him. Disbarring Mr. Hunter would be a "tragedy," as his prosecutor reportedly said. It would be a tragedy, but not for Mr. Hunter alone. It would be a tragedy for those in need of legal aid who will now have no lawyer at all. Most of all, it seems to me, disbarring Mr. Hunter would be a tragic and demeaning act for the Vermont bar. The bar should be better than this. The people of Vermont deserve better than this. Every year I look for role models for my ethics students; good people who do good work as lawyers. My hope always is that perhaps a few of those students will work for those among us who need legal aid but can't afford to buy it. Then the Will Hunters of the world might be able to say "no" once in a while- knowing that the client turned away will be able to find another lawyer. In the meantime I'll send all such clients to Vermont's Professional Conduct Board. Michael Mello of White River Junction is a professor of law at the Vermont Law School. [end page two] Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Johnston, Spencer Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource In Hunter Case, Blame Is Widespread Description An account of the resource Michael Mello comments on the disbarment of fellow lawyer Will Hunter and the implications for the future of the legal profession in Vermont. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mello, Michael Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mello, Michael. "In Hunter Case, Blame is Widespread." Rutland Daily Herald, July 23, 1996, p.1. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-07-23 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPGs 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Subject The topic of the resource Legal reform Disbarment of lawyers Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royalton, VT https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/94fe5f41f242c52c70a91a8354fca4ed.jpg 2d05388c6e7e6100b31f225b640ee820 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Murder case demonstrates sabotage of justice / Public contempt justified in Spaziano delay The criminal justice system is broken. It was not broken by cops or criminals, by crime victims or taxpayers. It was broken by judges, lawyers, legislators and ideologues who scorn the democratic process. The case of Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spaziano, currently of Florida’s death row, is a case in point. How long does it take to bring justice to a vicious murderer? In Spaziano’s case, the answer is 20 years and, as of this writing, still counting. The answer, if a judge is foolish enough to grant this psychopath a new trial, may be never. Spaziano, a motorcycle gang member, was convicted in 1976 of the murder of an 18-year-old girl. He was sentenced to death. In 1996, lawyers, some of whom are ideologically opposed to the death penalty, and the Miami Herald newspaper are crowing that poor Spaziano is an innocent man. Spaziano has also been convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl and of gouging out her eyes with his knife. He is a suspect in three other murders. His own family has said publicly they are terrified that he will be released and will then kill them, as he has threatened to do. In other words, Joe Spaziano is not the kind of man whom any rational person would assume to be innocent, no matter what technical problems there were in his trial. The sole grounds for the passionate belief in Spaziano’s innocence is that a witness who testified that Spaziano showed him two bodies where the murder victim’s body was found has, 20 years later, suddenly claimed that he lied at the trial. When this occurred, Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles ordered the state police to conduct an investigation. They did so and found ample evidence that the witness is lying now but told the truth at the trial. There is no corroboration of the witness’s claim that he lied at the trial and is now telling the truth. Even after 20 years to think about it, Spaziano cannot supply an alibi. The witness is now unable to get his new story straight. But there is corroboration of his original testimony. Spaziano’s brother and one of his former Outlaw gang members have both testified that Spaziano volunteered to them that he had killed two women in Florida and was worried about “a kid” who knew about the murder. “The kid” of course is the witness who now claims 20 years later that he made up the whole story and never saw any bodies. When this witness’s sister asked her brother why he ha changed his story after so long, she testified that he replied, “I’m tired of being harassed by Spaziano’s people, lawyers and the media.” The logical inference to be made from that testimony is that while lawyers have played games in the courts, fighting off one execution date after another, somebody has been trying to persuade a man to change his testimony. I hope that the trial judge will have the courage to base his decision on the testimony and not on the hysteria of the Herald or the wild rhetoric of Spaziano’s lawyers. You can be sure if Spaziano ever returns to society, he will kill again. When he does, those who helped him defeat justice, will also have blood on their hands. But either way, this sorry spectacle of justice delayed is why an increasing number of Americans looks upon the criminal justice system with contempt and disdain. It also shows how ideology attempts to subvert democracy. Any judge who opposes the death penalty should resign or at least recuse himself from all capital cases. For a judge to thwart justice simply because he disagrees with a democratically arrived at decision is disgraceful. And others who oppose the death penalty should take their debate to the legislature – and not try to sabotage justice. What a foul system it is that ignores the innocent dead and squanders millions on the living killers. Charley Reese is an Orlando Sentinel columnist. Editor’s note: On Monday, a judge granted a new trial for Spaziano. [image – photo of Charley Reese] [image caption – Charley Reese] Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Ramirez-Portillo, Jessica Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Murder Case Demonstrates Sabotage of Justice Description An account of the resource With renewed interest in giving convicted murderer Joe Spaziano a new trial. Mello expresses the lack of legitimacy on this movement and specifically addresses the witness who claimed that he lied on the trial 20 years after the case. Mello closes his writing by impugning the idea of setting Spaziano free and how people in protest of death row may potentially deny justice to Spaziano's victims. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mello, Michael Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-01-24 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Subject The topic of the resource Criminal courts--United States Spaziano, Joe Equality before the law--United States Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mello, Micheal. "Murder Case Demonstrates Sabotage of Justice, Public Contempt Justified in Spaziano Delay." The Tribune, January 24, 1996, A7. "Crazy Joe" Spaziano criminal justice death penalty Florida Judicial proceedings https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/89a9c7c696998f6cd1196f9b7b9916f8.jpg 4113f0bf7b29f05c26dac64caf850f42 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Kniskern, Kyle Text Any textual data included in the document [written in cursive, with pen, above the article] Mike – Thought you would like to have these two articles. [Above the title] Colman McCarthy [Title] Dead Men Talking So, after Hollywood and Susan Sarandon, the bestseller list, gigs on “Oprah” and “PrimeTime Live,” honorary degrees and more than 25 speaking invitations a week, how is Sister Helen Prejean handling celebrity? Much the way she lived with obscurity: keeping the faith and sharing her energy, with no holding back on either. The 57-year-old Louisiana nun who entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille at 18 left the anonymous life in 1993 when Random House published her book “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States.” Shortly after, Susan Sarandon read it and went to talk with Prejean in New Orleans. The actress brought the book to Tim Robbins. In March, the film he directed – also titled “Dead Man Walking” – won an Oscar for Sarandon and her portrayal of Sister Helen. An estimated 8 million people have seen the film, which means they know a bit more about the ritual of state-sanctioned killing. “This movie shows the process of execution,” Prejean says. “Beyond the rhetoric of all the legislations who score their political points for being tough on crime, what it all boils down to is that a handful of people are hired to kill a guy in the middle of the night.” Among the Speaking invitations Prejean most softens to are those from legal aid groups representing death row prisoners. Most have recently disbanded, following the elimination of federal funding by Congress. One of the few survivors is the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center. Prejean helped it by being the main speaker on May 26 at a fund-raising even at a Jesuit high school in Washington. Short-haired, understatedly dressed in a blue suit and blouse, Prejean is a natural storyteller with a talent for wryness and little taste for polemics. The factual arguments for ending the death penalty – it doesn’t deter, racial bias, excessive costs – are offered like notes in the margin. The main text is stories of people she has met since first going into death row in 1984 at the Louisiana state prison in Angola. Some stories are about men whose executions she witnessed and whom she counseled to ask forgiveness for their crimes. Some are about victims’ families, people Prejean – admitting past cowardice – was once afraid of meeting and chose to avoid. Then she went to a victims’ support group and heard families describe how people like her avoided them. Prejean praises prison officials who quit their jobs rather than cooperate with the process of executions. Of politicians who boast of their zeal for the death penalty, she asks: Where are they when the prisoners are killed? Why don’t they come in the darkness of midnight to throw the switch or do the injecting themselves rather than be asleep in their beds? “Witnessing an execution,” Prejean says of the first man she saw die in the electric chair, “Left an indelible mark on my soul.” It was, she says, a rebaptism. Compared with some longtime opponents of the death penalty – Marie Deans, Michael Mello, Stephen Bright, William Brennan, Joseph Ingle, Alvin Bronstein – Prejean is a newcomer. Her awakening came in the early 1980s when nuns were being killed in Latin America and ones at home were out of their convents and habits, acting on the church’s social teachings on solidarity with the poor and exposing the structural causes of poverty. Prejean moved into the St. Thomas housing project in New Orleans. “It was a shock,” she told the Progressive magazine recently. “Growing up in the ‘40s and ‘50s, I had known black people only as my family’s servants. Now it was my turn to serve them. It didn’t take long to see that for poor people, especially black poor people, there was a greased track to prison and death row.” From the housing project in New Orleans, Prejean began visiting another one – the Angola prison – to be a spiritual adviser to men awaiting their deaths. That ministry continues, plus a new one with its own set of difficulties. She describes it as trying to inform “white, affluent people in the suburbs. The more affluent you are, the more separated and the more afraid you are of the poor and ‘the criminal element,’ the more you take the hard line and say, ‘Those people need to be executed.’ They’re the toughest audience.” It is fitting that the work would be the hardest for Prejean. In the film, the father of a murder victim says to the nun, “I don’t have your faith.” She answers: “It’s not faith, it’s work.” Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dead Men Talking Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McCarthy, Colman Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-06-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant New Orleans, LA Subject The topic of the resource Corporal punishment Corporal punishment of children--Religious aspects--Catholic Church Description An account of the resource The passionate outreach against the death penalty by Sister Helen Prejean. As a Catholic nun she details her views and advocacy for those on death row. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Colman McCarthy, "Dead Men Talking," June 4, 1996. 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For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document <p>FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 4<br /><br />Citation &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Search Result &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank 7 of 63 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Database<br />6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ALLNEWS&nbsp;<br />6/1/96 Fla. Trend 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1996 WL 8832093 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><strong><br /><br /></strong><br />Florida Trend &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;COPYRIGHT 1996 Trend Magazines Inc.<br /><br />Saturday, June 1, 1996</p> <p>Vol. 39, No. 2, ISSN: 0015-4326</p> <p>Man, in the middle; a reappraisal. (Bob Graham) (Cover Story)<span>&nbsp; </span><span>&nbsp;</span>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; David Poppe<br /><br />As Bob Graham considers whether to run for governor again, it's time to take the measure of the man's record in Tallahassee and Washington. The question is: Is this inveterate moderate what Florida needs as it faces an extraordinary list of social and financial woes?<br /><br />In the grand ballroom of the St. Petersburg Hilton, U.S. Sen. Bob Graham tells an overflow crowd of political junkies about his work in Washington. Bland as a high school civics teacher, he talks of governing by finding "the center" of tough issues and then working his way out to build consensus.<br /><br />But the audience wants to know about the tension just below Graham's serene surface. Sure enough, when Graham opens the room for questions, the first person up asks if he'll quit the Senate to run for governor in 1998.<br /><br />Slightly pained, Graham gives his pat response: he won't decide until after the November elections. Later, his aides roll their eyes and profess bemusement. "It's the first thing everybody wants to know," says one wearily.<br /><br />A week later in Washington, when a reporter asks Graham over breakfast in the Senate dining room about what will influence his decision, Graham hardly looks up from his bowl of granola and strawberries. Not only is he not making his decision until year-end, he says, he's decided not even to think about it until then. A disingenuous answer, perhaps, but with his innocent brown eyes and his chubby cheeks, Bob Graham always comes across as sincere.<br /><br />"What he's doing is freezing people," asserts a Republican political operative who knows Graham well. "He is not only saying he's keeping his options open, he's telling the financial infrastructure of the Democratic Party to keep their options open, not to do anything right<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works</p> <p>FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 5 6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><span>&nbsp;</span><br /><br />now," says the strategist.<span>&nbsp;</span><br /><br />He certainly has people in Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay's camp on edge. Mackay, who has announced he will run in 1998, shares a circle of close friends and fund-raisers with Graham. "Graham won't make up his mind and that's what's making them mad," says a top MacKay adviser in Tallahassee. "I'll think the more he strings this out, the more divisive it will become."<br /><br />Or maybe, the longer Graham strings this out, the more likely nervous Democrats will be to beg him to run. "One problem the Democrats have in Florida is they are always looking for a 'deus ex machina' to bail them out. That's the role Chiles played in 1990, and it's the role they hope Bob Graham will play in 1998," says Robert L. Joffee, vice president with Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research in Miami. "It's a common belief among Democrats that, 'There's only one guy who can do this for us."'<br /><br />But if the Democrats need a man on a white horse, is Bob Graham really the right man? There is no diminishing his accomplishments and his enormous political capital. Fully 62% of Floridians have a favorable impression of him, according to the latest polls. "He may have some political enemies, but I don't know of any," says former Democratic Congressman Jim Bacchus, now a World Trade Organization judge. Graham has been a dominant political figure in Florida life over the last quarter century, and he is nearly the stuff of legend by now in some political quarters. Many Floridians remember Graham's two terms as governor as an era of honest progressive government combined with great promise and prosperity. It's tempting to assume that if Graham returned to Florida as governor, so would the good times that marked his first two administrations.<br /><br />A thought centrist<br /><br />Yet a close look at 59-year-old Graham's record and temperament suggests that he might not be much happier in Tallahassee then he has been in Washington, D.C., in recent years. When he governed before, Democrats controlled the Legislature, and the electorate didn't howl in outrage every time taxes rose. And while Graham did raise taxes to help pay for Florida's rapid growth, he failed to push for fundamental tax reform, something the next governor almost certainly will have to do. In a 1986 profile of several top Graham aides, FLORIDA TREND noted that even in less contentious times, Graham needed a tough-minded staff to help him deal with the Legislature. Until hard-nosed Jacksonville businessman Dick Burroughs became chief of staff in 1981, Graham's image was that of a dithered. A St. Petersburg Times editorial once dubbed him "Governor Jell-O."<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works<br /><br />FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 6 6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><strong><br /><br /></strong>In Washington, Graham has developed a reputation as a thoughtful centrist, but he has never sponsored a piece of major legislation that became law. If Florida is approaching a financial day of reckoning, as many believe, it is worth asking whether Graham would risk the enormous political capital he's built up over 30 years to push reforms on taxes, education, entitlements or growth management. Maddeningly, the person who could answer the question says he's not even thinking about it.<br /><br />In 1998, constitutional revision will be on the ballot for the first time since 1968, meaning voters could be asked to make changes to the state's tax system, the public school system, even to the balance of power between the governor, the legislature and the cabinet.