3 20 256 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/efc922b9a5eac76a3da2920147d1ab6e.jpg 742377a2469986378c325a3e52703c81 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] Attorney problems complicate Spaziano case [start of the first column] A convicted killer scheduled for execution Sept. 21 in Florida’s electric chair is being represented during what may be the last three weeks of his life by an attorney who is teaching full time at a Vermont law school and has no assistance here. Joseph Spaziano’s attorney, Michael Mello, must work on the case without the usual support staff because the organization that does that work has lost its funding and is closing down. [end of the first column] [start of the second column] “This is an innocent guy in the middle of a very complex factual investigation,” Mello said. “He’s about to be executed in three weeks and for all practical purposes, he doesn’t have a lawyer.” Complicating Mello’s ability to provide a defense is that new investigative information about the case has been ordered confidential by Gox. Lawton Chiles. Dexter Douglass, Chiles’ clemency attorney, says all those arguments are simply defense tactics. [end of the second column] [start of the third column] Spaziano, who will be 50 on Sept. 12, is accused of the 1973 murder of Orlando nurse Laura Lynn Harberts, whose sexually mutilated body was found in a trash dump near Altamonte Springs, a suburb of Orlando. Spaziano, a former member of the Outlaw motorcycle gang, was convicted primarily on the testimony of a man named Tony Dilisio and Harberts’ roommate, who told authorities she heard Harberts talking on the phone with a man named Joe before she was murdered. Spaziano had been under his fourth death warrant in June when Dilidio told The Miami Herald that he gave his [end of the third column] See Spaziano on Page 2B [heading] Spaziano Continued from Page 1B [start of the fourth column] Testimony under hypnosis. Testimony taken under hypnosis was admissible in Florida at the time, but is no longer. Chiles stayed the execution and asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate Dilisio’d comments. The FDLE report was submitted to Chiles several weeks ago and a new death warrant was signed last week. Chiles will not release the contents of the FDLE report, but Douglass said it confirms Spaziano’s guilt. “That information is not going to become public at any time,” Douglass said. “We don’t need that information, just the findings from 15 court decisions that these are legal sentences.” The day after the warrant was signed, the Volunteer Lawyers Post-Conviction Defender Organization notified Mello that because of a $1.5 million cut in federal funding, it will shut down Sept. 30. The organization has been ordered by its directors to stop working on cases immediately. That left Mello, who started teaching classes the following day, without any Florida lawyers working with him and without the services of Stephen Gustat, the organization investigator who was doing research for him. Jennider Greenberg, the organization’s co-director, ex- [end of the fourth column] [start of the fifth column] plained the problem to Mello in an Aug. 28 letter. “We tried our best to inform the governor’s people about the impossibility of us representing or assisting pro bono counsel in representing anyone under an active death warrant during this phase in our existence,” Greenberg wrote. “Inexplicably, the governor chose to seek Joe’s execution nonetheless.” The Office of Capital Collateral Representatives, the state agency that represents most Death Row inmates in Florida, cannot defend Spaziano because it has a conflict in the case. Mello said that in his 12 years of defending death row inmates, he has never faced a situation like this. “I thought I had seen it all,” he said. “I’ve never had my whole investigative arm evaporate on the eve of a fifth death warrant in the face of a whitewash, fraudulent and now secret police investigation that the governor’s counsel has lied about, when I am representing an innocent man.” Douglass said Mello is just trying to create an issue in a losing case, and that he does have an investigator – he said the news media have helped investigate the case. Meanwhile, Mello has asked The Florida Bar and the state Supreme Court for advice. “I have real reservations about whether I can render effective counsel,” he said. “Joe has a right to counsel in Florida. I don’t know that I can give it to him. But if I withdraw, he has no lawyer. Yet without investigation, I’m nothing but the illusion of a lawyer. I just don’t know what to do.” [end of the fifth column] [end of the article] 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. Treese, Paige 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 Attorney problems complicate Spaziano case Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Greenberg, David Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Gainesville Sun 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 1995-09-3 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 Description An account of the resource Attorney Michael Mello is left with little time or support to work on Joseph Spaziano's case after the organization supporting Mello on the case is shut down only three weeks before Spaziano's execution. https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/92bafda947dbce6f5691f54abb17418e.jpg cd6a5afd0ffce16caa724792b271758d 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 Spaziano speaks out about his execution Subject The topic of the resource Capital Punishment--Florida Spaziano, Joseph. Description An account of the resource Joseph Spaziano sentenced to death without last-minute defense effort in Florida, still claiming his innocence. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Greenberg, David Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Greenberg, David. “Spaziano speaks out against execution.” The Gainesville Sun, September, 6 1995. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Gainesville Sun Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-09-06 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 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 Starke, FL https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/6d4e624121419d6436df48cb59f58164.jpg b762735389c4e852c25d053a6e0c313c 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 Spaziano speaks out about his execution Subject The topic of the resource Capital Punishment Spaziano, Joe Description An account of the resource Although it is uncommon for lawyers to allow inmates facing execution media interviews, Spazianos lawyers hope to spark interest in his case. Spaziano claims he's not believed about his innocence because he was in a biker gang, the Outlaws. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Greenberg, David Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Greenberg, David. “Spaziano speaks out against his execution.” Gainesville Sun, September 6, 1995. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-09-06 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 Starke, FL 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 Vol. No./Issue No. Volume and issue number for the newspaper (if available) vol. 68, issue 5 Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Lewandowski, Maggie Text Any textual data included in the document [start page] [heading] Spaziano speaks out about his execution Budget cuts are closing the organization that would have done much of his legal work. By David Greenberg [Image] David Greenberg [caption] Joseph Spaziano struggles for words at Florida State Prison on Tuesday morning as he talks about his execution scheduled for Sept. 21. [start of the first column] STARKE -- During a rare interview at Florida State Prison on Tuesday, Joseph Spaziano reflected on life in the Outlaw motorcycle gang, described 20 years on Death Row and criticized the people who control his fate. If executed as scheduled in two weeks, Spaziano will be the first Death Row inmate to die without benefit of a serious last-minute defense effort since the death [end of the first column] [start of the second column] penalty was reinstated in Florida in 1976. He was sentenced to die for the 1973 murder of Orlando nurse Laura Lynn Harberts. The day before Spaziano's fifth and most recent death warrant was signed by Gov. Lawton Chiles, the Volunteer Lawyers Post-Conviction Defender Organization announced that federal budget cuts were forcing it to close. The organization would have done the investigative work and much of the legal work for Spaziano's last-minute appeals. [end of the second column] [start of the third column] "There's no one to help me, " Spaziano said Tuesday during a 45-minute interview. When Spaziano talked about his next -- and maybe his last -- few weeks, he grew quiet, rubbed his shackled hands against his face and fought back tears. It was the only time during the interview that the small man with the shaved head and furry eyebrows seemed uncomfortable. He raised his tattooed arms to his face in a seeming effort to hide. He insists that he did not kill Harberts. "No, I didn't do it," he said. "During a TV interview, I was asked that about 40 times. I didn't do it, I didn't even know her. [end of the third column] [start of the fourth column] "I've been telling the truth for 20 years, and they won't believe me," he said. "Now the kid who put me in here is telling the truth, and they don't want to believe him. What is