<br /><br />Rod Petrey, president of the Collins Center, a Tallahassee think tank, predicts there could be competing proposals to revise Florida's tax system- which could either open up new revenue streams or severely limit the state's taxing powers- and to reduce the independence of Florida Cabinet officials, this increasing the governor's powers. "There could be a dramatic changeover in the next couple of years in the way Florida is governed," Petrey says.<br /><br />And because there proposals will go to a statewide vote, candidates for governor will have to endorse one set or another: Both parties will stress making government more efficient, but Democrats probably will ask for new taxes for schools, social services and infrastructure while Republicans will favor government that taxes less and offers less.<br /><br />"I think we are approaching a train wreck, where our population growth continues to accelerate and the need to take care of the most needy of our citizens-children, the people with tremendous the health problems, the elderly- continues to accelerate," says Board of Regents Chancellor Charles Reed, a former chief of staff to Graham in Tallahassee.<br /><br />To Reed, that means the day is coming when the university system will turn away qualified students for lack of space. In just the next dozen years, the number of students for lack of space. In just the next dozen years, the number of students graduating from Florida's public high schools and universities means paying more taxes or making draconian cuts in other government programs.<br /><br />In short, 1998 has all the makings of a dramatic race. "I think it's going to be a pivotal race," says MacKay. "I think candidates for governor are not going to be able to avoid saying how they would deal with these central issues."<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works<br /><br />FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 7<br />6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><strong><br /><br /></strong>Both MacKay and Jeb Bush, who is expected to be the GOP's choice for anither run at the state house in 1998, often speak with disarming candor about controversial issues. MacKay openly calls for higher fees on new development, for example, which makes him anathema to builders. Bush supports giving parents vouchers and forcing public schools to complete for students, an idea many educators hate.<br /><br />Graham, on the other hand, is as cautious as football coach with a two-touchdown lead. Asked a tough question, he's as likely to turn it around and ask a reporter's opinion as he is to answer it. He won't even respond when asked what were the most difficult two or three votes he's ever had to make in the Senate. In meetings with his staff, Graham plays a Socratic role, listening to an aide's report then asking questions, rarely injecting his own opinions. "he's very deliberative, the way he works things through," says Sen. Jay Rockefeller, one of Graham's close friends.<br /><br />And he eschewal confrontation when possible. "I don't think politics has to move from being competitive to being confrontational," he says. "If you end up laming enemies every time you disagree, you're not going to get anywhere."<br /><br />Even a few admirers admit Graham's style is better suited to synthesizing ideas than leading with his own. "I don't think that's his inclination, to be the first person out," says Tom Herndon, who was Gov. Graham's planning and budget director. "His instinctive caution probably prevents him from being the first person out of the box on some of these leading issues. Somebody who is less studious might jump out first, and then somebody like Graham comes in behind and addresses these questions others may have overlooked."<br /><br />Never discussed the death penalty&nbsp;<br /><br />Graham is not just cautious, however. He's virtually opaque. A 1984 profile in the Miami Herald noted that many of Graham's longtime aides had never had a personal conversation with their boss. His wife said he'd never discussed with her his controversial support for the death penalty, even though protesters regularly disrupted his public events, including his 1980 nominating speech for Jimmy Carter at the Democratic National Convention.<br /><br />For years, he's carried the now-famous small notebook everywhere, recording all the little details of his day. His wife of 37 years, Adele, tells the story of a flight in South America, when the pilot warned the startled passengers that the plane was about to crash. During what might've been their last moments on earth, Adele Graham<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works</p> <p>FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 8<br />6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<span>&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />(<strong>Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><strong><br /><br /></strong>quaked while Bob jotted down the pilot's instructions on preparing for impact.<br /><br />"He doesn't have the kind of charisma that some people are born with or cultivate," allows Herndon. "But he is always there working harder than anybody else."<br /><br />Graham, like other politicians, has become adept at avoiding discussion of tough issues. For example, bring up the subject of Florida's mediocre public schools, and Graham doesn't talk about solutions such as vouchers or trimming a larded education bureaucracy, like Bush, or about addressing the stresses caused by population growth, like MacKay. Rather, he spins out an anecdote about one of his four daughters, Virginia teacher Suzanne Gibson.<br /><br />"If I can put it personally, my third daughter is a wonderful early childhood education teacher," he says over breakfast in Washington. "She taught for several years in Dade Country. Her last year at a new elementary school in northwest Dade, she had 38 students in her kindergarten class. The she got married and moved to Great Falls, Va., and taught in the Fairfax County system. The first year she taught kindergarten there, she had 24 students in her class.<br /><br />"That's a pretty dramatic example of the level of concern about primary education in those two communities, and if you are somebody who is deciding "Am I better off locating my software company in Great Falls, Va., or in Miami, Fla., '38-to-24 will be a figure that will be influential on your judgment as to the values of those communities."<br /><br />Does that mean Graham factors raising taxes to build more schools and hire more teachers? Hard to say. Before one can ask, he pulls out a photo of his daughter's one-year-old triplets. "Her class size went from 38 to 24 to three," he beams.<br /><br />Similarly, Graham is a master at managing his image. Recent history shows no other Florida politician can match Graham's ability to connect with regular people, even though Graham himself is a Harvard-educated lawyer and a millionaire.<br /><br />Back in the 1970s, when Graham was a mere state senator, he was given to delivering high-minded lectures on the Senate floor. At the time, the "Doghouse Democrats," so-called because their progressive ideas irked the leadership. Back then, Graham reflected his constituents in Dade County, who were so liberal that they re-elected Claude Pepper, Dante Fascial and Bill Lehman to the U.S. Congress for more than a generation.<br />&nbsp;<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works</p> <p>FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 9 6/1/96 FLATREND 36&nbsp;<strong>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><strong><br /><br /></strong>When Graham ran for governor in 1978, he overhauled his Dade persona to reflect the conservatism that existed in the state as a whole. He stopped calling himself D. Robert Graham, becoming simply Bob. And to counter the image of the wealthy WASP with a Harvard degree, Graham borrowed an idea from Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin and began spending days working at ordinary jobs, many of them menial. On his way to the state house, Graham did 100 of these jobs and wrote an illustrated book about it called "Workdays."<br /><br />A sense of ordinary life<br /><br />Aided by this new populist image, Graham upset heavily favored Attorney General Robert Shevin in the Democratic primary, then beat drug store magnate Jack Eckerd in the general election. He still spends one day each month a workday. Many have called it a gimmick, but Graham says he genuinely enjoys it. Chancellor Reed claims it gives Graham a sense of ordinary life that most leaders lack. "It makes a tremendous difference in his decision making and how he looks at the world," Reed says.<br /><br />When Graham spent a recent workday building scenery at a new theme attraction near Daytona International Speedway, he pounded nails alongside a former rock musician. True to form, Graham looked for common ground with the younger man and found it: country music. Before the day ended, they had written a song together. "When you hear a song with the words 'I've got tension on the surface but I'm boiling just below, because of you hon,' that's my song, he recounts later to his amused staff.<br /><br />The image he created nearly two decades ago stuck, as Florida voters have come to see Graham as pleasing mix of Ivy League sense and old Florida sensibility. Even his omnipresent foulard necktie, imprinted with little images of Florida, bespeaks approachability and good humor. It's hard to imagine, for instance, Graham's fellow Harvard alumnus and proud intellectual, New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, sporting little Empire State buildings on his ties-even if his re-election depended on it.&nbsp;<br /><br />Everyone who knows Graham describes him as extremely smart. Former Congressman Bacchus calls him "extraordinarily bright, far brighter than most other people are in public office or who seek public office."&nbsp;<br /><br />And while he is not averse to displaying his intellect among his peers, to Florida voters he's simply a rather modest, nice guy. In the wall above her desk, Graham’s press secretary has a description by biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a description<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works<br /><br />FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 10<br />6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><strong><br /></strong><br />that age says reminds her of her boss: "In talking on the radio Roosevelt used simple words, concrete examples and every day analogies to make his points. He looked for words that he would use in informal conversations with one or two of his friends, words the average of American could easily understand."</p> <p>&nbsp;But this fixation on public opinion has led to criticism over the years that Graham is alarmingly malleable. In his 1995 book about the revival of death row in America, "Among the Lowest of the Dead," former Miami Herald reporter David Von Drehle portrayed Graham as "a protean genius" who signed death warrants on dozens of convicted killers to deflect criticism that he was too liberal for Florida.<br /><br />In 1979, when Graham took office, only one man, Gary Gilmore, had been executed in America in the previous decade. In Graham's eight years in office, Florida executed 16 convicted killers, more than any other state. Many more death warrants signed by Graham were stayed by courts because the defendants still had appeals available to them.<br /><br />"'Cynical' is the word that I have always used to describe Graham's use of the death penalty," says Michael&nbsp;<strong>Mello,&nbsp;</strong>a former West Palm Beach public defender and now a professor at&nbsp;<strong>Vermont Law&nbsp;</strong>School in South Royalton,&nbsp;<strong>Vt. "</strong>He cynically exploited Floridians' legitimate fears of crime to further his own political career<strong>."</strong><strong><br /><br /><br /></strong>At the same time, Graham eschewed the more expensive task of building prisons during his last term as governor. When he left office, Florida's prisons were filled to 99% of capacity. That forced his successor, Bob Martinez, to call a special session of the Legislature less than two weeks after his inauguration in 1987 to respond to the court-ordered mass release of inmates from overcrowded facilities.<br /><br />Graham's image and reality diverge in other areas as well. For one thing, though he's deservedly credited with guiding Florida through a period of unprecedented growth during the early 1980s, Graham shares responsibility for some of the problems besetting state government today.<br /><br />A month after Graham left Tallahassee in 1987, a 21-person committee of legislators and civic and business leaders headed by Charles Zwick, then chairman Southeast Bank, issued a devastating report on the state's inability to provide basic services and to cope with its exploding population.<br /><br />What's most troubling about the Zwick report, commissioned by the Legislature, is that all of the problems it cited, including a creaky</p> <p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works<br /><br />FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 11<br />6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><strong><br /><br /></strong>tax structure, a low-skill work force, a mediocre system of roads and highways and an economy based on growth and tourism, continue to plague the state to this day. And they will still be there when the next governor takes office.<br /><br />While that speaks poorly of Graham's administration- the Florida Growth Management Act of 1985- ultimately failed to rein in sprawling development. The law required cities and counties to show they could build infrastructure to support new development before issuing building permits, and gave the state new powers to prevent the issuing of permits. But the law's reliance on bureaucracy and red tape doomed it to failure. Today, the act has been gutted, and Florida has enough permitting in place to accommodate a population of 90 million people, more than six times the current figure.<br /><br />Graham also left tax reform to Bob Martinez, a governor with far less political capital. Martinez proposed an ill-fated services tax and implemented the lottery.<br /><br />Graham's style of governing exasperates some in his own party. Miami attorney Sonny Holtzman, a major Democratic fund-raiser and longtime confidante of Lawton Chiles, shakes his head when asked what a Graham run for governor would mean to Florida. After a moment he allows that if Graham quits Washington perhaps Florida could get a better senator.<br /><br />"Wouldn't it be nice if we had a couple of powerful senators who got things done and brought things home?" Holtzman asks, "What have er got now?"<br /><br />As for Graham's previous tenure as governor, Holtzman's not impressed. When Graham was governor before, he says, "it was all peaches and cream. Let's pass this and let's not pass that." He believes Graham would struggle in today's more contentious environment where Republicans share power with Democrats.<br /><br />Even if Graham was a governor who didn't take on all he might have, he still departed Tallahassee enormously popular with an unlimited future. As he arrived in Washington, there was even talk that he might one day run for president.<br /><br />And why not? He'd defeated an incumbent Republican, Paula Hawkins, during the middle of the popular Reagan administration. He looked like&nbsp;<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works<br /><br />FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 12<br />6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><strong><br /><br /></strong>a Democrat: who might fare well in the Sunbelt in a national election. He was wealthy, untainted by scandal and even faintly glamorous-his famous sister-in-law, Katharine Graham, ran the Washington Post.<br /><br />But a funny thing happened on the way to the White House. Rather than hut the ground running, Graham landed inside the Beltway with a dull thud. He joined the Senate amid a large class of freshman Democrats, many of whom had moved over from the House of Representatives and knew more about the ways of Washington than he.<br /><br />Ending up with plain vanilla<br /><br />Graham's inherent formality seemed to return when he got to the nation's capital. Upon arriving therein 1986, freshman Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota paid a personal visit it Lloyd Bentsen, the new chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which writes policy on key matters like taxes, health care and Social Security, to pleaded for a seat. Graham sent out letters to top senators.<br /><br />Daschle's personal approach won out, gaining him the seat he wanted. Graham ended up with three plan vanilla assignments: Environment and Public Works; Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; and Veterans' Affairs. A decade later, Daschle is Senate minority leader. Graham did get a much-covered seat on the Finance Committee, but not until 1995.<br /><br />Graham also got the worst of it in a few scrapes with West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd, ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, which controls spending bills. Byrd has long opposed a balanced budget amendment and a presidential line-item veto. Graham supports both measures. Byrd is also thin-skinned and a notorious pork barreled. After Graham took to the Senate floor to chastise Byrd for inserting "little piglets" that grow into "giant hogs" in an appropriations bill, Byrd did not look kindly on Florida spending projects, Graham staffers say. Graham likely will cross paths with Byrd again next year, when the federal transportation spending program comes up for reauthorization. Florida currently gets less than 80 cents back for every dollar it pays in gasoline taxes, which one Graham staffer terms "a rip-off."<br /><br />For the most part, though, Graham seems to have avoided both confrontation and headline grabbing political events. Graham's image appears only occasionally on TV or in the press, even in Florida. After nearly a decade in Washington, Graham is so little-known there that during a recent stroll on the long block from the Capitol to his office, he elicited not so much as a hint of recognition from passers-by.<br /><br />To be sure, Graham has many admirers in Washington. They tend to be&nbsp;<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works<br /><br />FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 13<br />6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><strong><br /><br /></strong>people who abhor the current gridlock and applaud the senator's willingness to work with Republicans for the common good. "What I would say is he's done a terrific job in the Senate," says Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "Almost everybody respects Graham as one of the thoughtful centrists, one of a handful of people who keeps things together and makes real contributions."<br /><br />Sen. Rockefeller describes Graham as fiercely independent, which his peers respect. "I think the thing about Bob Graham that is very important to understand is he marches to his own drummer," he says.<br /><br />In describing how Graham often keeps his own counsel even among fellow Senate Democrats, Rockefeller recalls a 1993 vote on the federal budget in which Graham's vote was crucial. Graham was unhappy with some Medicare cuts he deemed too drastic-cuts Rockefeller had negotiated personally. For days, Graham still kept silent. Rockefeller was afraid to lobby his friend.<br /><br />"A little voice inside of me said 'Jay, don't say a word to Bob. Don't say award. He is going to come to his own decision and if you come in and try to influence him, it's not going to be a happy result.' And that's from me, his friend," Rockefeller <span>&nbsp;</span>says. At the last moment, Graham told fellow Democrats he'd vote for their budget.<br /><br />When Graham does move into the spotlight, it is almost invariably to address a Florida issue. He was uncharacteristically strident in opposing a recent Republican plan to make block grants to states for Medicaid that didn't include allowances for population growth in future years, for example. "He stood between that and passage and said, look at what you are doing to the growth states," says Mitchell W. Berger, the Democratic Party's Florida Finance Committee Chairman.<br /><br />Similarly, when President Clinton wanted the U.S. military to invade and occupy Haiti in 1994 to ensure the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, there was strong opposition in Congress. But Graham supported the plan. "Bob Graham was the person in the Senate who was rallying the cause," says Berger, a Tennessee transplant and close friend to Vice President Al Gore. The U.S. occupation, in turn, staved off a potential flood of illegal Haitian immigrants to Florida and probably saved the state millions of dollars in social services costs.<br /><br />But in his biggest national assignment, as 1994 chairman of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, the result was unspectacular. Although his committee raised a record $25 million, including $13 million that went directly to candidates, it couldn't stop the&nbsp;<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works<br /><br />FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 14<br />6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><strong><br /><br /></strong>Republican stampede, as the G.O.P. won 10 Democratic seats to gain a 54-46 Senate majority.<br /><br />Arguably, there wasn't much Graham could do to reverse events-the Republicans won a majority of governorships for the first time in 40 years. But he still took criticism. "His shot at the big time was chairing the DSCC, and he blew it," says one Capitol Hill reporter who's followed Graham for years. "You could argue that if he had done a better job campaigning for Senate Democrats, they wouldn't have lost so much influence."<br /><br />On budget questions, Graham characterizes himself as a fiscal conservative, and compared to other Democrats he. Paul Hewitt, executive director of the National Taxpayers Union, says Graham voted to cut a net $2 billion from the federal budget during 1995. On its face, that sounds pretty good, but when compared to total federal spending, it amounts to only 0.125%.<br /><br /><br />Hewitt says Graham's voting record puts him closer to the most conservative member of the Senate, Hank Brown (R-Colo.), who voted for the total spending reductions of $40.8 billion, than to the most liberal, Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), who voted for a net spending increase of $47.6 billion. But it's still safe to say he's in the middle of the road when it comes to cutting federal spending.<br /><br />During the year, Graham voted to cut foreign aid by $1.1 billion and defense by $4 billion. Plus, he favored tough welfare reform and even Medicare spending reductions. "He's obviously among the most fiscally conservative Democrats in the Senate," says Hewitt.<br /><br />Graham was faced earlier this year with a difficult vote on whether or not to renew the federal price support program for sugar. Graham grew up in northwest Dade on the fringes of the Everglades, and he takes great pride in his environmental record. Conservationists urged him not to back the price support program, which has enabled farmers to plant some 500,000 acres south of Lake Okeechobee.<br /><br />But confronted by intense lobbying from Florida's powerful sugar growers, Graham voted to keep the program, arguing two contradictory points: that Florida farmers would keep growing sugarcane whether or not the price supports existed and that since the European Union subsidizes its sugar farmers the U.S. shouldn't abandon price supports.<br /><br />Graham also voted in favor of a Farm Bill provision to give the Interior Department $200 million to buy up sugar farmland and return it to wetlands. The result: Graham's votes cost consumers $1.4 billion&nbsp;<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works<br /><br />FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 15<br />6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><br /><br />annually in higher sugar prices, according to the government's General Accounting Office, and taxpayers $200 million for land acquisition. But Graham avoided making enemies.<br /><br />Stuart D. Strahl, executive director of the National Audubon Society's Everglades ecosystem restoration campaign, acknowledges disappointment over the senator's actions. "I'd say disappointment would be a good word, but we are certainly not surprised," Strahl says.<br /><br />If Graham has to struggle with tough decisions, he finds it even harder to talk about them. Om a conference call with a group of Florida reporters shortly after the Senate passed the Farm Bill, one asked his opinion on a proposed penny-per-pound tax on sugar to help pay for Everglades restoration. Graham wouldn't touch it "My focus has been on getting this $200 million entitlement" and the land sale provisions, he said.<br /><br /><br />Reflecting his middle of the road philosophy, Graham works well with Republicans. He and Arizona Sen. John McCain, for example, have zeroed in on campaign finance reform, an issue that is not making either man especially popular on Capitol Hill right now. Sen. McCain, who also has teamed with Graham on mutual problems Arizona and Florida face obtaining sufficient Veterans Administration benefits, came to Washington with him in 1987. Then, Democrats held a Senate majority, but nevertheless, Graham sought McCain out. "When I was in the minority, he always showed me the greatest respect and included me on issues," McCain says. "That is not as common as you would think."<br /><br /><br />Coming into his own at last<span>&nbsp;</span><br /><br />Graham takes special pride in his close relationship with Florida's Republican junior senator, Connie Mack. In what for Graham passes off as an outburst, he likened Mack to an "ideological wacko" during Mack's 1988 Senate campaign against Buddy MacKay. But today Graham counts Mack as a good friend.<br /><br />In some respects, Graham appears finally to be coming into his own in Washington. He got his Finance Committee seat in 1995, and with the unexpected retirements of Democratic Senators David Pryor and Bill Bradley this year, Graham will move in less than two years from back bench to middle of the committee in terms of seniority. He also made the Armed Services Committee in 1993, another high-profile assignment.<br /><br />If Graham is thinking about returning to Tallahassee, Ornstein suggests it is because life on Capitol Hill has become unpleasant for pragmatists like him. Republican Senators like Nancy Kassebaum, Alan Simpson and Bill Cohen all have chosen to retire this year. "It's not<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works<br /><br />FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 16<br />6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><strong><br /><br /></strong>just Democrats who are bailing out right now," he says.<br /><br />Graham says almost the same thing, noting that some 13 senators plan to retire this year, including respectful fellow Democrats like New Jerseys Bill Bradley and Georgia's Sam Nunn. "The past year and a half has not been one of the most productive times for the Congress," he says.<br /><br />If Graham is unhappy in the nation's capital, he retains a large and influential fan club in Florida. Former aides like Reed, Herndon and Villella believe he's likely to come back, and seem eager for it to happen. And some of Graham's longtime friends also suggest coming back to Tallahassee wouldn't necessarily be the final chapter of a storybook career.<br /><br />One Republican campaign strategist argues Graham's only hope of becoming president is to run for governor in 1998. It is the only way, the strategist says, he could hope to leapfrog people like Gore and Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey in the party hierarchy. "This is all about positioning," says the strategist of Graham's possible run for governor. "If he wants to be president, he has to run for governor."<br /><br />Friends and supporters believe Graham could use his consensus building powers to reach bipartisan solutions to some of Florida's structural problems. That, in turn, might polish his image as a strong executive. After all, no one since John F. Kennedy has stepped straight from the Senate to the Oval Office, through Bob Dole is trying. But plenty of governors have run, and won.<br /><br />Graham aides scoff at such reasoning. "Graham's not thinking about this stuff. He's not weighing all these arguments and won't until the year ends," protests one of his top staffers.<br /><br />Graham may want to look hard and long at perks, prospects and security of his present job compared to the one he may yearn for back in Tallahassee. Certainly not everyone will welcome him back with open arms. "If he wants to come home," says an adviser to Buddy MacKay, "then his record gets the spotlight shined on it."<br /><br />What's more, he may find that his caution and his centrism, which have made him uncomfortable in Washington's extremist climate, may be out of style in Tallahassee, too. "You know what's in the middle of the road these days?" asks Hewitt of the National Taxpayers Union. "Road kill."<br /><br />Related Article: Dade's "Best All-Around Boy"<br /><br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works<br /><br />FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 17<br />6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong>&nbsp;<br /><br />Bob Graham is one of the wealthiest men in the U.S. Senate, thanks to a hurricane, the Great Depression and a shrewd older brother.<br /><br />Graham's father , Ernest R. "Cap" Graham, was a farmer, one-time gold miner and World War I Army captain who came to Dade County after the war to run a plantation in the Everglades for the Pennsylvania Sugar Co.<br /><br />Unfortunately for the company, but fortuitously for Graham, the 1926 hurricane devasted the sugar plantation, known as Pensacola. A few years later, the Great Depression stuck, again wiping out the farm. In the 1930s, the company agreed to give Cap Graham the 3,000-acre plantation to avoid paying property taxes on it.<br /><br />The elder Graham turned the land into a dairy farm and prospered. By 1936, when he was 51, his stature in the community was such that he won a seat in the Florida Legislature, where he served eight years. Cap Graham's first wife had died of cancer, and early in 1936 he married Hilda Simmons Graham. Ten months later in November, just days after he was elected to the Legislature, the youngest of his four children was born, Daniel Robert.<br /><br />The littlest Graham excelled even in his youth. When he was 16, Bob Graham named Dade County's "best all-around boy" by the Miami Senior High's student body and earned Phi Beta Kappa honors at University of Florida, where he also was admitted to the prestigious Blue Key society.<br /><br />At the University of Florida he met his future wife, Adele Khoury of Miami Shores, and as legend has it, told her he would be governor one day. They married in 1959, and he got a job in Washington interning for young Dade Congressman Dante Fascekk. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1963 and got elected to the state legislature in 1966, when he was 30. He became a state senator in 1970. Along the way, he and Adele raised four daughters.<br /><br />For all his talents, Bob Graham's political rise was aided in no small measure by his two older half-brothers at Harvard Law School and married Katherine Meyer, whose father owned the Washington Post. Phil Graham took over management of the paper from his father-in-law in the 1940s.<br /><br />But while Phil was brilliant at business, he was a manic-depressive. In 1963, he shot and killed himself, leaving Katherine Graham to run&nbsp;<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works<br /><br />FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Page 18<br />6/1/96 FLATREND 36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>(Publication page reference are not available for this document.)</strong><strong><br /><br /></strong>the Post and to become in her own right one of the best-known businesswomen in America. Today, the senator's nephew Donald Graham runs the publishing company.<br /><br />If Phil and Katherine Graham made the family name famous, second brother Bill, 12 years older than Bob, made his brother rich.<br /><br />In 1962, with Dade growing rapidly, Bill Graham began developing the Pensacola property. After law school, Bob Graham joined the family business until he took up politics full-time. Today, Miami Lakes is a five-square-mile planned community with 23,000 residents and 4.5 million square feet of office, commercial and industrial space, about one-third of which is still owned and managed by the Graham Cos. The company expects to build another 2 million square feet of office and commercial space over the next 15 to 20 years.<br /><br />The Graham Cos. still milk 2,100 cows in Moore Haven and operate a bull-breeding farm in Georgia. One of the few controversies that has dogged Bob Graham in his political career is the fact that the Graham Cos. benefit from a state law that lets them pay taxes on undeveloped Miami Lakes land as agricultural property, instead of commercial of residential land.<br /><br />In 1978, when Bob Graham wanted to run for governor, he financed his campaign in part by selling $500,000 worth of Graham Cos. stock. And although he's worked in public service since 1966, Sen. Graham today puts his net worth at between $5 million and $10 million.<br /><br />"We couldn't have done what we do in life if it had not been for Bill," Adele Graham has said of her business-savvy brother-in-law.<br /><br /><br />TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH IN THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE&nbsp;<br />illustration photograph<br /><br />---INDEX REFERENCES---<br />KEY WORDS: POLTICANS&nbsp;<br /><br />NEWS SUJECT: Securities Registrations (REG)<br /><br />NEWS CATEGORY: COVER STORY<br /><br />Word Count: 6000<br />6/1/96 FLATREND<br />END OF DOCUMENT&nbsp;<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Copr. West 1998 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span><br /><br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Williams, Megan Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Magazine Article Vol. No./Issue No. Volume and issue number for the newspaper (if available) Vol. 39, No. 2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Man in the middle, a reappraisal Subject The topic of the resource Graham, Bob Gubernatorial Election Description An account of the resource Article explores the political career of Bob Graham as he considers whether to run for governor again. In order, to measure his success the Florida Trend Magazine is looking at the his political record in both Tallahassee, FL and Washington, DC. Part of looking at Graham's career in Florida involved looking into his stance on the death penalty, which is when Michael Mello is quoted on page ten of this document. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Poppe, David Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Florida Trend (Trend Magazines Inc.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-06-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 15 JPGs 300 dpi Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/754e1032183901295e62c24e710e1bdc.jpg 578e8a126791520f0fe92df4ac655fe7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [title] ‘Mello’s responsible for Spaziano’s life’ [subtitle] Roger Parloff is a senior writer at The American Lawyer. This article is reprinted, with permission, from the April 1996 issue. “If this court intends to kill this innocent man by depriving him of the effective assistance of counsel,” pro bono counsel Michael Mello wrote the Florida Supreme Court last Sept. 8, “then it will do so without my complicity. I will not participate in a sham evidentiary hearing.” To stop the machinery of death from claiming his client, Mello threw himself in the gears. By refusing to show up to a hearing for which he had been given a week to prepare and highlighting that, in his opinion, his client was being denied effective assistance of counsel, he shamed the court into granting a stay of execution and time to prepare properly. For years the eccentric Mello, now a professor at Vermont Law School, had written in pleadings, law review articles, and newspaper editorials that his Death Row client, Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spaziano, was innocent. Mello’s writings were always passionate, always verbose, occasionally offensive, and never successful. Spaziano, a member of an Orlando motorcycle gang, was convicted in January 1976 of brutally murdering Laura Harberts, an 18-year-old hospital clerk, who disappeared on Aug. 5, 1973, and whose skeletal remains were discovered in a garbage dump 16 days later. While the case raised numerous perplexing legal issues, the most disturbing was that -- unbeknownst to the jury -- the testimony of the key prosecution witness, a troubled teen drug addict named Anthony DiLisio, consisted almost entirely of hypnotically recovered memories. Although the state Supreme Court later decided that hypnotically induced testimony was so unreliable as to be inadmissible per se, both that court and the federal courts refused to upset Spaziano’s conviction, since his trial lawyer had never objected to DeLisio’s testimony on those grounds. Indeed, his trial lawyer chose not to let the jury know that DeLisio’s testimony was hypnotically induced, fearing that the jury might give it undue credence if it knew. While Spaziano’s fourth execution warrant was pending in June 1995, DeLisio, now a born-again Christian, recanted his testimony, Gov. Lawton Chiles briefly stayed Spaziano’s execution to investigate the recantation, but in late August he issued a fifth warrant, claiming that a report by state investigators -- which Chiles refused to make public -- established the recantation was false. Spaziano was to die Sept. 21. On Sept. 8 Mello went to the Supreme Court seeking a stay of execution and an evidentiary hearing concerning the recantation. The court granted the hearing but refused to order a stay of execution. Instead, by a 4-to-3 vote, the court ordered Mello, an appellate lawyer with very little trial experience, no associates, and no investigator, to handle an evidentiary hearing one week later, on Sept. 15. The court also ordered the state’s Office of Capital Collateral Representative -- a public defender’s office devoted to capital post-conviction appeals -- to assist Mello. Mello refused to comply. “We would have thrown a hearing together,” he says, “put on enough evidence so that (the justices could say), ‘Yeah, you had your hearing,’ we would have lost, the [trial-level] judge would have made killer fact-finding against us, and . . . Joe would have been dead on time and as scheduled.” In a handwritten fax sent from his motel to the Supreme Court on the night of Sept. 8, Mello just said No. He wrote, among other things, that he and CCR could not provide competent assistance with just six days’ preparation. Mello also pledged that he would not surrender his 25 boxes of case files to CCR or to any other attorney in time for the hearing. “If you are going to kill an innocent man without a lawyer,” he wrote, “you will do so in such a way that the whole world will see what you are doing. . . . I will not be your mask.” The high court blinked. On Sept. 12 it threw Mello off the case but granted Spaziano a stay. Then, in January, after new pro bono attorneys at 470-lawyer Holland & Knight took over the case -- and the Supreme Court allowed them almost three months to prepare -- Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton Jr., of Sanford, overturned Spaziano’s conviction and granted a new trial. “Mike Mello’s responsible for Joe Spaziano’s life,” says H&K partner Gregg Thomas, who handled the hearing with his partner Stephen Hanlon and Orlando-based criminal specialist James Russ. Holland & Knight donated about $400,000 in lawyer time and $70,000 in costs to handle the hearing, Thomas estimates, not counting Russ’s time. The state has appealed Judge Eaton’s ruling to the Florida Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Spaziano is still serving life for the 1971 rape and battery of a 16-year-old girl. Mello believes Spaziano is innocent of that charge as well. But as Mello says, “that’s another story.” [Break of text] Judge Eaton overturned Spaziano’s conviction and granted a new trial. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Kurtz, Logan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 'Mello's responsible for Spaziano's life' Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Parloff, Roger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Subject The topic of the resource Spaziano, Joe Mello, Michael Description An account of the resource Michael Mello successfully argued for Joe Spaziano to receive a fair trial by refusing to show up to a hearing for which he had been given a week to prepare and highlighting that Spaziano was being denied effective assistance of counsel, he shamed the court into granting a stay of execution and time to prepare properly. Though Mello himself was thrown off of the case, this action allowed for Spaziano to have a new trial. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-04 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Roger Parloff, The New York Times, 1996. Reprint, The American Laywer, April 1996. Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/ae7798ab0914fe709e5f1966242d532a.jpg be7939f2053af724d903f9081bcfbf08 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [Start of Article] [Heading] Fired For Saving His Client's Life [Start of Column One] "IF THIS COURT INtends to kill this innocent man by depriving him of the effective assistance of counsel," pro bono counsel Michael Mello wrote the Florida Supreme Court last September 8, "then it will do so without my complicity. I will not participate in a sham evidentiary 'hearing.'" To stop the machinery of death from claiming his client, Mello threw himself in the gears. By refusing to show up for a hearing for which he had been given less than a week to prepare---and highlighting that, in his opinion, his client was being denied effective assistance of counsel---he shamed the court into granting a stay of execution and time to prepare properly. For years the eccentric Mello now a professor at Vermont Law School ["When Worlds Collide," June 1995], had written in pleadings, law review articles, and newspaper editorials that his death row client, Joseph "Crazy Joe" Spaziano, was innocent. Mello's writings were always passionate, always verbose, occasionally offensive, and never successful. Spaziano, a member of an Orlando motorcycle gang, was [End of Column One] [Start of Column Two] convicted in January 1976 of brutally murdering Laura Harberts, an 18-year-old hospital clerk, who disappeared on August 5, 1973, and whose skeletal remains were discovered in a garbage dump 16 days later. While the case raised numerous perplexing legal issues, the most disturbing was that---unbeknownst to the jury---the testimony of the key prosecution witness, a troubled teenage drug addict named Anthony DiLisio, consisted almost entirely of hypnotically recovered memories. Although the state supreme court letter decided that hypnotically induced testimony was so unreliable as to be inadmissible per se, both that court and the federal courts refused to upset Spaziano's conviction, since his trial lawyer had never objected to DiLisio's testimony on those grounds. Indeed, his trial lawyer chose not to let the jury know that DiLisio's testimony was hypnotically induced, fearing that the jury might give it undue credence if it knew. While Spaziano's fourth execution warrant was pending in June 1995, DiLisio, now a born-again Christian, recanted his testimony. Governor Law- [End of Column Two] [Start of Column Three] ton Chiles briefly stayed Spaziano's execution to investigate the recantation, but in late August he issued a fifth warrant, claiming that a report by state investigators---which Chilies refused to make public---established that the recantation was false. Spaziano was to die September 21. On September 8 Mello went to the Florida Supreme Court seeking a stay of execution and an evidentiary hearing concerning the recantation. The Court granted the hearing, but refused to order a stay of execution. Instead, by a 4-to-3 vote, the court ordered Mello, an appellate lawyer with very little trial experience, no associates, and no investigator, to handle an evidentiary hearing one week later, on September 15. The court also ordered the state's Office of the Capital Collateral Representative (CCR)---a public defender's office devoted to capital post-conviction appeals---to assist Mello. Mello refused to comply. "We would have thrown a hearing together," he says, "put on enough evidence so that [the justices could say], 'Yeah, you had your hearing,' we would [End of Column Three] [Start of Column Four] [Image: Photograph of Michael Mello] have lost, the [trial-level] judge would have made killer fact-findings against us, and . . . Joe would have been dead on time and as scheduled." In a handwritten fax sent from his motel to the supreme court on the night of September 8, Mello just said no. He wrote, among other things, that he and CCR could not provide competent assistance with just six days' preparation. Mello also pledged that he would not surrender his 25 boxes of case files to CCR or to any other attorney in time for the hearing. "If you are going to kill an innocent man without a lawyer," he wrote, "you will do so in such a way that the whole world will see what you are doing. . . . I will not be your mask." [End of Column Four] [Start of Column Five] The high court blinked. On September 12 it threw Mello off the case, but granted Spaziano a stay. Then, in January, after new pro bono attorneys at 470-lawyer Holland & Knight took over the case---and the supreme court allowed them almost three months to prepare---circuit judge O.H. Eaton, Jr., of Sanford, Florida, overturned Spaziano's conviction and granted a new trial. "Mike Mello's responsible for Joe Spaziano's life," says H&K partner Gregg Thomas, who handled the hearing with his partner Stephen Hanlon and Orlando-based criminal specialist James Russ, Holland & Knight donated about $400,000 in lawyer time and $70,000 in costs to handle the hearing, Thomas estimates, not counting Russ's time. The state has appealed Judge Eaton's ruling to the Florida supreme court. Meanwhile, Spaziano is still serving life for the 1974 rape and battery of a 16-year-old girl. Mello believes Spaziano is innocent of that charge as well. But, as Mello says, "That's another story." ---Roger Parloff [End of Column Five] The American Lawyer April 1996.19 [End of Article] Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Format: Magazine Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Schroeder, Audrey Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Fired For Saving His Client's Life Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Spaziano, Joe Description An account of the resource Michael Mello is fired for trying to save Joseph Spaziano's life. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Parloff, Roger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Language A language of the resource English Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Parloff, Roger. “Fired For Saving His Client's Life.” The American Lawyer, April, 1996, 19. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/dd4b7cecbcbe741e23da57cc64b9a276.jpg 4443a2c4be8e54f4b35250fc8bef3776 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/a874f6476e2df09098ccabc869c4e7f7.jpg 56833d5f9dcb4e3c1ac56cf397deb7ee https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/2e8ac087052af749d881073bac3c6c15.jpg 2556b1b940aeb62e264b522fe1250a09 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY [spacing] Page 19 Citation [spacing] Search Result [spacing] Rank 9 of 63 [spacing] Database 4/14/96 LATIMES 27 [spacing] ALLNEWS 4/14/96 L.A. Times 27 1996 WL 5259955 (Publication page references are not available for this document.) [centered] Los Angeles Times Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 1996 all rights reserved [centered] Sunday, April 14, 1996 [centered] PART-A; Advance Desk [centered] Parents Jailed for Refusing to Testify Against Son, 25; Courts: Vermont couple cite 'parent-child privilege' to justify silence at rape case inquest. [centered] WILSON RING [centered] ASSOCIATED PRESS Arthur and Geneva Yandow have gone to jail in hopes of keeping their son out of one. The couple refuse to testify at a prosecutor's inquest in a rape case in which the suspect is their 25-year-old son. The Yandows claim that "parent-child privilege" gives them the legal and moral authority to refuse. So far, the courts and the couple's church disagree. "My clients are absolutely adamant that they will not testify," lawyer Paul Volk said Wednesday. "They believe morally and based on their religious values they will not destroy their family and betray their son." Craig Yandow, who lives with his parents and works in his father's construction business, has not been charged in the Feb. 14 attack, in which a woman was raped, beaten and left in the cold, unconscious and half-naked. A jacket identical to the one the younger Yandow owns--blue, with "Saint John's Bay" on the back--was found at the scene. Also, Yandow had injuries "consistent with those a rapist would sustain from a struggling victim," prosecutors said in court papers. District Judge Edward Cashman jailed the Yandows on March 28 for contempt of court after the couple refused his order to testify. There is no limit to how long they can be held. The judge set a hearing for April 27. Once it becomes clear that jail won't change their minds, the [end page one] [begin page two] judge will have to release them, Volk said. Prosecutors have not said what they hope to learn from the couple. Craig Yandow's attorney, Andrew Mikell, refused to answer questions about the case of say where his client is now. "He is concerned about his parents' situation," Mikell said. "Until he is charged, it's tough for me to do or say anything." The state Supreme Court ruled 5 to 0 last month that, because Craig Yandow is a competent adult, his parents cannot claim parent-child privilege. Similarly, the Rev Walter Miller, a canon lawyer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, which includes all of Vermont, said no church doctrine would allow the Yandows to refuse to help prosecutors. If the couple were to ask their parish priest for advice, only one answer would be possible, he said: "you'd be telling them to cooperate. This son of theirs is not a child." But Volk said the Supreme Court ignored a number of legal precedents to the contrary. And he pointed out a section of the Catholic Church's catechism that lays out family responsibilities: "The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order." Volk said legal precedents in his favor include a 1979 case in which a court in New York state suppressed grand jury testimony of the father of a 23-year-old vehicular homicide suspect, citing parent-child privilege. But Vermont prosecutors said in court papers that it appeared that New York's highest court overruled that decision in a separate 1994 case. They said courts nationwide "have overwhelmingly rejected parent-child privilege." "Nearly all have concluded that the legal system's demand for truth, especially in a criminal proceeding, should not yield to a family's momentary desire for loyalty or harmony," prosecutors told Vermont's high court. Michael Mello, a constitutional law professor at the Vermont Law School, said parent-child privilege is an unusual argument. "It presents both dimensions of a fairly new, very interesting and extremely foundational question: the legitimacy of whether there is in fact parent-child privilege," Mello said. "Even if there is not, can a parent's refusal to become a police informant against her son [result in her being] incarcerated indefinitely? It's a family values issue." [centered] ---- INDEX REFERENCE S---- STORY ORIGIN: WILLISTON, VT. NEWS CATEGORY: WIRE REGION: United States (US) EDITION: BULLDOG EDITION Word Count: 605 4/14/96 LATIMES 27 END OF DOCUMENT Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Weinstein, Samuel Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Parents Jailed for Refusing to Testify Against Son Subject The topic of the resource Court Case Parent-Child Privilege Punishment Description An account of the resource A description of the consequences faced by the parents of a man on trial for rape. The parents refused to testify against their son citing parent-Child Privilege. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ring, Wilson Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Ring, Wilson. "Parents Jailed for Refusing to Testify Against Son, 25; Courts: Vermont couple cite 'parent-child privilege' to justify silence at rape case inquest." L.A. Times. April 14, 1996, 3. Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-04-14 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 3 JPGs 300 DPI Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Williston, VT court case Michael Mello Parent-Child Privilege rape https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/927306cb3181277414fb3d5601f72744.jpg db01384ce48841a168d99de80e5aa034 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Lee, Tessa Text Any textual data included in the document <span style="font-size: medium;">[title] Parent-child privilege has little precedent</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">By Mike Donoghue Free Press Staff Witter</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Arthur and Geneva <span class="mceItemHidden"><span class="hiddenSpellError" pre="">Yandow</span></span> faced an uphill battle when they asserted that as parents they <span class="mceItemHidden"><span class="hiddenGrammarError" pre="">should not be</span></span> forced to testify against their son, a rape suspect.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">No state recognize the privilege, but a Vermont Law School professor said they should hold their ground and appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Professor Michael Mello knows the parent-child issue well. He helped defend a woman who refused to tell a Washington, D.C., court the whereabouts of her daughter. The mother suspected her divorce husband of molesting the child during court order visits. The mother went to jail in August 1987 for two years <span class="mceItemHidden"><span class="hiddenGrammarError" pre="">rather then</span></span> have her 9-year-old daughter visit her father.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Courts recognize that some people have special rights when it comes to certain communications. They include doctor-patient, priest-confessor, counselor-client, journalist-source, lawyer-client, and husband-wife. Some <span class="mceItemHidden"><span class="hiddenGrammarError" pre="">are based</span></span> on common law, and others <span class="mceItemHidden"><span class="hiddenGrammarError" pre="">are based</span></span> on state laws.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">There appears <span class="mceItemHidden"><span class="hiddenGrammarError" pre="">to be</span></span> little support in the courts to extend husband-wife privilege to parent-child, Burlington lawyer Noah Paley said. Paley, who also has an interest in medical-confidentiality issues, noted that in cases involving doctors, counselors or lawyers, the person is seeking a professional service.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Dr. Arnold <span class="mceItemHidden"><span class="hiddenSpellError" pre="">Golodetz</span></span> pf the Vermont Ethics Network agreed. He noted that a husband-wife or parent-child privilege is not based on a <span class="mceItemHidden">commercial</span> relationship.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Jane Kirtley of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said journalists have a constitutional protection under the First Amendment.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">"Journalism is the <span class="mceItemHidden">one</span> <span class="mceItemHidden">business</span> protected by the <span class="mceItemHidden">Constitution</span>," the Arlington, Va., lawyer said.</span> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Parent-child privilege has little precedent Subject The topic of the resource Parents should not have to testify against children committed crimes in court. Description An account of the resource No state recognize the child/parent privilege when it comes to testifying in court cases. Many argue they should appeal to the Supreme Court. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donoghue, Mike Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Donoghue, Mike. "parent-child privilege has little precedence." The Burlington Free Press Newspaper, March 29, 1996. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-03-29 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 jpg 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/8c7cb7a9c78e95163e358f4944bd188f.jpg a710c7f0a20da86ab6901ee74e52ca7a https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/cf676fc68b73c86c67287ec3a42d03e5.jpg 7f100938c8657e10003e97ee89aaf9ad https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/b1d476a5fd7e114d2a78345dda13c92b.jpg 9a0d75bdb2eb91157f7edf2422c24f5d https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/5c12fe34288d9b6a16ec29e2cfd0f227.jpg 25a87680b848411e215304483ed8fbda https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/80eb0bc18f327a4e673bcd31850fdaa4.jpg 7aaa9c1923d26fac1ea5e67653727b3a https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/4d4da5b4700debcf242f6b71b4261161.jpg a9302b1ddd8d48715cae21fabd73cdf5 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/979e111bdec39d30ca5d7cc8b2bae431.jpg 458cb6261108050abf5c2832f172c561 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/c61aaeed3d162b0c040d06952ae04cea.jpg 9c1da7152fa7a68e487338fee294d8cc Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [Page 1] Cover Story/Page 8<br />[title]Current Events<br />[subtitle] This is Florida's electric chair. And here is the story of how two newsperps fought over wheter a man dervered to die in it [End Page 1]<br /><br />[Page 2]<br />[title]Current Events<br />[subtitle] Orlando's hometown newspaper thinks a killer might get off because The Miami Herald crusaded on his behalf. Whose truth is right?