there to say? What can I do? Mike's doing the best job he can, but I'm in trouble." Spaziano's attorney is Michael Mello, a University of Vermont law professor who normally would have help from the volunteer lawyers' organization. The law says Spaziano has the right to counsel in Florida. But Mello and others familiar with the case question whether he has it. And there's no case law on such a circumstance. [end of the fourth column] See SPAZIANO on Page 3B [end page] [[start page]] SPAZIANO continued from Page 1B [start of the first column] Spaziano's strongest criticism is aimed at Chiles, his staff and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. "I really believed after he stayed my fourth warrant that this guy was for real," he said. "But they're all the same. No one in Tallahassee likes me." Dexter Douglass, Chiles' clemency attorney, says Spaziano's comments --- along with Mello's protests --- are all part of the defense's strategy. "There's been no showing made by anybody that this man is entitled to clemency," Douglass said. Spaziano suggests that the is in this position now because of his background as an Outlaw. "It's because of what I am," he said. "I was a biker. I rode with the Outlaws. But I was clean. All I ever did was smoke reefer. If they want me to confess that I smoke reefer, I will. I asked the judge if he wanted to [end of the first column] [start of the second column] smoke before he sentenced me." With an overworked defense attorney at his original trial, Spaziano opted to not take the stand. "I figured no one would believe an Outlaw," he said. "I figured that it would be better when I got to a higher court, but no one would listen." For the last 20 years, Spaziano hasn't been a biker. He's been a Florida Death Row inmate. To occupy his time for the last 20 years, Spaziano has painted. "I did it from the time the cell lights went on until they went off each night," he said. "I'm a cartoon freak. I painted Disney characters and Easy Rider (biking) stuff. I would send them to my people, and they would send me canteen money for cigarettes." It's almost unheard of for lawyers to allow inmates facing execution' to grant media interviews. It never happens without attorneys present. But Mello and Spaziano are doing it to spark interest in the case. And Mello, who started teaching two weeks ago, must allow Spaziano to do it alone. "I don't know what else to do," Mello said in a phone interview from Vermont. [end of the second column] [start of the third column] Spaziano who will turn 50 on Tuesday, was arrested nearly two years after Halberts' sexually mutilated body was found in a trash dump near Altamonte Springs, a suburb of Orlando. He was found guilty by a jury that recommended life in prison. The judge overturned the recommendation and sentenced Spaziano to death. During Spaziano's fourth death warrant last June, the main witness against him, Tony Dills, said he gave his testimony under hypnosis --- no longer acceptable in Florida courts. As a result, Chiles stayed Spaziano's execution and asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate. The results of that investigation are known only to FDLE, the governor and his legal aides, but were enough to sign a new death warrant. Chiles will not release the information in the FDLE report. That leaves Spaziano with a lot of questions. "I wonder about the governor," he said. "I wonder why he wants to kill me. Who has the answer to that? Only one man, and he won't say." [end of the third column] [[end page]] 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 Spaziano speaks out about his execution Language A language of the resource English Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Spaziano, Joe Description An account of the resource Two weeks before Spaziano's scheduled execution, he insists his innocence in the murder of Laura Lynn Harberts. Spaziano feels helpless as he is declined a last-minute defense effort by the state of Florida. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Greenberg, David Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Greenberg, David. “Spaziano speaks out against his execution.” Gainesville Sun, September 6, 1995. 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 1995-09-06 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 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Starke, FL Against Execution Innocent Joseph Spaziano https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/0be3e32dc6a9d6814437f358d6df468b.jpg 99856a149382d94854b68c39279bddfd https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/8ef11cd3c33ed5a28133c6f34f4fb56d.jpg c3051289f1e5750061d4c3d0bcac89e2 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 3, 1995 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Prosecutors in the Jeffrey Allen murder case lowered the charges to second-degree murder this week because of concern about proving premeditation in the trial that starts Monday. White River Junction District Court Judge Shireen Avis Fisher granted a motion from Windsor County State’s Attorney Patricia Zimmerman to amend the charge against Allen from first-degree to second-degree murder. Allen has admitted shooting his girlfriend’s ex-husband in a Bridgewater mobile home last Christmas Eve, but maintains it was in self-defense, his lawyer says. Second-degree murder “is easier to prove. Premeditation is not an element for second-degree cases,” Zimmerman said Friday. “That’s the only reason.” “They obviously didn’t think they had a prayer of convincing a jury on premeditation. There’s no other reason that I can think of,” said Michael Mello, a constitutional lawyer and criminal law professor at Vermont Law School. “They should not have indicted on first-degree murder to begin with.” Jeffrey Allen was arrested at the Daly Hollow Road trailer he shared with Marjorie Allen shortly after the early morning shotgun shooting of Richard Allen, 58, of Epsom, N.H. The two men are not related. Richard Allen allegedly broke into the trailer and punched Jeffrey Allen in the face after finding him in bed with Marjorie Allen, according to a state police affidavit. Jeffrey Allen then secluded himself for five hours in the trailer bedroom while Richard Allen talked to his ex-wife in the kitchen. She divorced her husband in 1992 after a violent and abusive marriage, according to court documents. Jeffrey Allen told police he believed the other man was drinking beer through the night and Richard Allen had yelled insults at him in a threatening manner. Shortly after 5 a.m., Richard Allen allegedly walked down the trailer hallway, opened the door to the bedroom, and was shot in the chest, police said. “There’s no question that Jeffrey Allen fired the weapon. We continue to maintain that he did so in self-defense, and that it was a fully justifiable shooting,” said Matthew Levine, Allen’s defense attorney. Mello, who said he was “loathe to criticize” Zimmerman, said the lesser charges “indicates that she’s pretty nervous about her case. And she should be. This is one of the strongest claims of self-defense that I have seen in a dog’s age.” He also said that the original first-degree murder indictment may have been an effort by Zimmerman to encourage a plea bargain by Allen. “One possibility, and prosecutors do this all the time in death cases, is they prosecute high in hopes that getting a first-degree murder indictment will strong-arm the defendant into a plea bargain,” Mello said. “If that was her aim in this case, it obviously didn’t work.” “I guess the difficulty I have is Mike Mello knows nothing about the case. I don’t see bringing first-degree murder charges an inducing a plea agreement,” Zimmerman responded. “The reality is you always know more about a case after you file charges (and hear from the defense) rather than before you file charges.” Zimmerman, who is expected to rely on the testimony of Marjorie Allen as a key part of her prosecution, said, “It’s the state’s burden to prove that it wasn’t self-defense.” Levine declined to reveal whether Jeffrey Allen would take the witness stand. “He won’t necessarily have to call the defendant,” Mello said. “What’s critical is that Mr. Levine be able to persuade the jury that the defendant subjectively believed that he was in imminent danger by the victim, and that that belief was reasonable.” And that will depend on the circumstances of the case, other lawyers agree. “Maybe the guy was terrified. Maybe he wasn’t. And if he was terrified, did have a reason to be terrified?" asked Harry Black, a defense attorney in White River Junction. “If Charles Manson is coming after me with a knife, I have a lot more reason to be scared than someone who I know is a reasonable person and can be talked out of it. I’d have a lot more justification in shooting Charlie.” Jury selection starts Monday morning, and the trial is expected to last less than two weeks. Allen faces 20 years to life in prison if convicted of the new charges. 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. Brokaw, Marianne 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 Murder charge reduced in Allen 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. 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 Capital punishment Murder Mello, Michael Description An account of the resource Charges against Jeffrey Allen in the shooting death of Richard Allen have been reduced from first-degree to second-degree murder. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gregg, John Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-8-12 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant White River Junction, VT Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Gregg, John. "Murder charges reduced in Allen case," Rutland Daily Herald, August 12, 1995, morning addition. capital punishment Jeffrey Allen Michael Mello murder umw https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/8c7432c06bdca41733ab9e1f09e773c0.jpg d669badf92cdeefb0c2361ef570309b2 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/e522d08aaa4b181e3e7faac475dcce75.jpg 475431411119e1cbc0bd44ba45d919c5 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 (First Page) Southern Vermont Rutland Daily Herald Friday Morning, October 23, 1995 Windsor, Windham & Bennington P Will He Testify? By John Gregg Southern Vermont Bureau SPRINGFIELD - Park View Road is a pretty lane. Cow pastures and two upscale homes flank the narrow road that runs south for six-tenth of a mile off the Skitchewaug Trail. From a plow turn-around at the end of the road, you can enjoy a sweeping view of the Black River Valley well past Okemo Mountain. It would be the perfect place for a lovers’ tryst, but for the two “no parking signs” that were recently installed. And for something else, too. Parke View Road is where Jennifer Knight Little was murdered the evening of Feb. 4, 1994. She was stabbed six times and left to die in a snow bank. This week probably Tuesday morning, six women and nine men will visit the lane. They are the Jury in the Adam Corliss first-degree muder trial, and so far they have heard a week’s worth of testimony from witnesses for the prosecution. (Second Item) Trial Continued from Page 6 Chris Frappiner and the late Paul Kelly, contract investigators for the defender general’s office, spent dozens of hours developing a case against Durphey. And Donahue, a former Windsor Country prosecutor, is attempting to call several witnesses who say Durphey threatened them by claiming to have murdered Little. The defence also says it can knock holes in Durphey’s alibi, that he was having a party at home with friends when the murder occurred. Police describe Durphey a “braggart” who is not linked by any physical evidence to the scene. In a special session held outside the jury’s presence Monday afternoon, the defense will try to convince Judge Walter Morris Jr. that testimony allegedly implivating Durphey should be admitted as evidence. Zimmerman is attempting to limit any such evidence. What’s the Motive? Another area of interest in the case is motive. The defense has implied that Durphey would have been motivated by revenge to kill Little, who apparently broke up his relationship with another woman. During voir dire, Zimmerman noted to prospective jurors that the state was not required to prove a motive in the case, and she and Porter have barely explored that front thus far. But Black says the prosecution should probably try. “Legally, you don’t have to prove motive, but from a practical matter, if you were sitting on a jury, you would probably ask ‘why would he kill her?’ The fact that it is his knife doesn’t prove that he used it,” he said. In another twist, Zimmerman and Porter also may rely on a notorious sex offender to seal their case against Corliss Thomas Pellerin, currently serving a 18-to-20 year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, befriended Corliss while the latter was incarcerated following his arrest. Accordion to opening statements, Pellerin either conned Corliss into giving him a signed confession to Little’s murder or helped him devise a scheme making Durphey into a “patsy” for Little’s murder. Michael Mello, a professor at Vermont Law School, says the defence appears in “pretty good shape” thus far and said the prosecution runs an “enormous risk” if it calls Pellerin to the witness stand. “It seems to me that the prosecution has more to less and less to gain in calling Pellerin than the defense has to gain and lose by calling Corliss,” said Mello. Taking the Stand And in the end, unless the state’s case unexpectedly collapses, the most critical testimony will probably come from Corliss himself, Mello said. Although defendants are not required to take the witness stand, Donahue has all but promised the jury that his client will testify. “If (Corliss) does take the witness stand, i think it will ultimately boil down to whether the jury believes him or not,” said Mello. “He was there, it was his knife. If he takes the witness stand, it will presumably be for the purpose of explaining to the jury what happened.” “My guess is they wouldn’t call him unless they thought he would be a pretty credible witness,” Mello said. “Ultimately, it’s going to be up to the jury to decide based on his demeanor and his credibility and believability on the witness stand. To the extent that the prosecution can show that he lied in the past, that doesn’t help him.” [end page] 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 Will He Testify? Subject The topic of the resource Murder Trial Description An account of the resource A newspaper article dated to October 23rd 1995 where the author discuses a murder trail under way with Adan Corliss being charged with the murder of Jennifer Little. The main bulk of the article discuses the approach of the prosecution and the defense on how they are going attack and defend Corliss receptivity Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gregg, 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 1995-10-23 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. 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 Windsor, VT https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/f109597cf939393aeebb75be9776f65e.jpg c970aa4b79480671e595395349892853 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/2f75edf242a23d6c6c5314554eb81e98.jpg 1925f4cfcc14f1a0b8041c83d0296d25 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 5 Text Text Any textual data included in the document CAVENDISH- Friends and colleagues of Cavendish Lawyer William Hunter reacted with surprise, and some with indignation, Wednesday to news federal prosecutors had charged him with 11 counts of fraud. “I think the guy is a great guy, to tell you the truth,” said Steven Sysko, a North Springfield resident and active Democrat who knows Hunter from the lawyer’s days as a state legislator for Windsor County. “They have an indictment, but I don’t think it will hold water, knowing the guy from way back.” Hunter, a former state senator and Rhodes Scholar, was indicted Tuesday on 10 counts of mail fraud and one count of bankruptcy fraud after a two-year investigation into his legal and financial dealings. The indictment alleged that Hunter between 1993 and 1996 embezzled “tens of thousands of dollars” from clients and trusts, loaning the money to other clients and covering up previous allegedly improper financial transactions. The probe started in June 1995, when Windsor drug dealer Frank Sargent Jr. claimed that Hunter had helped him launder drug money. Among numerous charges in the indictment, Hunter allegedly loaned Sargent $19,000, and received $5,000 in interest in return for the 90-day loan, when he knew Sargent was dealing drugs, according to prosecutors. But Hunter, who all along has denied knowledge of Sargent’s drug dealing, was not charged with participation in any drug activity, and says he believed the money was being used to renovate affordable housing. He also denied receiving $5,000 from Sargent. Several lawyers questioned why the mail fraud charges would be brought after a lengthy investigation into alleged drug money. “After all that work, and after all this focus on drugs, it seems peculiar,” said Rutland lawyer Herbert Ogden Jr. “It strikes me as somewhat small potatoes.” Ogden last year unsuccessfully sued Hunter on behalf of a client in a malpractice case, and has now filed an appeal in the case with the Vermont Supreme Court. Vermont Law Professor Michael [next page] Mello, who has publicly supported Hunter in a separate Professional Conduct Board inquiry into Hunter’s law practice, criticized the indictment and called it an “outrage.” “You put any busy litigator under a 25-month microscope … under that these guys put Will Hunter under, and you’re going to find some irregularities,” Mello said. “This is all they came up with, after 25 months? I thought that this was a drug laundering case.” U.S. Attorney Charles Tetzlaff declined to comment on reaction to the indictment. Others said they were surprised by the indictment because of their knowledge of Hunter, who is known for taking on indigent clients and difficult cases. “I like Will real well. It’s hard for me to believe that these charges are true,” said William Donahue, a lawyer in White River Junction and a former Windsor County deputy state’s attorney. Hunter has admitted that he made [next page] “mistakes” in loaning money to clients but says he did not profit personally. Hunter also claims that none of his clients wound up losing money. But several lawyers noted that Hunter may have violated a serious fiduciary duty if the charges that he loaned out and otherwise mishandled clients’ money are true. “Even if they put it all back, even if they didn’t make any money on it, you can’t do it. It’s a sacred trust,” Donahue said. And Jerome O’Neill, a former federal prosecutor who has been in private practice in Burlington for 16 years, said Hunter’s statements that he did not profit and had no criminal intent to defraud his clients were not uncommon in such cases. “That’s always the defense in [next page] fraud cases,” said O’Neill, who said he did not know whether the charges against Hunter were true. “Because they paid the money back does not mean that there was not an intent to defraud.” O’Neill also said he believed prosecutors were acting in good faith in bringing the indictment. “My take on it is that the people in the U.S. Attorney’s office are conscientious. They would not have sought the indictment unless they believed that they could get a conviction … because if he’s acquitted, it’s embarrassing,” O’Neill said. “They are not going to drop this case two months from now. This case is going to get tried.” Hunter is slated to be arraigned in federal court in Burlington on Monday afternoon. 