<br /><br />On Jan, 22, a Seminole County circuit judge granted Joseph "Crazy Joe" Spaziano a new trial on a 20- year-old conviction for murder. The ruling, now on appeal, capped an eight-month legal [crusade] and presumably shocked readers who followed the story in The Orlando Sentinel. <br /><br />Those who read The Miami Herald, however, were likely less surprised. Indeed, the two papers' competing, sometimes conflicting reports carried over into editorials following Judge O.H. Eaton Jr.'s ruling. "Justice awakens," crowed the Herald. “Justice clearly cheated,” huffed the Sentinel.&nbsp;<br /><br />Who was right? <br /><br />In a way, both. A Herald reporter and editors read Spaziano's trial transcript, passed it off to experts, and [concluded] that the state's star wit- ness against Spaziano, Tony DİLisio, lied when he told a jury here in 1976 that Spaziano had shown him two bodies in a dump. The Herald's reporting raised the idea that DiLisio's original testimony sprang from a suggestive hypnotist, and that he was fed details by authorities who may have promised him lighter punishment for juvenile crimes. The Herald also [resurrected] DiLisio's past with an abusive father and a stepmother Who had some kind of sexual [page end] <br /><br />[page start] relationship with Spaziano, and therefore every motive to use their sons as a way to get back at him. To the question of whether Spaziano received a fair trial based on the paper [concluded] no. <br /><br />But the Sentinel countered with reports from law [enforcement] experts and others, includ- ing the former “old lady" of the once fearsome biker Spaziano, plus two of his brothers, who say Spaziano was involved in other murders and rapes. Darcy Fauss, who lived with Spaziano for about 18 months when he was on the lam, described him to the Sentinel as a sadistic gang enforcer who kept her in virtual slavery. To the question of whether Spaziano is a killer, some former associates say yes. Yet his only conviction for [murder] has now been reversed, and a new trial ordered.<br /><br />The discrediting of DiLisio creates a huge burden for the state to make its case again. But just as difficult is the question that served as undercurrent to the recent coverage: Can Florida afford to put a vicious thug back on the street because prosecu- tors and police did a poor job 20 years ago? Conversely, can Florida afford a standard [justice] that would execute a man based on dubious, and perhaps concocted, evidence? <br /><br />Together, the two papers did an unparalleled job of exploring the complex underpinnings of a death row case. Separately, [however], each paper subtly snubbed the truths reported by their rival, to their readers' detriment. “Orlando Sentinel readers who picked up the Herald on any given day were probably [confused]," posits Ron Sachs, until recently a spokesman for Gov. Chiles, who had signed Spaziano's execution order. <br /><br />If the Sentinel and the Herala competed directly for readers—a once common fact only rarely seen among newspapers today—the Spaziano case would have boosted the circulation of both and fomented a lively debate among readers across their [coverage] area. But because each paper dominates in its own [market], nobody except news [professionals] and elites like Sachs saw the alternative arguments. <br /><br />As efforts to deregulate [communications] hit their stride and leave ever-diminishing circles for competing viewpoints, the Herald-Sentinel contest serves as a parable of sorts for the age of media monopolies<br /><br />Lori Rozsa of the Herald says she took the assignment to check up on the Spaziano case. because it was her turn. <br /><br />Spaziano was only weeks away from his scheduled execution June 27 in the electric chair for killing Laura Harberts, an 18- year-old Orlando hospital clerk. A reinterview of DiLisio, his accuser, would be a routine part of Rozsa's job. <br /><br />"I totally expected him to say I stand by my story; leave me alone," Rozsa says. <br /><br />But DiLisio said he didn't remember his testimony of 20 years earlier. Rozsa didn't believe him. "I kept saying, 'How could you not remember your testimony in a murder case?" <br /><br />Rozsa returned several times to DiLisio's North Florida home with more questions. Finally DiLisio cracked. He said he had made up his testimony against Spaziano, then a member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang, at the urging of police. Suddenly the Herald had a major story. <br /><br />Suddenly all hell broke loose.<br /><br />Along with supportive [editorials] in the St. Petersburg Times, the Herald's coverage caused Chiles to stay the execution. He then ordered the Florida Depart- ment of Law Enforcement to investigate even as Spaziano's Lawyers pushed for a new trial and all before the Sentinel ran a [page end] <br /><br />[page start] single, locally reported place on what should have been, for them, a local story. <br /><br />The FDLE review convinced Chiles to sign another death war- rant. But the Florida Supreme Court ordered a hearing on DILASIO's wavering. Herald edito- rials called for a new trial, while it's news coverage questioned the FDLE report's accuracy. The Sentinel, investigating on its own, lamented the slow pace death penalty justice in its edito- rials and began running stories attacking DiLisio. <br /><br />The newspapers even sniped at one another's reporters. <br /><br />The competition had been sparked in early summer, when Michael Mello, a Vermont law professor who was then Spaziano's lawyer, began urging Gene Miller, a Herald editor, look at the case. For 19 years Spaziano had languished on death row, despite four death warrants. His case had been reviewed 16 times, including once by the U.S. Supreme Court. <br /><br />Miller, who had won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting that overturned another death row conviction, was intrigued. No physical evidence tied Spaziano to Harbert's death and, indeed, the body was so decomposed by the time it was discovered that medical examiners could not even fix a cause of death. Another body found at the same site has never been identified. <br /><br />More troubling was this: Tony DILisio, a 17-year-old acid haad and biker wannabe at the [page end] [page start] Miami cop and founding chair- time of the trial, had been hyp- notized by the same man who had elicited tainted testimony in the earlier overturned case. The Florida Supreme Court banned the use of hypnosis-enhanced testimony in 1985, saying it was inherently unreliable. But the ruling was not retroactive. <br /><br />Mello sent the case file to Miller, who in turn shared it with Warren Holmes, an ex- man of the American Polygraph Association's case review com- mittee. Having read hundreds of murder cases in his 40-year career, Holmes bills himself as an expert in sniffing out perjury, and claims to have worked on major cases from the John F. Kennedy assassination to the William Kennedy Smith rape trial. "I got the file and read it over Memorial Day weekend," he says. "I went back and said DILisio lied through his teeth and they should look into it." <br />And so they did. <br /><br />Mello had written a fiery op ed piece pleading for a new trial, and Miller called friends at the Sentinel and The St. Petersburg Times and asked them to run it as well. It appeared in all three on June 4-seven days before the Herald's first report. <br /><br />"We ran the original plece that Mello wrote," says John Halle, vice president and editor of the Sentinel, But the piece arrived too late for Sentinel editors to confirm its veracity. "We did some research," Haile says. "We wanted a of another point of view, and then we wanted to do a little poking around." <br /><br />The result of the Sentinel's poking, published a month after Mello's op-ed piece and in the midst of the FDLE investigation, was a July 2 story that ques- tioned the assertion by Spaziano's supporters that he was a veritable martyr, and delved into DiLisio's claims to be reformed alcoholic and born- again Christian who had straightened out his life. 64 [page end] <br /><br />[page start] A former state attorney pro- nounced Spaziano "a cold-heart- ed killer," while a check on DILisio found nine Florida arrests, two recent DUIS and a pending court date for stalking. În short, the reformed DiLisio did not appear to be anyone's paragon of veracity and stability. <br /><br />Then again, the Herald never claimed he was. <br /><br />"The guy's a flake," says John Pancake, the Herald state editor who helped direct Rozsa's reporting. "The question is, do you want to send a man to the chair based on the word of a flake? He's not a [page end] [page start] witness for Spaziano; he's a wit- ness for the state. If he is unreli- able, it's the state's problem." <br /><br />Mello refused to talk to the Sentinel after its report. “In my view," he wrote in a fax after Chiles refused Spaziano's request for clemency, "you are an accomplice to murder." <br /><br />With the FDLE report and the governor's refusal, the tle lines were drawn: The Herald would bolster DİLisio's retreat and denigrate both the original investigation and the FDLE report; the Sentinel, with the help of police sources, would blast away both at DiLisio and Spaziano, suggesting the jailed biker is in fact a serial killer without portfolio. <br /><br />"The Orland Sentinel was trying to answer one question: Is 'Crazy Joe' Spaziano a bad guy?" says the Herald's Pancake. "We were trying to answer, 'Did he get a fair trial?" <br /><br />Sentinel editor Haile denies his paper's aim was to paint Spaziano one way or the other. "From the beginning there was just one issue in the case: Is Tony DiLisio telling the truth?" he says. "Everything else had&nbsp;<br /><br />The Sentinel reported DiLisio was being pressured by the Outlaws to change his testimo- ny, and that he was a publicity seeker who may have recanted with an eye toward a book deal.<br /><br />Investigating DiLislo was a duty, Halle says, as was reminding readers what the Outlaws- and Spaziano in particular did and were capable of doing at the time Harberts disappeared. <br /><br />All coverage might have ended with the new Sept. 21 execu- tion date, but for what happened next. Mello obtained a deposition from DILisio in which he, for the first time, recanted under oath. Based on that, the state Supreme Court on Sept. 8 ordered a new hear ing. And Spaziano was spared again. <br /><br />Now things got weird. The FDLE report, which all but doomed Spaziano, was leaked sub- stantially to the Sentinel but minimally to other news out- lets. It con- tained all sorts of evidence not available in the original trial, including state- ments from sev- eral jailhouse snitches. Sealed by the governor's office allegedly to protect the safety of witnesses, the report would never be tested in court. Both the Sentinel and the Herald called for its release But the Herald was unable to speak to its major sources. Prosecutors "wanted to try that case in the Sentinel," gripes James Russ, the Orlando attor ney who replaced Mello as Spaziano's lead counsel. "And In the Sentinel they found a willing participant." <br /><br />The Herald attacked some of the reports' claims, like the one that said Spaziano had likely killed at least two other bikers in Chicago while he was on the run from Florida police. That case had been closed years ago with- out prosecution but with anoth- er suspect, the Herald reported.<br /><br />And as for the notion that DILisio still fears the Outlaws, "why did he have a listed phone [page end] <br /><br />[page start] from Mello, the attorney.<br /><br />The Sentinel reponded by reporting that Chicago police had reopened their 20-year-old murder case. Holmes, the Herald's expert, is doubtful. "Do they have people out actually interviewing people?" he scoffa, The FDLE report, he says, "offered all kinds of witnesses they did not produce in court. They Just assumed axiomatically the guy was guilty as hell." &nbsp;<br /><br />But there were questions raised about journalism ethics as well. Miller, the Herald editor, had sent a lengthy letter to Chiles in August, pleading for him to meet with Mello's wit- nesses while he mulled Spaziano's bid for clemency. The letter went through Sachs, then the governor's press officer. Sentinel editorials later cited letter to suggest the Herald was in bed with Spaziano's team. <br /><br />But the letter doesn't concern Sachs so much as what he regards as close ties between Miller and Mello at the project's beginning. "I think some stan- dards of journalism were breached," Sachs says. "The roots of the Herald's involvement were not properly planted." <br /><br />Although Halle insists there- was no war, Pancake recalls that a Chicago Tribune reporter enlisted by the Herald for help was quickly called off the case. The Herald is a Knight-Ridder paper, the Tribune is the flagship of the Tribune Co., which owns the Sentinel. (The Chicago writer eventually was listed as a con- tributor to a Sentinel report.)<br /><br />"Reporters and editors involved in both newspapers were not detached, were not objective," contends Sachs. They were determined on a sec- ondary level to prove each other wrong. I think there is gomepro- fessional pride in that, but I also think there is a danger in that kind of case, that maybe a side bar that should be written is nbt assigned because it might defuse the boom."<br /><br />The boom in this case is the new trial for Spaziano, a trial in which evidence is long gone and witnesses, their memories cloud- ed by time, can easily be Impeached. Herald editorials have said that Spaziano likely will remain behind bars for the rest of his life anyway, based on his eariler conviction in the rape of an Orlando teen. <br /><br />But the Heraldla Investigal- Ing the rape trial as well. Among the problems: The young victim failed to pick Spaziano from a lineup at first, and had described her attacker as having red hair and no tattoos: Spaziano has black hair and many tattoos And the main prosecution wit- ness was Tony DILisio. <br /><br />The court ruling gave the Herald its first victory. "The judge said he believed DILisio now," says Haile. "Reasonable people can disagree."<br /><br />But the question of whether justice won is still open. Holmes is convinced that Spaziano was a victim of anti-biker hysteria, which the Sentinel shamelessly renewed in its recent coverage. He says a close reading of the trial transcript leaves only the conclusion that Spaziano didn't get a fair trial. "They don't understand the margin of error in the criminal justice system." he says of the Sentinel, "To assume someone's guilty because they were found guilty is absurd. There is a legal truth and there is an absolute truth. They don't always coincide." <br /><br />Haile would probably agree. Evidence that is good enough for a news story may never stand in court, and Orlando now faces the prospect of Crazy Joe Spaziano, aging biker socialized by 20 years on death row, back on the streets. "It's really frus- trating," Haile says. "Here you have a case that's been lying around for 20 years, and now you're going to have a new trial? Gimme a break. You can't go back and find justice. <br /><br />The Herald's coverage was challenged on several occasions, most abruptly during the hear- ing that preceded Judge Eaton's ruling when its former associate editor, Tony Proscio, was approached by Sentinel reporter Jim Leusner, who asked, "Has the Herald lost its objectivity?"<br /><br />Proscio, who left the Herald this year, subsequently offered an impassioned defense of his paper and its viewpaint. "Does Florida dare-does any decent Society dare-to electrocute a human being based on a trial like the one they gave Joe SpazianD 20 years ago?" he wrote in a Jan. 21 op-ed plece. "And if so, why bother with trials at all?"<br /><br />Not included in Proscio's nar- rative, Sentinel staffers note, was the context: When Leusner asked his question, Proscio had just stepped down from the stand where he had been called to testify in Spaziano's defense. <br /><br />But Proscio's question still holds, and it leads to another, ane regarding the fundamental purpose and duty of the press. If the justice system falls, then what is a newspaper's duty? <br /><br />The danger in today's con- stricting media world comes from the assumption that painstaking objectivity -an excellent business strategy-also makes for excellent journalism. <br /><br />The Spaziano coverage by either the Sentinel or the Herald 10 puts the lie to that theory. Other newspapers can claim to have maintained their objectivity. But they can't claim to have made a difference. Or saved a life. <br /><br />[page end] Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Spage, Wyatt Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Current Events Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Orlando (Fla.)--Maps Journalism False testimony Hypnotism Description An account of the resource The rivalry between two newspapers over the guilt or innocence of Joey Spaziano leads to a new trail, of a case that's over twenty years old. In the end, Justice won over newspaper sales. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ericsson Jr., Edward Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Orlando Weekly Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996, February, 15-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 8 JPGS 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Orlando, Florida https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/204aed956b04804aada2a76518a7594f.jpg 6d0f1d4eca027e7ddfc11a75371898cd https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/985c07f1d81966dff36be5a0a9321b10.jpg 5753edd614da6695a4a9284d8023a313 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/bda501f94636f18686148f9b4d577816.jpg 7fd600142c831c906e40f90e066cf1d2 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/87dc1ec7990b098cbfa3750c162f3e24.jpg 50139152ca09f8cdf361567711e13a03 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/fe87881528d5c2a87742ed67bbeead64.jpg b1b0ad0b2971185cd39d9475f4a24947 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/01131e76dc7cd734ab4dcf2defb1f6fc.jpg b061491d8aaf4db254df82ef6d548499 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/e4ce7eb943d1d38ec9b311c45bad3e6a.jpg 0ea421190d0883c842cc83b1bf2e59a7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document <p><span>[title]Executing Justice [title]<br /><br />[subtitle] Vermont Law School Professor Gives Death Row Inmate New Lease on Life [subtitle]<br /><br />[Image of Michael Mello]<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span>[Caption] Michael Mello sits in his home office in Wilder surrounded by paperwork he has prepared in the case of Florida inmate Joseph Spaziano and mementos from his life as a death-penalty lawyer and professor. [Caption]<br /><br />They call his client "Crazy Joe" Spaziano. Vermont Law School Professor Michael Mello calls him a friend. He also calls him innocent.<br /><br />For more than a dozen years, ever since he began arguing Spaziano's case as a fledgling public defender, Mello has fought to bring those claims of innocence to light.<br /><br />[Images of Spaziano and Mello]<br /><br />[Caption] Spaziano is shown in a family snapshot (left) before his imprisonment. A later photo (right) shows an older Spaziano in a Florida prison. Spaziano, an artist and longtime member of a motorcycle gang, gave this oil painting to Mello (below) about a decade ago. [Caption]&nbsp;<br /><br />The case went before 26 different judges and was played out in at least 17 different court hearings. "Not a single judge in a single court ever took a look at the issue of evidence," Mello said.<br /><br />Until this fall.<br /><br />Now, the case Mello calls "too bizarre to work as fiction" may finally be drawing toward an end. Spaziano was recently granted a new trial after nearly two decades on Florida's death row.<br /><br />Sitting on a couch in his Wilder home, clad in a black jersey and jeans, Mello chain-smoked his way through a handful of Camel cigarettes as he told Spaziano's story. The narration rolled his tongue with easy familiarity as he pulled through a carved cigarette holder.<br /><br />Joseph Spaziano, now 50, was born into a working-class Italian family in upstate New York. His "crazy" behavior came, in part, from permanent brain damage he suffered after being hit by a truck at the age of 19. Originally a member of the Hell's Angels, Spaziano joined and ultimately became president of a different gang, called the Outlaws, after moving to Florida as a young man. It was there, in 1973, that an 18-year-old Orlando hospital clerk named Laura Lynn Harberts disappeared. Her decomposed body was found several weeks later in a Seminole County dump.<br /><br />Two years after Harberts' death, police turned their sights on Spaziano, who had a string of criminal convictions on his record- including a recent rape. Spaziano was indicted in September 1975, and convicted at trial in early 1976. No physical evidence ever linked Spaziano to the crime. The key witness, Tony DiLisio, was a teenager who had to be put under hypnosis repeatedly before recalling, in increasing detail, incriminating statements Spaziano allegedly made about the killing. Jurors did not hear about the hypnosis, but reportedly were still concerned about DiLisio's reliability and hence recommended a life sentence. The judge, noting the rape conviction on Spaziano's record, overrode the jury's wishes and gave Spaziano death.<br /><br />Later, the Florida Supreme Court would decide hypnosis was not a reliable way to produce evidence in a case. The ruling came too late for Spaziano.<br /><br />It also was revealed after trial that prosecutors knew of other evidence pointing suspicion away from Spaziano, including a witness who tied a different suspect to the scene of the murder- a man who had failed several lie-detector tests during the investigation.<br /><br />Despite that and more, Florida has five times tried to send Spaziano to the electric chair. If not for Mello, he would probably already be dead.<br /><br /><strong>Choosing A Path</strong><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span>Mello, now 38, grew up in Virginia, where he saw the play "Inherit the Wind" in high school and was inspired toward a career as either a journalist or a lawyer. Fearing his writing skills would not support the former, Mello said, he pursued a law degree, graduating from the University of Virginia in 1982.<br /><br />His first job turned out to be the one that piqued his interest in capital punishment. Serving as one of the three law clerks for Judge Robert Vance of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Alabama, Mello found himself assigned to review the judge's capital punishment cases.<br /><br />Mello said he was "a little disappointed" in the assignment "for about the first 20 minutes." Then, he said, he read into the pile and discovered that many death-penalty appeals raise constitutional issues. "By the end of that afternoon I was delighted I was going to be Vance's 'death clerk'," he said.<br /><br />One case in particular from that time period haunts him, Mello said. Ivan Ray Stanley was a retarded man on death row in Georgia of being the right-hand man in "a fairly hideous crime," Mello said. Stanley's co-defendant also appealed but had a better lawyer. When the scales of justice weighed out, Stanley went to his death. His co-defendant remained on death row.<br /><br />"I finished my clerkship with a good deal of liberal guilt not only for my role in the Stanley case but for death penalty cases in general," Mello said.<br /><br />Although he had a lucrative job offer from a private firm, Mello remained interested in trying his hand at death penalty cases in general," Mello said.<br /><br />Although he had a lucrative job offer from a private firm, Mello remained interested in trying his hand at death penalty cases in general," Mello said.<br /><br />Although he had a lucrative jon offer firm a private firm, Mello remained interested in trying his hand at death penalty work. He took a detour from his intended career path and signed on as a public defender in West Palm Beach, Fla., handling death-row appeals for that region.<br /><br />Mello's first death penalty filing was a 1983 legal brief to the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to decide whether it was right for the judge to override the jury's recommended sentence in Spaziano's case. The brief does not bear Mello's name because he had not yet passed the bar examination.<span class="apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><br /><br />The Supreme Court ruled against Spaziano on the issue, but Mello then began to dig into the case in earnest, meeting with Spaziano's lawyers, speaking with DiLisio and reviewing the evidence presented at trial. At that point, he and his client had not met face-to-face. They first did so in the summer of 1984. In preparation, Mello read the Hunter S. Thompson book "Hell's Angels" to prepare for what he might find. He jokingly described the pair's first<br /><br /><strong>Justice&nbsp;</strong><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span>Continued from Page 19<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span>could avoid the June death warrant."<br /><br />In the face of the new evidence, Chiles stayed the execution for two weeks and ordered an internal law enforcement investigation of DiLisio's claims,<br /><br />The investigation, which the governor then sealed, concluded that DiLisio's change of heart was not reliable. The delay, however, had lasted until the start of the state Supreme Court's summer break, staving off a new execution order until fall.<br /><br />It also gave the Miami Herald time to dig further into the case. “Then they started coming up with all sorts of stuff," Mello said.<br /><br />"Watching a major, big-city newspaper with the resources to investigate the case the way I always wished I had the resources to investigate was a pleasure for me to watch," he said.<br /><br />Media interest in the case snowballed. It was featured, among other places, in newspapers throughout Florida, became the topic of syndicated columns, reports in The Nation, The New Republic, The Economist and a segment of the ABC nightly news.<br /><br />When the Florida Supreme Court returned from summer break in late August, Spaziano's fifth death warrant came out.<br /><br />Mello filed for a new stay of execution. The Supreme Court gave Spaziano a stay on his 50th birthday-Sept. 12. It also ordered a hearing in the case.<br /><br />Mello balked, however, at the fact that he had only days to prepare. He also had just maxed out his last credit card- part of an estimated $15,000 in out-of-pocket expenses he said he had spent on the case.<br /><br />In a brash letter to the court, he refused to go forward. "There was no way on earth I could be ready."<br /><br />The court took his refusal as his resignation from the case. Mello enlisted a private firm to defend Spaziano, who in turn signed on an experienced criminal defense lawyer. The new defense team was allowed more time to prepare for the hearing.<br /><br />After six days of testimony in January, Spaziano won his new trial- a decision Mello had felt was "virtually impossible" so late in the game.<br /><br />Circuit Judge O. H. Eaton Jr. wrote in his opinion that he found DiLisio's recantation credible, and added that without DiLisio's original testimony, "there simply &nbsp;is no corroborating evidence in the trail record that is sufficient to sustain the verdict."<br /><br />The judge ordered a new trial to begin in late March.&nbsp;<br /><br />That date, however, has been postponed while prosecutors appeal the new trail order, Mello said. They contend DiLisio has nothing to lose by changing &nbsp;his story now and is simply seeking publicity.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Spaziano has been moved off of death row and back into the general prison population for the first time since his sentencing.<br /><br />He is no longer confined to a cell most of the day, can place telephone calls more easily and has more ready access to art supplies for cartooning, his hobby and talent.<br />&nbsp;<br />What Spaziano most wanted Mello to know, however, when he first called, was that he was surrounded as they spoke by seven members of the Outlaws who would protect him in prison.&nbsp;<br /><br />Mello said Spaziano's ties to the biker group had provided a continuity that had "kept him going."&nbsp;<br /><br />"He loves those people... and the ones I've gotten to know love him too." In fact, Spaziano had won permission to wear the club's T-shirt if his execution was carried out in the fall.<br /><br />Spaziano has seen 21 people on Florida's death row killed since executions resumed in 1977. "Two or three" of those were friends, according to Mello.<br /><br />He has a 23-year-old daughter and three grandchildren who can't remember when he was not in jail.<br /><br /><strong>Question the System</strong><b><br /><br /></b>Meanwhile, the Vermont lawyer who said Spaziano "is fond of saying that he and I grew up together" has reached a milestone in his own career.<br /><br />He has decided that Spaziano's case will not only be his first death penalty appeal but also his last.<br /><br />"To function efficiently as a defense lawyer in capital punishment as a legal system you need to have more faith and more trust in the judiciary &nbsp;and the prosecution and the others in the legal system than I have after working on the Joe Spaziano case," Mello said.<br /><br />"The system would have killed Spaziano in a heartbeat. ...If that's how the system treats people who are innocent, then that isn't a system I can continue to participate in good faith."<br /><br />"Lots of people have said to me, "The system finally worked,' and that is so wrong, because the system didn't work-the legal system was forced, kicking and screaming every minute of the way, into doing right in this case," Mello said.<br /><br />Mello said he planned to engage in what he called "conscientious abstention." He will continue to write and speak about death penalty issues, as well as teach a death penalty seminar as part of his course load at the law school. Students in his fall 1995 seminar helped prepare U.S. Supreme Court appeals in Spaziano's case.<br /><br />His book on the capital punishment dissents of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan is due out soon. Two other manuscripts are in the works, and he is toying with writing a book about Spaziano's case.<br /><br />"It's a hell of a story," he said.<br /><br />The next step for Spaziano, Mello said, is an appeal of his prior rape conviction- which he contends was also falsely pinned on his client. The same Florida lawyer who handled the January hearing has agreed to take the lead in the rape case as well.<br /><br />If that succeeds along with the murder appeal, Spaziano could be released from prison.<br /><br />Mello said he was considering what would happen to Spaziano then, and had come up with an answer.<br /><br />He gestures with his glasses toward the staircase behind him.<br /><br />"The guest room upstairs," is his answer.<br /><br />A visitor might be inclined to think he's kidding, but he's not.<br /><br />"We've got to get him out of Florida, where every law enforcement officer and every prosecutor will be salivating to nail him again."<br /><br />He said he had no concerns about making such an offer to "Crazy Joe."<br /><br />"I would trust Joe with my life, as he trusted me with his."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p></p> Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Executing Justice Subject The topic of the resource Spaziano, Joe Capital punishment Description An account of the resource Michael Mello, a Vermont Law School Professor, has a background of working for death row inmates. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Anderson, Liz Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Vermonters Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-03-14 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 7 jpg 300 dpi Language A language of the resource English https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/4678670355034aae98fc81d4b2c9536a.jpg d5061fd592d2a705e48d158d59e0002b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [Author] Colman McCarthy [Title] States Streamline Machinery of Death Last year rests as a record-setting year for state-sanctioned homicides: 56 men executed at a cost estimated by Duke University researchers at $2.1 million per death. Jan 25 and 26 are likely to go into the books also: successive days on which one state hanged a man by rope and another state killed with bullets. Both executions were well reported, given the novelty of gallows and firing squads at a time when legislatures are increasingly sanctioning drugging people to death. Lethal injection has a softness to it, almost a cruelty-free medical aura, which allows state governments to have it both ways: to kill humanely. The Delaware hanging of Billy Bailey and the shooting 26 hours later of John Albert Taylor in Utah lacked the ordinariness that might have allowed these two executions to pass unnoticed beyond prison walls. The methods of killing-- not the killing itself-- caused uneasiness among politicians in both states. Bailey and Taylor could have chosen to go quietly, lying down on a gurney and having a vein opened. Instead, they rejected taking up the states' option of a lethal drug. As a result, international television crews along with major U.S. networks poured into the remote prison towns of Smyrna, Del., and Point of the Mountain, Utah. The power of TV visuals was at work. How often does a chance come along to get footage of a well- constructed wooden gallows and a trapdoor swinging open in a dry run for the cameras? Or to film the firing squad room and its sandbag-supported death chair complete with a spill device to catch the blood? The day before these two executions, Virginia executed a man by lethal injection. This was almost a non-story, except that death chamber technicians needed 30 minutes to locate a suitable vein, finally settling for one just above the foot. It is not likely that executioners in Delaware and Utah will earn this much international and national publicity again. Delaware switched to lethal injection in 1986 but Bailey, sentenced before then, rejected the choice. In Utah, politicians have introduced a bill to ban the firing squad for future death sentences. Many states are giving condemned prisoners choices in dying. Capital punishment advocates who see this as an unwarranted turn toward mercy-- why give these heinous murderers a choice?-- need not be alarmed. Legislatures aren't getting soft, they're getting practical. First, they are making capital punishment more palatable, should a clamor arise that death by hanging, shooting, electrocution or gassing is barbaric and bad for the state's image. Second, and far more important, is that the offering of choices protects the state against spending still more money in legal expenses. Death penalty sentencing is a post-conviction procedure, akin to another trial with full deliberations and arguments. In most states, juries decide whether murderers deserve death. In some, judges rule. In a few, judges, usually running for reelection, can override juries that reject a capital sentence. If those now on death row were not given choices they would have a legal opening to demand a new sentencing trial. Their reasoned argument would be: I was sentenced to die one way and now the rules are changing and I am forced to die another way. I should have another sentencing trial. Fearing that appeals courts might agree, states end-run this by offering a choice: The condemned are not being forced to accept another method; the first one remains available. Trail judges and prosecutors abhor new trials, whether on questions of guilt or sentencing. Evidence not originally available-- either because inexperienced defense lawyers didn't know how to gather it or because it was suppressed by prosecutors-- often has a way of showing up years later. Days before the Delaware and Utah executions, Joseph Spaziano, a Florida death row inmate for nearly 20 years, had one of the rarest of legal victories. A Florida circuit court, vacating both hid conviction and sentence, ordered a new trial. A combination of nonjudicial forces-- the doggedness of Spaziano's attorneys, including Prof. Michael Mello of the Vermont Law School, and reporters from the Miami Herald-- persistently presented evidence of grave doubts of the condemned man's guilt. It was said: Well, the system worked. In fact, it was lawyers and reporters who worked. The legal system did its powerful best to kill. Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Kabre, Timbila Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource States Streamline Machinery of Death Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-02-06 Description An account of the resource After the deaths of Billy Bailey and John Albert Taylor, states are being faced with how to go about offering the most humane capital punishment. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McCarthy, Colman Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived McCarthy, Colman. "States Streamline Machinery of Death." The Washington Post, February 6, 1996. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Smyrna, Delaware Point of the Mountain, Utah. Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment--United States Billy Bailey capital punishment John Albert Taylor Joseph Spaziano Michael Mello https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/33ee5cd1dcec9d0fd9dfe8050747442a.jpg eee50c05e1711378e9303802b86017d2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The two Crazy Joes Subject The topic of the resource Spaziano, Joe Description An account of the resource Joe "Crazy Joe" Spaziano became a point of interest for two magazines: The H Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Barstow, David Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Barstow, David. "The two Crazy Joes." St. Petersburg Times, February, 1996. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-02-25 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 5 JPGS Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant St. Petersburg, FL Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Text Item Type Metadata https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/1227e9b787a87555970c8164277ab644.jpg a07efcdc14236e16f7a4adf302f39299 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/294137f3e8f0cdc3f6bc328be0c3bb87.jpg 8bffce3d3f823e98e2b269eff7945681 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/936ffa4a531b2c7ced6fad400516e0ba.jpg 36b4083ccae5a6940abf2528c3945be7 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/4a4e277632e9b3c12f99853da7851ec9.jpg 56bcecb7b7556a04e5850e5fc6c3a21e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [Page One] [Title] The two Crazy Joes [Photographs of Joseph Spaziano during his first trial and one of his appeals to court] [Caption] Two photographs, one man. As different as Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spaziano looks in these pictures is about as different as the coverage of his case in the Miami Herald and the Orlando Sentinel. [Page Two] [Column One] With the help of God and the Miami herald, we’ll cross the finish line together. And alive. And free. Attorney Michael Mello, in a letter to his client, death row inmate Joe Spaziano The Sentinel will write whatever it wants, and if another (death) warrant comes, your blood will be on their hands. Mello, in another letter to Spaziano Last summer, two newspapers—the Miami Herald and the Orlando Sentinel—set out to do the same thing. Each dedicated itself to finding The Truth in the case of Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spaziano, the Outlaw biker condemned to death 20 years ago for the murder of a young Orlando medical clerk. Each produced a stream of news stories based on standard reporting techniques: digging up records, tracking down witnesses, pumping sources, talking to key participants. But a strange thing happened on the trail to truth. In eight months of compelling coverage, as execution dates came and went, the two newspapers arrived at separate truths about Crazy Joe’s case, truths as incompatible as life and death. The Herald found in Spaziano a pathetic victim of injustice. The Sentinel found a “dead-eyed” rapist-killer. The Herald found shabby evidence, shaky witnesses and a lead detective who drove around the countryside in a squad car with a psychic holding a skull in her lap. The Sentinel described incriminating evidence, unshakable witnesses and a former Outlaw enforcer called Gatemouth who said Spaziano bragged that sex was best after a killing. The Herald found a guild-ridden prosecution witness who had motives to lie 20 years ago but now [End of First Column] [Beginning of Second Column] wanted to set the record straight? The Sentinel described the same witness as a troubled flake with reasons to spring forth with a bogus recantation. This extraordinary divergence was neatly summarized in headlines on editorials last month, when a judge ordered a new trial for Spaziano. The Herald: “Justice Awakens.” The Sentinel:”Justice Clearly Cheated.” How could two newspapers—both pro-death penalty and each committed to the truth—see the same case so differently? The coverage was shaped by forces unseen by readers. These newspapers pursued different questions and were driven by different ideas about the proper role of journalism. Their coverage was molded by ego and instinct. Stories were affected by reactions to what the other newspaper was writing, and by the manipulations of a few key sources. Coverage was even affected by one reporter’s premature delivery of a baby and another reporter’s childhood memories. The stakes were high: Either an innocent man was about to be executed, or a murderer was going to beat the system. “I think they were both zealously going after the truth, or what they perceived to be the truth,” says Ron Sachs, a former reporter who until recently was Gov. Lawton Chiles’ spokesman. ‘And I have no doubt in my mind that they were guided and motivated by pure altruism. That doesn’t mean they got closer to the truth. Both papers wrote accurate stories—factual stories. “But this was a classic example of how you can vigorously pursue a particular viewpoint and generate the facts to support your viewpoint. “The trouble is, at least one of these great newspapers is probably wrong.” Please see CRAZY JOE 8a [Heading] Crazy Joe from IA [Page Three] [First Column] Early last May, Michael Mello nervously dialed the number of Gene Miller, an editor at the Miami Herald. They knew each other by reputation alone. Mello teaches law in Vermont. He also represented death row inmates, including Spaziano. Mello usually avoided the media and confined his advocacy to the strict procedural rules that govern death penalty appeals. But this case was different. Of the 70 men he had represented on death row, Spaziano was the first Mello thought truly innocent. With appeals exhausted and the hour of execution drawing near, Mello decided to approach the Media. It was the first such phone call he says he had ever made. Gene Miller is a legend in journalism circles. He has built a career crusading against miscarriages of justice. His first Pulitzer Prize, in 1967, was for stories that cleared two convicts of murder they did not commit. His second Pulitzer, in 1976, came for reporting that led to the release and pardon of Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee, sentenced to death for murdering two Panhandle gas station attendants. Plenty of people want Miller to crusade for them, but he thinks most “innocent-man” claims are baseless. When Mello called and asked him to review Spaziano’s case, Miller agreed—expecting that he would take a quick look and toss it aside. But his interest surged when he saw Joe McCawley’s name in Mello’s records. McCawley was the discredited hypnotist who some say implanted false memories in a key witness in the Pitts and Lee case. Here he was again in the Spaziano case, and his role was even more prominent. Police had no eyewitnesses or physical evidence tying Spaziano to the murder of 8-year-old Laura Lynn Harberts. Her body left to rot in a dump, was too decomposed to even determine cause of death. The sole evidence linking Spaziano to the murder came from a troubled 17-year-old who, under McCawley’s hypnosis, said Spaziano had taken him to a dump to show off the body. The teenager, an Outlaw wannabe, also said Spaziano bragged of mutilating Herberts’ genitals with a knife while she was alive—testimony that sealed a death sentence for Spaziano. Miller asked Miami polygraph examiner Warren Holmes to read Spaziano’s trial transcripts. Holmes had worked with Miller in most of his big miscarriage-of-justice stories. Miller considers Homes “a man with a ruthlessly logical mind” and “a superb homicide interrogator.” Holmes told Miller it was obvious that the 17-year-old lied in his testimony. He didn’t even get basic details of the crime scene right. [End of First Column] [Beginning of Second Column] Without conducting a single interview, Miller decided Spaziano was probably innocent. He was appalled that testimony induced by hypnosis—a practice since barred from trials as unreliable—would be enough to send a man to the chair. Yes, the highest courts in the land had blessed the fairness of Spaziano’s trial, including the hypnosis. To Miller, that still didn’t make it right. In Miller’s aggressive brand of journalism, the reporter’s mission is to find the truth and then persuade others to do something about it. When the clock is ticking on a man’s life, that can mean stepping outside the ordinary boundaries of Joe Friday “just the facts, ma’am” journalism. It can mean taking a side and advocating a position. It can mean lobbying a governor in person (as he did for Pitts and Lee)m or lining up legal help for the condemned (as he did for Pitts and Lee and others). To those who say journalists should remain neutral and objective, he responds simply: “ A man’s life is at stake. I think I’m doing the right thing.” Miller had Mello write an impassioned opinion piece raising doubts about the Spaziano case. Miller edited the piece and arranged its simultaneous publication in Sunday editions of the Herald, the Sentinel and the St. Petersburg Times. Miller also urged other editors at the Herald to dispatch a reporter to investigate Spaziano’s case. They decided to focus on a question that already had all but settled in their own minds: Did Spaziano get a fair trial? . . . Reporter Lori Rozsa has never covered an execution. Working out of Herald’s Palm Beach bureau, she writes mainly about the environment. When Gov. Chiles scheduled Spaziano’s execution for June 27, 1995, Rozsa’s editors asked if she had any qualms about witnessing an execution. She didn’t. She believes the Ted Bundys of the world probably deserve to die. Like Miller, Rozsa felt strong misgivings as she read through the trial records. The key to the case was the 17-year-old witness, Tony DiLisio. The prosecutor admitted he didn’t have a case without him. Rozsa, 35, flew to Pensacola to interview DiLisio. Nobody was home the first two times she visited. The third time he shut the door on her foot and threatened to call 911. The fourth time he said a few words then cut her short. Rozsa didn’t give up. On her fifth try, DiLisio began to talk. At first, he said he couldn’t remember a thing about the case. The longer he talked, the closer he edged toward saying his trial testimony had been a lie. He called hypnosis “witchcraft.” He said he was just a scared, confused kid. He said Spaziano never took him to the dump to see a body. [End of Second Column] [Beginning of Third Column] He said the execution should be halted. Rozsa’s gut told her DiLisio was being truthful. To her, it was significant that he had been so reluctant to talk. After the interview, Rozsa called Mello from her hotel. “She couldn’t believe it and I couldn’t believe it,” Mello recalls.” She was on cloud five or six.” Until then, Rozsa had remained skeptic about Spaziano’s claim of innocence. DiLisio’s recantation convinced her Spaziano was an innocent victim of an outrageous miscarriage of justice. “That sealed it for me,” she says. . . . Rozsa’s story describing DiLisio’s recantation ran on page one of the Herald on June 11. Remember, the murder occurred not in Miami, but near Orlando. As sometimes happens when newspapers get scooped in their own back yard, the Orlando Sentinel was slow to react to the story. The governor was not. He immediately asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate. Days later, the Sentinel ran a short Associated Press story about the FDLE investigation. The story was buried inside the paper. When Chiles stayed Spaziano’s execution, the Sentinel finally had its own reporter write a story. In it, he included references to the Herald’s work. His editors at the Sentinel wanted to cut out any references to other newspapers. “They didn’t want to admit that the story got by us,” recalls the reporter, Michael Griffin, the Sentinel’s Tallahassee bureau chief. Griffin was upset with his newspaper. He had asked permission to pursue the Spaziano case after the Sentinel published Mello’s opinion article. “I read that and thought,’Holy Christ, this guy could be innocent,’” he says. His editors put him off, and the Spaziano story languished in another bureau of the newspaper. When Griffin read Rozsa’s page one story about DiLisio’s recantation, he thought,” This should have been our story. This is our story.” Griffin’s editors belatedly agreed and quickly threw a platoon of eight reporters at the story. But their mission was shaped by journalism principles far different from the ones guiding the Herald. “You don’t have an opinion in this case,” Sentinel editor John Haile told his news staff. Haile considered it “terribly presumptuous” for any reporter to judge the fairness of a 20-year-old trial and decades of subsequent appeals. “I’m not sure where we are vested with this authority to say,’We know better than you,’” Haile says. He didn’t want his reporters crusading. Spaziano deserved justice, but so did the [End of Page Three] [Beginning of Page Four] [First Column] Victim, Laura Harberts. “We didn’t set out to try and free anybody; we didn’t set out to try and convict anybody,” Haile says. “A reporter’s job is to go out and find the truth, whatever that may be. The Herald began with the question: Did Spaziano receive a fair trial? The Sentinel’s editors decided to focus narrowly on a different question: Is Tony DiLisio telling the truth now? Like Lori Rozsa before him, Michael Griffin went to Pensacola to interview DiLisio. But where Rozsa left DiLisio’s home certain his recantation was genuine, Griffin left his interview equally certain that DiLisio was lying. “I caught the guy in the first 15 minutes in a half-dozen lies,” Griffin recalls. DiLisio said he had been “Christian and clean” for more than a decade. Griffin knew DiLisio had been arrested twice for DUI, and twice more for hitting a former girlfriend. Rozsa’s and Griffin’s opposite impressions of DiLisio resulted in distinctively different coverage. Believing DiLisio’s recantation was bogus, Griffin and other Sentinel reporters wrote stories tearing into his credibility now. They explored his recent brushes with the law. They quoted friends and relatives who said DiLisio is a compulsive liar—but that he was telling the truth 20 years ago. Sentinel reporters emphasized DiLisio’s motives to lie now—possible fear of the Outlaws, maybe to cash in with tabloid TV. They dissected inconsistencies in his current story. They made not mention of the hypnosis checkered past. Certain DiLisio’s recantation was real, Rozsa and other Herald reporters wrote stories ripping into DiLisio’s credibility 20 years ago. They described him as a desperate, drugged-out teenager. They quoted friends and relatives who said DiLisio was a compulsive liar—but that he is telling the truth now. Herald reporters emphasized DiLisio’s motives to lie then—because Spaziano had supposedly raped DiLisio’s stepmother, because he wanted to please the police, because his father told him to. They dissected inconsistencies in his testimony from 20 years ago. They barely mentioned DiLisio’s recent troubles with the law. Rozsa would see Sentinel stories and wonder,” Are they reading the same stuff as me?” Griffin was no less dumbfounded by the Herald. “For the life of me I cannot understand how you can look at the same amount of material that we both looked at and come back with such widely different takes on this.” At times, Griffin felt he had to set the record straight. He thought the Herald painted too rosy a picture of Spaziano and his fellow Outlaws. Griffin, 34, grew up in Orlando, and he remembered the fearsome reputation of the local Outlaws in the 70s. There were tales of gang rapes and killings, and he recalled his parents keep- [End of Column One] [Beginning of Column Two] -ing him inside at night when women’s bodies began turning up in local dumps. After Spaziano was arrested for one of the “dump murders,” the newspapers were filled with Spaziano’s violent exploits. When Griffin wrote that Spaziano lived “a misfit’s life of spontaneous brutality and murder,” he says he was trying to counter the Herald’s depiction of Crazy Joe as a clownish charmer—”the most popular guy on death row.” “I was aiming that at his supporters, and I include the Miami Herald in that,” he says. On Aug. 24, 1995, Gov. Chiles reset Spaziano’s execution date. He said FDLE investigators turned up new evidence of Spaziano’s guilt, including witnesses who said DiLisio talked of seeing a body at the dump long before he talked to police and the hypnotist. The Sentinel had the story first. “It was a bad, bad day when Chiles signed that death warrant,” Rozsa recalls. She was upset at being scooped, of course. More deeply, she was upset that Spaziano seemed destined for the chair. Obviously I haven’t done my job,” she thought. If it came to it, she decided, she would not attend the execution. She could not bear to watch the electrocution of a man she believed to be innocent. . . . In politics, they say, perception can become reality. The same can hold true for journalism. In the Spaziano case, perceptions that the newspapers were biased only widened the split in the coverage. Spaziano’s attorney, Michael Mello, had assumed early on that the Sentinel would largely echo the Herald’s coverage, and he was thrilled when Griffin first called him about the case. Mello offered to open up his records to the newspaper. His strategy for saving Spaziano depended on generating sympathetic coverage that would put pressure on Chiles. When the Sentinel stories began to tail spin unfavorable to his client, Mello worried his strategy had backfired. The way he figured, the Sentinel was giving Chiles political cover to execute Spaziano. In response, Mello publicly labeled the Sentinel an “accomplice to murder.” He stopped taking Sentinel phone calls. He withdrew his offer to allow them full access to his files. He instructed Spaziano not to talk to the Sentinel. Tony DiLisio also clammed up on the Sentinel. The Herald—whom Mello referred to as his “investigative partner”—continued to get red-carpet treatment. Another key source was John Gordy, the FDLE agent in charge of the governor’s investigation into the Spaziano case. Early on, he spoke several times with Lori Rozsa. She impressed Gordy as a reporter who [End of Second Column] [Beginning of Second Column] Wanted to uncover what was “righteous and real.” But when Rozsa wrote a page one story about flaws and errors in Gordy’s investigation, Gordy felt betrayed. He and other law enforcement sources began to view Rozsa and the Herald as an extension of Spaziano’s defense team. “We ended our relationship,” he says. Gordy did not, however, end his relationship with the Sentinel. If anything, Gordy talked even more openly with Sentinel reporters. He fed them information he hoped would “set the record straight. One Sentinel story reported that DiLisio’s attorney declined comment, followed by this small dig: “He and DiLisio then walked down the street with a Miami Herald reporter, who first reported DiLisio’s recantation in June.” With key sources taking sides, perception became reality. “If you’re only hearing one side of the story, it’s kind of hard to be objective and balanced,” Griffin says. Editors and reporters at both papers say they strived to keep their stories balanced and their minds open. Sometimes fate interfered. Having written so much about Spaziano and DiLisio, Rozsa planned to write a profile of the victim, Laura Harbert. But Rozsa was pregnant, and her baby came several weeks early; the Harberts profile was scratched. To the discomfort of the reporters, both newspapers fueled perceptions of bias—and not just with their editorials (Herald—free him; Sentinel—fry him.) The Herald helped line up one of the state’s best law firms to represent Spaziano for free. And Gene Miller wrote a several page letter to Ron Sachs, the governor press secretary, explaining “why I think the state is very close to executing a man who in all probability is innocent.” In the letter, Miller offered to make Rozsa available to the governor, even providing her home number. (“I was wondering why he did that,” Rozsa says.) The Sentinel, on the other hand, ran this page one banner headline last month, on the first day of a crucial court hearing to decide whether Spaziano should get a new trial: “Former Outlaw: Spaziano Enjoyed Killing.” (Michael Griffin cringed when he saw that. “The headline,” he says,”was just way over the top.”) . . . In the Herald newsroom, some suspected the Sentinel of climbing into bed with the governor’s office to knock down [End of Fourth Page] [Beginning of Fifth Page] [Heading] At the Miami