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. Dunnigan, Delaney 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 Hunter Indictment Greeted With Skepticism Subject The topic of the resource Embezzlement Description An account of the resource Newspaper article describing the reaction to William Hunter's indictment during the embezzlement hearing. A few of Hunter's colleagues' opinions on the trial are quoted. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gregg, John Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Gregg, John. “Hunter Indictment Greeted with Skepticism.” Rutland Daily Herald, July 10, 1997. 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 1997-07-10 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 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Cavendish, VT https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/afdd6ae7dde34478d4e55907efef8cfa.jpg ba7d2e9f4bd39064bab52bab732a838c https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/482feeecb838205c3104cb539b1ea4b0.jpg be10d9d54df35adf06a2665d6a7ef9ca 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 3, 1995 Text Text Any textual data included in the document TALLAHASSEE - Joseph "Crazy Joe" Spaziano, convicted of the torture-murder of an Orlando woman and the rape of another, asked Florida's Cabinet Wednesday to set him free. Spaziano's lawyer faxed a request for a clemency hearing to Gov. Lawton Chiles, arguing that a key witness in the 2-decade-old cases now doubts his own hypnosis-enhanced testimony. The request comes the same week that Spaziano had been scheduled to die for the murder of 18-year old hospital clerk Laura Harberts. Chiles stayed the execution two weeks ago, after newspaper reported that Anthony Dilisio now doubts whether his testimony at the 1976 trial was true. Chiles ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate Dilisio's claims. What began as an interview with the Pensacola man has expanded into a full-scale investigation involving dozens of witnesses. A report is scheduled to be released next week, but sources said Chiles could be briefed as soon as Friday. The Challenge facing Chiles is which Dilisio to believe - the would-be biker who testified at age 18 that Spaziano showed him Harberts' mutilated body, or the 37-year-old lay minister with a history of substance abuse who says he can't remember the body and doubts Spaziano is a killer. Dilisio also was an important witness tying Spaziano to the 1974 rape, for which the Outlaws motorcycle club member is serving a life sentence. Dilisio testified in a 1975 trials that Spaziano bragged about raping the 16-year-old Orange County girl, slashing neck and eyes, choking her and leaving her for dead in woods. "I don't want to remember any of this," he told The Orlando Sentinel. "It was through the grace of God that this memory has been crased from my mind." Michael Mello, who represents Spaziano, said Wednesday that Chiles and the Cabinet should free Spaziano because Dilisio was the strongest element in the two cases. A spokeswoman in the governor's general counsel office said there would be no comment until the hearing request is reviewed. FDLE investigators and Chiles' advisers have said previously, however, that Dilisio stopped short of recanting when questioned by investigators recently. Spaziano last requested clemency in March, but officials refused to grant a hearing. In preparing that request, Spaziano's state-appointed attorneys interviewed Dilisio, but he told them he could shed no new light on the case. Four months later, Dilisio said the hypnosis police used to coax memories from him was "witchcraft that poisoned a young, impression able teen-ager's mind." But one officer who helped build the cases against Spaziano disputes the claim. Court files show Dilisio told rape investigators on Oct. 10. 1974 - seven months before he was hypnotized - that Spaziano took him to where he had left mutilated bodies. Retired Altamonte Springs police investigator James Martindale said Spaziano already was a suspect in the Orange County rape case when Seminole County detectives began looking at links to Harberts' killing and the dumping of her body at an Altamonte Springs dump. He remembers Dilisio as a scared teen who seemed to know more about the crimes than he let on. Martindale said he thinks Dilisio pretended that detectives had to draw the information out of him. "It was a game to him," Martindale said, "The hypnosis, in my opinion, did not solve the case. He [Dilisio] was just covering his tail." A transcript of a May 13, 1975, interview - Dilisio's last interview before hypnosis - shows he told investigators Spaziano had bragged about the Outlaws gang-raping hitchhikers he had picked up. He said Spaziano told him he killed the women, cut off their breasts and dumped them in an orange grove. When investigators pressed Dilisio, he said he could not remember and agreed to be hypnotized. "I never did," Dilisio said after being asked if he was involved in the killings, "That's why I'm saying, 'I go under hypnosis and you find out what I used to know that I don't know now.'" Dilisio said that's week that he did not remember the interview and would not read the transcript, which his lawyer has reviewed. "I believe the Lord didn't want me to read the transcript," Dilisio said. "That's not who I am now." Dilisio said he was a troubled teen with a terrible home life, including a bad relationship with his father and stepmother. The detectives were nice to him and he wanted to please them. "They treated me like I was special," Dilisio said. Mello also hopes to raise problems with the rape case. Prosecutors had little physical evidence, such as the knife or sperm. Their case relied heavily on Dilisio and the victim, whose testimony was troublesome. She had lied, first claiming Spaziano and another man kidnapped her at knifepoint. Later she said she willingly went into their vehicle to smoke marijuana. She also failed at first to identify Spaziano in a police lineup. First she told investigators she wasn't sure then said she really did recognize her attacker but was afraid to identify him. She told detectives she could never forget his "evil" eyes but never mentioned that her attacker had tattoos. Despite the troubles, the victim told jurors at the trial that she was absolutely sure Spaziano was the attacker. To this day, the woman, who lost vision in one eye, is positive Spaziano raped her. Chiles or a member of the Cabinet - the attorney general, secretary of state and commissioners of education, insurance and agriculture - could schedule a clemency hearing. The Cabinet could uphold the death sentence, commute it to life or pardon Spaziano all together. Spaziano has had six appeals of his murder case rejected by the state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. Appeals in the rape case have also been rejected. Debbie Salamone, Sharon McBreen, Beth Taylor and Christopher Quinn of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Murray, Daryl 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 Spaziano asks Chiles, Cabinet for clemency hearing Subject The topic of the resource Torture murder and rape case Spaziano, Joe Chiles, Lawton, 1930-1998 Description An account of the resource Joe Spaziano was convicted of torture murder of an Orlando woman and raping another. But he was freed by a Florida Cabinet. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Griffin, Michael Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived “Spaziano asks Chiles, Cabinet for clemency hearing,” HIST298, accessed February 8, 2017, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/180. 