Herald [Photograph of Gene Miller] Gene Miller, a Miami Herald editor, had won two Pulitzer Prizes crusading against unfair convictions. [Photograph of Lori Rozsa] Herald reporter Lori Rozsa wasn’t sure if Spaziano was innocent until after the state’s star witness told her his trial testimony was a lie. [Heading] The witness [Photograph of Tony Dilisio] Tony Dilisio testified in 1976 that Spaziano showed him the victim’s body; 20 years later, he took it all back after Rozsa knocked on his door. [Heading] At the Orlando Sentinel [Photograph of John Haile] Sentinel editor John Haile didn’t want his reporters trying to judge whether Spaziano received a fair trial 20 years ago. [Photograph of Michael Griffin] Reporter Michael Griffin says he has never worked harder on a story. “I’m proud of the newspaper, proud of the way we did this story.” [Column One] their findings. What better what ease the sting of being scooped on your home turf? At the Sentinel, some suspected the Herald of climbing into bed with Spaziano’s attorneys. What better way to win a Pulitzer Prize than to get a guy off death row? People at the Herald took offense when a Sentinel reporter asked one of their writers,” Has the Herald lost its objectivity on the story?” Likewise, some at the Sentinel were angered by a letter Gene Miller wrote to the editor of the Sentinel’s editorial page, an old friend of Miller’s. Miller argued for Spaziano’s innocence and he included copies of the Herald’s coverage. In the Sentinel newsroom, Miller’s letter was taken as arrogance and insult. As if they hadn’t been reading the Herald’s coverage! Years ago, in college, Michael Griffin was an enthusiastic proponent of the death penalty. Then he read Invitation to a Lynching, Gene Miller’s 1976 book about the Pitts and Lee case. The book left him far more skeptical of the death penalty, though not quite an opponent. It also made him an admirer of Miller and his brand of crusading journalism. Covering the Spaziano story has changed Griffin’s mind—about Miller and the death penalty. “I am 100 percent opposed to the death penalty,” he says. How can the ultimate punishment possibly be fair if it is subject to the whims and judgments of newspapers? “Cops don’t matter, prosecutors don’t matter, judges don’t matter, juries don’t matter. Gene Miller is all that matters,” Griffin says bitterly. “He’s gonna sit back 20 years later and decide this guy is innocent.” So which newspaper got it right? Only Spaziano knows for sure. Last month a judge granted him a new trial. “In the United States of America every person, no matter how unsavory, is entitled to due process of the law and a fair trial,” the judge ruled. “The defendant received neither.” Prosecutors are appealing. It could be months before that appeal is resolved, and even longer if a jury ever gets a chance to sort through this tangled case. If and when that happens, count on one thing. The Herald and the Sentinel will be there, each in pursuit of the truth. Times researchers Kitty Bennett and Carolyn Hardnett contributed to this story. [End of Article] Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Barstow, David Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Debes, Elizabeth Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The two Crazy Joes Subject The topic of the resource Spaziano, Crazy Joe Description An account of the resource As two newspapers, the Herald and the Sentinel, cover the same story of Joseph "Crazy Joe" Spaziano, they report two completely different stories. David Barstow evaluates why these two reliable newspapers published two different views of the case, as well as asking the question of which one was correct in the end. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Barstow, David Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Barstow, David. "The two Crazy Joes." St. Petersburg Times, February, 1996. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 02-25-1996 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 5 JPGS Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant St. Petersburg, FL "Crazy Joe" Spaziano 1995 Against Execution court cases Court decisions and opinions. criminal defense death penalty Florida capital sentencing statute Florida death penalty Florida Death Row Florida newspapers Gene Miller newspaper The Herald The Sentinel https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/b59d847eca13727f615efbcff67a6258.jpg db1455a3b1a99bb6def418c74bc0ac03 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document For a few days last month, it looked as if Joe Spaziano had finally reached the high road to freedom. Potholes have developed. Let me update the story. On Aug. 21, 1973, police in Seminole County were led to a county dump. There they found the mutilated bodies of Laura Lynn Hartberts and another young woman. Two years passed. No leads. No suspects. No evidence. Then the authorities learned of a 16-year-old who wanted to talk. The kid had run away from a drug treatment center in a stolen car, and maybe he would strike a deal. This was Tony DiLisio. He had a bizarre story to tell. Indeed, he had several bizarre stories to tell, each of them contradicting details of the one before. The gist of it was that "Crazy Joe" Spaziano had taken him to the dump, pointed out the bodies, and claimed responsibility for the apparent murders. Young Tony's story was not all that convincing, but the cops were patient. They brought in a hypnotist. Tony obediently "remembered" all sorts of things. It was shaky evidence, but it was all the state had. Thus the Harberts' murder case went to trial in January 1976 before Judge Robert McGregor. At a pretrial hearing, the trial prosecutor made no bones about his case. "If we can't get in the testimony of Tony DiLisio, we'd absolutely have no case here whatsoever." Counsel repeated that admission in closing argument to the jury: "If you don't believe DiLIsio, then find the defendant not guilty in five minutes." As it later transpired, at least one juror had grave doubts about DiLisio, but the jury's verdict was guilty - with a recommendation for life imprisonment. Judge McGregor overruled the jury and sentenced Spaziano to death. Years passed. Appeals went up and down. Five times the governor set a date for execution. A lawyer who became obsessed with the case, Michael Mello, refused to give up. Six months ago the break came. DiLisio confessed that his testimony was a lie. He had fingered Spaziano to please his domineering father, who had reason to hate Crazy Joe. Florida's Supreme Court remanded the case for further proceedings on the newly discovered evidence. Now the good news: On Jan. 23, Judge O. H. Eaton Jr. vacated the verdict of guilty, vacated the death sentence, and ordered a new trial to begin in March. The bad news is that the state is appealing to Judge Eaton's order to the Florida Supreme Court. Before all appeals are exhausted, months or years could pass. Judge Eaton's opinion amounts to a complete vindication of Mello's selfless labor, Said the judge: "The crucial testimony at the trial of this case in 1976 came from the mouth of Anthony DiLisio. It was he who provided the only evidence of the cause of death of the decedent and it was he who supplied the jury with the evidence connecting this tragic event to the defendant. Without his testimony, there simply is no corroborating evidence in the trial record that is sufficient to sustain the verdict. . . ." Judge Eaton sketched a sordid picture. Tony's father, Ralph DiLiso, abused his six children. Tony grew up on the wild side. He got heavily into drugs. Meanwhile his father, who owned a boat dealership, was having an affair with one of his employees known as "Keppy." Judge Eaton's opinion continued: "Keppy seduced Tony DiLisio when he was 15 and with whom he had frequent sexual intercourse for about two and one-half years. His father and Keppy ultimately married. DiLisio had sex with her for the last time on their wedding day. . . . "The defendant (Spaziano) worked at the marina. . . . Not surprisingly, Keppy began to have a sexual relationship with the defendant. Ralph DiLisio found out and became angry. At some point Keppy accused the defendant of raping her. It was about that time that Ralph DiLisio asked his son if the defendant had told him he mutilated women. DiLisio testified that the defendant never said anything like that to him. But the idea was planted in his mind." A chain of events led to the two sessions of hypnosis. Judge Eaton said the hypnotist "does not give the listener confidence in his abilities." One defense expert graded the hypnotist a "double F"; the other rated his skill at zero. "In the United States," Judge Eaton concluded, "every person, no matter how unsavory, is entitled to due process of law and a fair trial. The defendant received neither. The validity of the verdict in this case rests upon the testimony of an admitted perjurer who had every reason to fabricate a story which he hoped he would be believed. The courts of this country should not tolerate the deprivation of life or liberty under such circumstances. . . . The judgment and sentence cannot stand." Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Snellings, Alyssa Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource One more detour on Spaziano's long road to freedom Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Language A language of the resource English Subject The topic of the resource Spaziano, Joe Mello, Michael Florida. Supreme Court Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kilpatrick, James J. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Kilpatrick James J. "One more detour on Spaziano's long road to freedom." Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Description An account of the resource Joe Spaziano was suspected and accused of the murder of two young women in 1973 as a result of the statement from Anthony DiLisio. https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/9783325eace82d08c066646463efc24d.jpg ab805ab5346656da0f8538a560548c39 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/9450cd903fa816ea43fc268a3a5aa954.jpg 604a567325862ad567f523abd5714dd3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [title] Judge Orders Retrial of Condemned Man [author] By BRYAN K. MARQUARD: Valley News Staff Writer <br /><br />[subtext] The decision could mean the Joseph Spaziano will leave Death Row alive, rather than end his more than 20-year stint with a walk to Florida’s electric chair. <br /><br />[image—Joe Spaziano] [image caption] Joe Spaziano listens as his attorneys argue for a new trial in his 1976 murder case during the first day of a hearing in Sanford, Fla., on Jan. 8. This week, a judge ordered a new trial for the former Outlaws gang member after ruling a key witness lied to the 1976 trial jury.<br /><br />A Florida judge has issued a stern opinion ordering a new murder trial for a death row inmate whose longtime attorney and friend teachers at Vermont Law School. <br /><br />The decision could mean that Joseph Spaziano will leave Death Row alive, rather than end his more than 20-year stint with a walk to Old Sparky—the nickname for Florida’s electric chair. <br /><br />Spaziano’s case was Michael Mello’s first assignment when he joined the Florida Public Defender’s office in the early 1980s. He continued to work on his client’s Death Row appeals after joining the law school faculty—even when a showdown with the Florida Supreme Court last fall resulted in the justices removing his from the case. <br /><br />“I feel great,” Mello said yesterday in an assessment that was echoed by one of the three lawyers who argues the condemned man’s case during an evidentiary hearing in Sanford, Fla., earlier this month. <br /><br />“It’s great news,” said Elyse Runzow, one of 11 students in Mello’s capital punishment seminar at Vermont Law School last fall that, as a class project, worked on two petitions that Mello filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court unanimously reject those petitions earlier this month. <br /><br />The Florida circuit court judge issued the ruling Monday, a day before the 20th anniversary of the murder conviction that sent Spaziano to Death Row, where he has survived five death warrants signed during the administrations of three Florida governors. <br /><br />The ruling that vacated the murder conviction came after a hearing that was prompted in part by a Miami Herald interview last June with Anthony DiLisio, the key witness in the case. DiLisio told the Herald—and testified in the hearing this month—that he lied more than 20 years ago when he said Spaziano had taken him to a dump in a rural area to show him the mutilated bodies of two women he had murdered. In 1976, DiLisio was a troubled teenager in a juvenile facility, and he recalled the encounter only after two sessions of hypnosis. <br /><br />“In the United States of America every person, no matter how unsavory, is entitled to due process of law and a fair trial. The defendant received neither,” Judge O.H. Eaton Jr. wrote in an eight-page ruling. “The validity of the verdict in this case rests upon the testimony of an admitted perjurer who had every reason to fabricate a story which he hoped would be believed.” <br /><br />Spaziano, who is on Death Row at the Union Correctional Institution in Union County, Fla., told the Herald Monday, “I’ve been trying to tell people all this time that the kid lied. I’m so happy people finally believe me.” Spaziano, who was known in the 1970s by his nickname, Crazy Joe, was a member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang when he was convicted of murdering Laura Harberts, a 18-year-old hospital clerk. <br /><br />The judge also wrote that DiLisio’s recantation “would probably produce a different result on retrial.” <br /><br />Tom Hastings, an assistant state attorney [end of page one]<br /><br />[beginning of page two] who was the lead prosecutor during the hearing, did not return calls seeking a comment. But he told the Herald Monday that it’s likely the state will appeal the decision. <br /><br />Gregg Thomas, one of the three lawyers representing Spaziano in the hearing this month, said in an interview yesterday that he believes the judge’s decision “is almost totally unassailable. . . . I think it would make an appeal very difficult.” <br /><br />He also predicted that the state would not attempt to retry Spaziano on the murder charge.<br /><br />Regardless of what the state decides to do, Spaziano will remain in jail for now. A few months before being convicted of murder in 1976, he was sentenced to life in prison for the brutal rape and assault of a 16-year-old girl. Spaziano has said he did not commit that crime either, and Mello is pushing for another court battle in an attempt to win freedom for his client, who was notified of the stay of execution on his fifth death warrant last September on his 50th birthday. <br /><br />But those battles are for another time. Yesterday, those involved with Spaziano’s defense were in a congratulatory mood. Two of the three attorneys who represented him in the hearing have praised the actions of Mello, who, in a dangerous game of brinkmanship, defied a Florida Supreme Court order to attend a hearing last fall. The move earned him the enmity of the court, but bought Spaziano the few extra months necessary for a legal team to get things in order for this month’s hearing. <br /><br />“But for your courage and fortitude, which were evidenced in your 1995 actions on behalf of Mr. Spaziano, there is no question that he would be dead today,” James Russ, one of Spaziano’s attorneys, wrote in a letter to Mello dated last Friday. “I write to thank you for the courageous efforts you made on his behalf, in the face of criticism by both the Florida Supreme Court and the legal profession.” <br /><br />“Michael Mello is responsible for Joe Spaziano being alive,” Thomas said in the telephone interview yesterday. “I’ve never been prouder of a lawyer in my life.”<br /><br />“If you’re measuring our contributions next to Michael’s contributions, ours pales in comparison,” he said.<br /><br />Thomas said several lawyers from his firm—Holland and Knight, the largest firm in Florida—worked through what would have been their Christmas vacation to prepare for Spaziano’s hearing. “Our Christmas present came yesterday,” he said with a chuckle. <br /><br />Among those who were elated over the ruling was Rose Spaziano, the defendant’s mother, who said she expected the judge would order a retrial. “I was hoping for a complete dismissal, but a retrial’s OK,” she said. “I’m hoping that things will go Joe’s way for a change.” She had not heard from her son yesterday, but said she was expecting a call, and added that he looked “real good” during the hearing. “He smiled at me,” she said. “He’s in good spirits.” <br /><br />Marynoel Spaziano was not quite 5 years old when her father was sent to Death Row. Yesterday, while shushing one of her father’s three grandchildren, she said she was happy about the judge’s ruling. Joseph Spaziano has seen two of his grandchildren once, she said. He was kept in handcuffs during the in-person meeting, which was allowed as he neared the execution date for one of his five death warrants. <br /><br />Also cheered by the news was longtime death penalty opponent Mike Farrell, the actors whose credits include he TV show M*A*S*H. He was active in a petition drive calling for a retrial for Spaziano. He said yesterday that Spaziano’s case “added elements” to the anti-death penalty crusade that would “make it abundantly clear to people that it doesn’t work, if you pay attention to the specifics.” <br /><br />He said he plans to spread the word about the case and “use this experience to help inform people about the ugly realities” of the death penalty. “I have profited enormously from this experience, just from the perspective of a human being,” he said of his work in cases such as Spaziano’s. “When we succeed in ending this, we will be a better nation for it.” <br /><br />Mello said the biggest hero in the Spaziano case may be the judge who issued the ruling, because the seat on the bench is an elected position. <br /><br />“From a political standpoint, from a personal standpoint, the only fair characterization of this decision . . . is extraordinarily courageous,” he said. “His local newspaper (the Orlando Sentinel) has been frothing at the mouth over this. All of the local TV stations have frothing over this.” <br /><br />The decision was also courageous “in terms of judicial politics,” Mello said, given that Spaziano’s attempts to secure a retrial or dismissal have failed when his case argued before the Florida Supreme Court, U.S. District Court, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U. S. Supreme Court. “This took guts,” Mello said. “You never know where the heroes are going to come from.” [end of page two] Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Judge Orders Retrial of Condemned Man Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource MARQUARD, BRYAN K Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Newspaper Language A language of the resource English Description An account of the resource Could Joseph Spaziano leave Death Row alive or will he end his twenty year stint with a walk to Florida's electric chair? Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Valley News Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-01-24 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. 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