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 1995-06-29 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 2 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, FL Chiles Dilisio Florida hypnosis murder Orlando Woman Outlaws rape Spaziano https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/6ecad343f326e5b7ba0c041cc9961f6e.jpg 5b2b91a80ca370889702f00f382976da https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/eb404990baa8961b7066e270f4a1a2e2.jpg da61ef5399f36cb5c656d72c0cabe105 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 Latest Spaziano appeal before high court today 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. Ferrell, Claudine Text Any textual data included in the document [Start of the first page] [Heading] Latest Spaziano appeal before high court today [subheading] The death row inmate is still claiming his innocence in the slaying of an 18-year-old. By Michael Griffin Tallahassee Bureau Chief [first column] TALLAHASSEE – Florida’s Supreme Court will listen today as a lawyer for Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spaziano makes his latest courtroom bid to save the former biker from execution for a murder he swears he did not commit. Spaziano, convicted in 1976 of killing Orlando hospital clerk Laura Lynn Harberts, has had four ap- [end of the first column] [start of the second column] peals rejected by the state’s high court, but hopes a key witness’s changed version of events may save his life. Justices will hear arguments from lawyers for Spaziano and the state to determine whether it should re-hear one of the four earlier appeals it rejected. Spaziano also has had two appeals denied by the U.S. Supreme Court. While Spaziano’s execution is scheduled, several issues remain unresolved, including whether: <ul> <li>Gov. Lawton Chiles can keep secret a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report on Spa- </li> </ul> [end of the second column] [Image] Associated Press [Caption] 'They are trying to murder me,' Joseph Spaziano says during an interview at Florida State Prison in Starke. [end of the first page] [start of the second page] [Heading] Harberts’ father afraid Spaziano will win appeal SPAZIANO for D-1 [start of the first column] ziano that he read before signing the latest death warrant. <ul> <li>Spaziano’s out-of-state attorney can adequately represent him.</li> <li>Arguments of innocence can be raised almost 20 years after a jury convicted Spaziano and a judge sentence him to death.</li> </ul> Spaziano’s lawyer, Vermont law Professor Michael Mello, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. He and Spaziano have refused to talk to The Orlando Sentinel, accusing its reporters and editors of bias against Spaziano. In an interview with The Associated Press, Spaziano said he is innocent of both the 1973 murder of Harberts and a 1974 Orange County rape for which he is serving a life sentence. Spaziano, 49, said he is terrified at the prospect of death in Florida’s electric chair. “I’m not guilty of no murder. I’m not guilty of no rape,” he said in a prison interview Wednesday, just two weeks before his scheduled execution. “They are trying to murder me,” he said [end of the first column] [start of the second column] from behind a glass partition. “I get afraid.” Art Harberts, father of Laura Harberts, said Wednesday that he is afraid Spaziano will survive the death warrant—his fifth under three governors—and eventually win release from prison. “When is there going to be the end of this thing?” Harberts said. “It’s all about him. It’s all about Joe, the victim. They don’t even think about the other victims, the murders and the rapes he did. Orange County investigators Spaziano a suspect in at least three unsolved rapes and two murders—the death of June Louise Kennedy, 55, and Karen Ann Dupuis, 21. Both bodies were dumped within two miles of a dump near Altamont Springs where the remains of Harberts and another unidentified woman were found on Aug. 27, 1973. Harberts, 18, was last seen alive on Aug. 5 of that year. Several witnesses, including the hospital worker’s roommate, tied Spaziano to Harberts. Other witnesses, including friends of Spaziano and fellow bikers, tied him to the dump. But it was Anthony Dilisio, a Maitland teen who idolized Spaziano, who linked the [end of the second column] [start of the third column] [[words--boxed]]: When is there going to be the end to this thing? It’s all about him. It’s all about Joe, the victim. They don’t even think about the other victims, the murders and the rapes he did. – Art Harberts, Laura’s father biker to the decomposed body of Harberts. He told police that Spaziano bragged about raping and mutilating the woman and finally took him to the dump to display Harberts’ body. In June, Dilisio told The Miami Herald that he had lied 20 years ago and that Spaziano had never taken him to the dump or showed him any bodies. Chiles stayed that execution and ordered the FDLE to investigate Dilisio’s claims. [end of the third column] [start of the fourth column] Agents reported that Dilisio told several people about going to the dump long before police appeared and hypnotized him to enhance his recall. They also quoted a biker now under federal protection who said Spaziano confessed to him while in prison. After reviewing the report and watching an FDLE videotaped interview with Dilisio, Chiles signed the death warrant. He ordered the FDLE report kept secret to protect witnesses who said they feared retaliations. Mello has asked the Supreme Court to stay the execution on the basis of Dilisio’s new version of events. He also hopes to force Chiles to open the files so he can interview the witnesses. But Mello has also filed papers indicating he lacks the money, time and support staff to adequately defend a man fighting for his life. On that basis, he asked the court whether he should continue as Spaziano’s attorney. If the court grants a re-hearing of the case, Spaziano’s execution could be delayed. If justices refuse to intervene, Spaziano may have run out of appeals. [end of the article] 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 Latest Spaziano appeal before high court today Description An account of the resource The Florida supreme court will hear a request to reconsider an appeal of convicted murderer Joseph Spaziano. The murder victim's father and Spaziano's attorney Michael Mello express differing concerns about Spaziano's case. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Griffin, Michael Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Griffin, Michael. "Latest Spaziano Appeal before High Court Today." Orlando Sentinel, September 7, 1995, D-1 and D-5. 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 1995-09-07 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 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Tallahassee, FL Subject The topic of the resource Spaziano, Joe Chiles, Lawton, 1930-1998 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/382ba8c59dd7b6b9e9e27e4251ff1c3e.jpg da96640e34aa758d57820e080d617a4e https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/725139e9fa6f840e079ee0a225f7fbd6.jpg 8526a7ffb27c92a62a20302374178097 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 the first page] [header] High court considers Spaziano [sub-header] ‘Free form’ appeal requests new trial By Michael Griffin TALLAHASSEE BUREAU CHIEF [start of the first column] TALLAHASSEE—A lawyer for Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spaziano took his client’s claim of innocence to the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday in perhaps the last appeal for the biker convicted of killing an Orlando woman. The court did not rule immediately but is expected to act soon—Spaziano, 49, is scheduled to die in the electric chair on Sept. 21. In unusual oral arguments for what Justice Harry Lee Anstead described as a “free form” appeal, Spaziano’s attorney asked the court to order a new trial since a key witness in the 1976 trial has changed his story. “Mr. Spaziano is innocent, he’s actually innocent and I want to be very clear on that,” Vermont law professor Michael Mello told the seven justices. “If I had the opportunity to prove Mr. Spaziano’s innocence before a jury, he would be acquitted.” Assistant Attorney General Margene Roper argued that Spaziano had his chances during 19 years of appeals, including four treks to the state Supreme Court, two appearances before the U.S. Supreme Court and two requests for clemency from the governor. Gov. Lawton Chiles rejected the second clemency bid two weeks ago and signed Spaziano’s fifth death warrant. “He is out of claims and clemency is the proper proceeding,” Roper said. “He went that route and quarrels with the result so now he comes here.” Both attorneys came under sharp challenges by justices. Anstead told Mello that his appeal does not specifically argue any discernible point of law and that it did not address two basic criteria: Is the new evidence he is presenting compelling enough to alter the original verdict, and why the new evidence was not brought forth sooner? Justice Ben Overton asked Mello why his 1,500-page appeal, which includes newspaper clippings and folk song lyrics, did not include a written statement from Anthony DiLisio, who now denies that Spaziano showed him the body of 18-year-old Laura Harberts at an Altamonte Springs dump in 1973. [end of the first column] [end of the first page] Please see Spaniazo, D-4 [end page one] [start page two] [header] Lawyer may appeal again to U.S. court SPAZIANO from D-1 [start of the second column] “You have not filed a statement from DiLisio that his testimony is false,” Overton said. “You have not filed anything in this record that says ‘I swear,’ an oath by DiLisio.” Mello said DiLisio had refused to sign such an affidavit and “he is difficult to deal with.” Mello later told reporters that DiLisio “doesn’t like to sign things” and was afraid he could be charged with perjury if he signed an affidavit. But Kelli McGraw, DiLisio’s attorney in Pensacola, said her client always has been willing to sign an affidavit and offered it to Mello months ago. She said he never got back to her. “We’re scrambling to get Tony now,” McGraw said Thursday. “He swears what he says now is true and he’s willing to sign a sworn, notarized affidavit.” Justices Gerald Kogan and Leander Shaw expressed concern over Mello’s claim that he lacks money to hire investigators for Spaziano’s defense. “There is an allegation out there [end of the second column] [start of the third column] and it is a strong one,” Kogan said. What is Mr. Spaziano to do?” Mello told reporters after the hearing he would probably not appeal the case anywhere else but to the U.S. Supreme Court because he [end of the third column] [start of the fourth column] thinks he would lose at appellate levels. “I came in here thinking there was a 1 percent chance for a stay,” Mello said. “Now I think it’s 2 percent.” [end of the fourth column] [Photograph by Associated Press; photo caption]: Attorney Michael Mello maintains Joseph Spaziano’s innocence before the Supreme Court. Spaziano is scheduled to be executed in 2 weeks. [end of article] 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. Shiflett, Maddie 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 High court considers Spaziano Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment.--United States.--History. Spaziano, Joe. Lawyer.--Mello, Michael. Description An account of the resource Michael Mello, lawyer for Joseph Spaziano, claimed that Spaziano was innocent at the Florida Supreme Court after a witness from a previous trial in 1976 changed his story. Those in disagreement with Mello’s claim questioned why the information never came out before. The witness had not yet filed an official statement acknowledging that he changed his story. Mello argued that the witness refused to do so. Mello planned to go to the Supreme Court with the case because he had no confidence in his chances at the appellate level. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Griffin, Michael Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Griffin, Michael. "High Court Considers Spaziano." 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 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Tallahassee, FL capital punishment Florida death penalty Florida Supreme Court Joe Spaziano lawyer Michael Mello trial witness https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/6985a724f97238a911fa57ad9e7c4b76.jpg 3bcd46f723fa9fc467834180ccd20b34 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/1b435125664c55a69b98bf4654552c15.jpg 67dae28006277af76f2b0a4f464a48a4 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. Scott, Christina Text Any textual data included in the document [first page] [photo caption: Joseph Spaziano] [heading] Spaziano case sent to Sanford for appeal [subheading] The state Supreme Court said a lower court should decide whether to stay his execution. By Michael Griffin and Jim Leusner Of the sentinel staff [start of the first column] TALLAHASSEE- The Florida Supreme Court refused Fri-day to halt the execution of Joseph ”Crazy Joe” Spaziano, but ordered a Sanford court to hear new evidence that a key witness in the 1976 murder trial lied. [end of first column] [beginning of 2 column] In a split decision, the justices determined the state’s high court had no reason to consider the appeal, since Spaziano’s at-torney was arguing his case in the wrong court. But they also agreed the issues raised could be compelling enough for a low-er court to grant a stay. All the justices agreed the matter should be heard this fri-day in Sanford. Three of the sev-en judges dissented in part, ar-going that Spaziano, 49, should get an immediate stay. The ruling sets up a scramble by lawyers to prepare for a hear-in just six days before Spa-ziano’s scheduled Sept. 21 ex-ecution for the 1973 mutilation and murder of Orlando hospital clerk Laura Lynn Harberts. Anthony Frank DiLisio, the witness who put Spaziano on death row with his testimony, likely will have to tell a judge and a prosecutor he lied and continued to lie for 20 years. Art Harberts, Laura Har- Please see SPAZIANO, A-11 [end of column 2] [beginning of column 3] [header] DiLisio now says he lied on purpose SPAZIANO from A-1 Berts’ father, said he will attend the hearing and expressed dismay that DiLisio “can’t or won’t get his story straight.” The last time he saw DiLisio was at the trial, when DiLisio, then 17, was the star witness. “Tony impressed me as a good kid,” Harberts said. “He apologized to us, you know, Laura’s family, for not coming forward sooner and sav-night us all the anguish.” A key factor in Friday’s ruling appears to be an affidavit filed by Spa-ziano attorney Michael Mello in which DiLisio swears for the first time that he lied at the trial. [end of column 3] [beginning of second page] [start of the first column] “I never, under any circum-stances, went to the dump sight [sic] with Joseph Spaziano,” the affidavit reads. “I went there in the company of law enforcement investigators.” It is the first statement DiLisio has made under oath since the trial, in which said Spaziano bragged about raping and killing women, then showed him the bodies of Har-Bert’s and an unidentified woman at a dump near Altamonte Springs. It is the latest version of the story DiLisio has given since he first told The Miami Herald in a June that his testimony was false. Shortly after that, DiLisio told Florida Department of Law Enforce-ment agents that he thought police drugged during hypnosis and planted the memories. The inter-view was videotaped, but FDLE spokesman Liz Hirst said Friday that DiLisio was not under oath when he made the statements. Later he told The Orlando Sentinel he remembered going to the dump with Spaziano but thought those memories were planted in his mind through hypnosis. DiLisio also said Seminole County sheriff’s de-tective George Abbgy, who has since died, had threatened to charge him with complicity in the crimes if he did not implicate Spaziano. And on Friday, in a column in The Miami Herald, DiLisio was quoted as saying: “It came from me. Nobody could program me to do anything I didn’t want to do. I wanted to do it. But it was false.” Those versions vary from sworn statements DiLisio gave two dec-ages ago. On May 13, 1975, detectives taped DiLisio recalling how Spaziano bragged about mutilating and kill-night women. The teen offered to be hypnotized to help him recall more. At the time, Floridians law allowed hypnosis-enhanced testimony. DiLisio was hypnotized May 15 and 16, 1975. During the second ses-Simon he described going to the dump with Spaziano and seeing and smelling the bodies. He said he had tried to forget it. [end of column 4] [beginning of column 5] Questioned by Spaziano’s lawyer and a prosecutor on Nov. 12, 1975, DiLisio said again that the biker he once idolized had taken him to the dump and displayed the bodies. During the January 1976 trial, DiLisio, again under oath, told ju-rots the same story, even after his life had been threatened by Spa-ziano’s associates from the Outlaws motorcycle gang. Former Assistant State Attorney Claude Van Hook, who prosecuted Spaziano, said he thinks DiLisio told the truth during the trial but is now recanting out of fear. Van Hook said DiLisio withstood tough questioning by Spaziano’s attorney, Ed Kirkland, and never wa-veered when facing Outlaws men-bears who attended the trial. Kirk-land called DiLisio a “great witness” for prosecutors. “This young man had the ring of truth,” Van Hook said. “He was afraid of Spaziano’s associates and still had the intestinal fortitude to get on the stand and tell the truth. Who would believe he lied?” Mello could not be reached for comment Friday. He refused to speak to The Orlando Sentinel. Gov. Lawton Chiles, who signed a fifth warrant for Spaziano after an FDLE investigation turned up wit-nesses to corroborate DiLisio’s origi-nal story, did not waver in the deci-sion Friday. Dexter Douglass, Chiles’ general counsel, said he thought Friday’s ruling was a good one. DiLisio’s sworn affidavit, he said, “means no more than any of his other sworn statements. Let’s see what happens when he’s challenged by a prosecutor and other witnesses get a change to testify.” [end of column 5] 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 Spaziano case sent to Sanford for appeal Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Griffin, Michael Leusner, Jim 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 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, FL Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Spaziano, Joe Description An account of the resource Joseph Spaziano gets denied a stay of execution. The Florida Supreme Court decides that the new evidence regard the fact that a key witness in the 1976 murder trial lied must be heard by a Sanford court. The lower court was believed to be the place in which Spaziano may receive his stay. The testimony of Anthony Frank DiLisio was what put Spaziano on death row. DiLisio was to appear in the Sanford court and admit to lying. Key in the trial will be an affidavit filed by Michael Mello in which DiLisio swears he lied. The issue of DiLisio’s lying has led to various stories from DiLisio. DiLisio admitted to believing that the testimony, he made in 1976, was implanted in his head through hypnosis. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Orlando Sentinel capital punishment death penalty Joe Spaziano https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/7449439ff589fb11b700375b7bebfb7d.jpg 0107fe4aa6ab309c965d319317c5fd74 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/694a865edd391f2a2790ae2fc2b8ebc7.jpg b5bd0f118cea6cc6c245953db4fc787e 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 [first page] [Heading] Spaziano Case sent to Sanford for appeal [Subheading] The state Supreme Court said a lower court must decide whether he should get a stay. by Michael Griffin and Jim Leusner Of the Sentinel Staff [start of the first column] TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Supreme Court refused Friday to halt the execution of Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spaziano, but ordered a Sanford court to hear new evidence that a key witness in the 1976 murder trial lied. In a split decision, the justices determined the state’s high court had no reason to consider the appeal and that Spaziano’s attorney was arguing his case in the wrong court. But they also agreed the issues raised could be compelling enough for a lower court to grant a stay. All the justices agreed the matter should be heard this Friday in Sanford. Three of the seven judges dissented in part, arguing that Spaziano, 49, should get an immediate stay. The ruling sets up a scramble by lawyers to prepare for a hearing just six days before Spaziano’s scheduled execution for the 1973 murder of Orlando hospital clerk Laura Lynn Harberts. Anthony Frank DiLisio, the witness who put Spaziano on death row with his testimony, likely will have to tell a judge and a prosecutor that he lied then and continued to lie for Please see Spaziano, A-11 [end of the first column] [end of page one] [start of page two] [heading] DiLisio now says he lied on purpose Spaziano from A-1 [start of the first column] 20 years. Art Harberts, Laura Harberts’s [sic] father, said he will attend the hearing and expressed dismay Friday that DiLisio “can’t or won’t get his story straight.” The last time he saw DiLisio was at the trial, when DiLisio, then 17, was the star witness. “Tony impressed ne as a good kid,” Harberts said. “He apologized to us, you know, Laura’s family, for not coming forward sooner and saving us all the anguish.” A key factor in Friday’s ruling appears to be an affidavit filed by attorney Michael ello in which DiLisio swears for the first he that he lied at the trial. “I never, under any circumstances, went to the dump sight [sic] with Joseph Spaziano,” the affidavit reads. “I went there in the company of law enforcement investigators.” It is the first statement DiLisio has made under oath since the trial, in which he told jurors that Spaziano bragged about raping and killing women, then showed him the bodies of Harberts and an unidentified woman at a dump near Altamonte Springs. It is the latest version of the story DiLisio has given since he first told The Miami Herald in June that his testimony was false. Shortly after that, DiLisio told Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents that he thought police drugged him during hypnosis and planted the memories. The interview was videotaped, but FDLE spokesman Liz Hirst said Friday that DiLisio was no under oath when he made the statements. [end of the first column] [start of the second column] Still later he told The Orlando Sentinel he remembered . . . the dump with Spaziano . . . thought those memories were planted in his mind through hypnosis. DiLisio also said Seminole County sheriff’s detective George Abbgy threatened to charge him with complicity in the cries if he did not implicate Spaziano. Then in a column in Friday’s Miami Herald, DiLisio was quoted as saying: “It came from me. No-body could program me to do anything I didn’t want to do. I wanted to do it. But it was false.” All those versions vary greatly from sworn statements DiLisio gave 20 years ago. On May 13, 1975, detectives taped DiLisio recalling how Spaziano bragged about mutilating women and offering to be hypnotized in the hopes it would help him remember. DiLisio was hypnotized May 15 and 16. During the second session he described going to the dump with Spaziano and seeing and smelling the bodies. Questioned by Spaziano’s lawyer and a prosecutor on Nov. 12, 1975, DiLisio said again that the biker he once idolized had taken him to the dump and displayed the bodies. During the January 1976 trial, DiLisio, again under oath, told jurors the same story, even after his life had been threatened by Spaziano’s friends in the Outlaws motorcycle gang. Former Seminole County Assistant State Attorney Claude Van Hook, who prosecuted Spaziano, said he thinks DiLisio told the truth during the trial but is now recanting out of fear. Van Hook said DiLisio withstood grueling cross-examination by Spaziano’s attorney, Ed Kirkland, and did not waver when faced with Outlaws members sitting in court. Kirkland called DiLisio a “great witness.” [end of the second column] [start of the third column] “This young man had the ring truth,” Van Hook said. “He was afraid of Spaziano’s associates and still had the intestinal fortitude to get on the stand and tell the truth. Who would believe he lied?” Mello, Spaziano’s attorney, could not be reached for comment Friday. He has refused to speak to The Orlando Sentinel. Gov. Lawton Chiles, who signed a fifth warrant for Spaziano after an FDLE investigation turned up witnesses to corroborate DiLisio’s original story, did not waver in that decision Friday. Dexter Douglass, Chiles general counsel, said he thought Friday’s ruling was a good one. He added that DiLisio’s sworn affidavit “means no more than any of his other sworn statements. Let’s see what happens when he’s challenged by a prosecutor and other witnesses get a chance to testify” [end of the third column] [end of article] Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Article Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Stell, Nicole 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 Spaziano case sent to Sanford for appeal The state Supreme Court said a lower court must decide whether he should get a stay Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Spaziano, Joe. Description An account of the resource Describes how Anthony DiLisio, a prime witness in the Spaziano case, recanted his original statement and how the Florida Supreme Court plans to handle it. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Griffin, Michael Leusner, Jim Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Griffin, Michael and Jim Leusner "Spaziano Case sent to Sanford for Appeal", The Orlando Sentinel , September 9, 1995. 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 1995-10-09 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. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 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 Orlando, FL Language A language of the resource English appeals capital punishment Joseph Spaziano Michael Mello https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/a588d811954aef582cc51d8c05fe5904.jpg fc8af075bbd55af070646ccac61474ed https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/b5175b6cc7f7e4a01cb576049fad03ef.jpg da3579f06c888dc97abd2552363f938a 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] Spaziano wins stay of execution High court orders new hearing By Michael Griffin TALLAHASSEE BUREAU CHIEF [Text] TALLAHASSEE - Joseph "Crazy Joe" Spaziano won a stay of execution Tuesday from the Florida Supreme Court but lost his favored lawyer. The reprieve resulted not from courtroom maneuvers or media pressure, but from a dispute over who should represent the biker convicted in 1976 of the torture-murder of an Orlando women. And the prize could be temporary: Justices issued an indefinite stay but a hearing that holds all of Spaziano's chances for a new trial must be held no later than Nov.15. "I'm relieved for Joe and his family," said Vermont law professor Michael Mello, the lawyer removed by the court. "But this isn't over by a long shot." Dexter Douglass, Gov. Lawton Chiles' general counsel, said the court had no choice but to grant a stay, given Mello's refusal to attend a hearing that had been scheduled for Friday in Sanford or to cooperate with the state death-penalty lawyers authorized to take over Spaziano's defense. "This is a victory by the improper, unethical and unprofessional stand of an alleged professor," Douglass said. "He did such a bad job that his client won out." The ruling issued on the 20th of Spaziano's murder indictment and the biker's 50th birthday, means he will not die under his fifth death warrant for the 1973 murder of Orlando hospital clerk Laura Harberts. Spaziano had been scheduled to die Sept. 21. Art Harberts, father or the 18- year-old victim, said he was disappointed by the stay but optimistic about the final outcome. "In the long run, he's going to have to face up to all this." Harberts said of Spaziano. In the ruling on seven motions filed by both Mello and the state's Office of Capital Collateral Representative, justices said the bitter disagreement between the lawyers jeopardized Spaziano's chances for adequate counsel. [end of page 1] [start page 2] Spaziano refuses to see an attorney appointed by state SAPZIANO from C-1 Justices sharply criticized Mello, who had refused orders to cooperate with CCR. The lawyer had said the agency had botched the Spaziano case when it handled it before. "In view of Mello's actions," the justice wrote, "we find that he has effectively withdrawn from representing Spaziano." Mello said he would not withdraw and would appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. He also said he has not decided whether to give the case files to CCR while he appeals and looks for a private law firm to take on the case. Spaziano's hopes rest on Tony DiLiso, a witness from the 1976 murder trial who now says the biker never took him to see the bodies of Harberts and another women at an Altamonte Springs dump. Last week, the court ordered the Seminole Circuit Court to hold a hearing Friday in Sanford on DiListo's recantation. Now that the hearing will be delayed so prosecutors have time to prepare, Three of the justices - Leander Shaw, Gerald Kogan and Harry Lee Anstead- questioned whether even the Nov.15th deadlone gives lawyers enough time to adequately study the complected case. Spaziano refused to meet with a CCR attorney Monday. His mother, Rose, wrote to Mello asking him to not allow CCR on the case. The justices said they understood Spaziano's distress but noted that Mello cannot afford to represent the biker and has little trial court experience. [end of 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. Donnellan, Edward 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 Spaziano wins stay of execution Subject The topic of the resource Capital Punishment Description An account of the resource Joe Spaziano, nicknamed "Crazy Joe" was granted a stay of execution from the Florida Supreme Court.. The court ordered a new hearing, that will be held no later than November 15th. Mr. Spaziano has refused to see a state appointed attorney, after his original attorney Michael Mello's actions were deemed unethical by the justices. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Griffin, Michael Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Griffin, Michael. 1995. “Spaziano Wins Stay of Execution.” The Orlando Sentinel, September 13, 1995, sec. C. 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 1995-13-09 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. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 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, FL "Crazy Joe" Spaziano 1995 20th Century Capital punishment. Florida Florida Supreme Court Mello https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/af51f244efea02e72873386d4af6458a.jpg b2f4aa19320ba9185a1f34b8ca0ef6c6 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/260e3ed6d498cea5c0e334c1b07d0fa7.jpg 04cae11e9289139d9ef8332b708a11d1 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 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Hartford – When Windsor County State’s Attorney Patricia Zimmerman decided not to prosecute a high-profile unlawful trespass case last month, she said her decision was made “in deference to the privacy rights of the witnesses.” The fact that some of the witnesses in the case were lesbians influenced her decision, she said. Was her reasoning legitimate? Legal? Unprecedented? Yes, yes and no, legal and police experts say. “She is well within statutory authority to make that decision,” said Tom Torti, executive director of the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs. “The privacy rights of an individual is as legitimate a reason for not bringing a case as is any other reason.” Two police officers interviewed for this story said they had occasionally heard privacy rights of victims and witnesses cited as reasons not to prosecute in cases that involve children or allegations of aggravated sexual assault. State’s attorneys have a remarkable degree of latitude in deciding whether to prosecute a case, and they needn’t explain their reasons either, said professor Michael Mello of Vermont Law School in South Royalton. The seemingly simple question of “Was the law broken?”is complicated by a number of other factors. Can the state prove its case? Does the alleged lawbreaker endanger the public safety? Given state budget cuts, is prosecution the best use of limited staff resources? What is the severity of the charge, and is prosecution worth the effort? “Having ongoing relationships with not just the police, but the public in general are legitimate factors that oftentimes come into the charging equation,” Mello said. “The wants and needs of the victims as well as the wants and needs of third parties, especially, in this case, of innocent witnesses,” he said, explaining that his information about this case comes from news accounts. “At least as told by the Valley News . . . this may not have been your everyday, normal trespass case,” Mello said. “If sexual orientation was an issue or potential issue in the trial, given the general homophobic nature of U.S. culture, (non-prosecution) makes sense to me.” Although a reluctant witness can be compelled by the court to testify, such a witness may be hostile and unhelpful, Torti said. The unlawful trespass charge stemmed from an evening last December when Georgina Forbes of Thetford and Susan Aranoff of Randolph went to the Howard Johnson’s junction with a group of (Continued on page 5) – DECISION friends, one of whom, a 39-year-old woman, lacked identification. Aranoff and Forbes unsuccessfully tried to persuade the bartender to let the woman in. Hartford police – five of them – were called to settle the ensuing dispute. During the subsequent arrest, Aranoff said she was shoved savagely to the floor. Aranoff and Forbes claim they were discriminated against by the bar because some in their party were lesbians. The bar denies it. The women further say the police acted unreasonably and violently during the arrest, accusations the police have consistently denied. Zimmerman sided with the police in her statement announcing her decision not to prosecute. “The Hartford Police Department acted appropriately and according to protocol,” she wrote, adding that prosecution would not serve the public good. She said yesterday that she stands by her decision. Mello analyzed Zimmerman’s decision thus: “The police are vindicated and the folks who are arrested are vindicated. At least on its face, it’s a compromise that I think had the political benefit of giving the various constituencies some of what they wanted, maybe not all. Politically, she was probably in a no-win situation.” Only one of the police officers involved in the incident could be reached for comment. Patrlman David Hedley said he was neither frustrated by nor triumphant about the case’s outcome. “If I were to get upset about all the cases that don’t get what I think they should get, I’d go nutty,” he said. “As soon as it’s out of my hands, I try to forget about it. “I don’t see that there is vindication involved,” he continued. “I just see that the truth came out. The facts were investigated by an independent body and it led to everything that my department has asserted in the first place. “I’ve been in law enforcement close to 11 years. I know the level of my conduct and am satisfied with my conduct. I don’t worry about what anybody else says, what the press says, what the victims say. I know I guided myself in a proper manner and according to our guidelines and regulations.” But if that arresting officer wasn’t frustrated, at least one former police officer was. In a letter to the Valley News, Hartford resident Frank Dupree implied that Zimmerman was pressured by a special interest group to back down. Tom Nelson, past president of the Vermont Police Association, who read about the case in the media, said it “popped” into his mind that “political” considerations might have influenced Zimmerman’s decision. “Most people don’t want for political groups to affect the courts’ work,” Nelson said. “The court should be looking for the truth. The issue should basically be the incident that occurred and the laws that were broken.” But Torti dismissed the notion that politics might have played a role. “Pat (Zimmerman) has a reputation in the state for being a very tough prosecutor. If you look at her record as a prosecutor and as a state’s attorney, clearly she hasn’t shied away from tough cases,” he said. Aranoff, who is an attorney, said she doesn’t accept Zimmerman’s stated reason for not pursuing the case, although she was glad that the charge was dropped. Aranoff said that the lesbian witnesses are her friends and she knows they weren’t concerned about their privacy. Aranoff, who is lesbian, speculated that Zimmerman wanted to show her sensitivity to the gay community by raising the privacy rights issue because she realized that otherwise her support for the police would be interpreted as insensitivity to homosexuals. “I think the state’s attorney was looking for a way out but the reason given doesn’t fly,” Aranoff said. Zimmerman said yesterday that wile some witnesses didn’t necessarily have a problem testifying, “it’s a matter of what collateral effect that process might have.” She declined to comment on Dupree’s letter, saying he is entitled to his opinion and that it was based solely on news accounts. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper 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 Zimmerman's Decision Not Groundbreaking Subject The topic of the resource Gay rights Discrimination Homophobia Description An account of the resource Windsor County State's Attorney Patricia Zimmerman dropped a case that involved prosecuting a group charged with trespassing after having been denied entrance into bar because of the sexual orientation of their party. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gutkowski, Sophia 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 1992-04-14 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 2 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 Windsor County, Vermont Court decisions and opinions. Gay and lesbian studies. Privacy--United States. Windsor County (Vt.). County Court https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/c20f9710978228eb79bb145aa4bbfe0e.jpg 03e70ce54f317559ac26b0a0e871f89e 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 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [image] END OF THE LINE: Los Angeles police form a line to prevent a crowd from going into a building Thursday. National Guard troops moved in Thursday to seize control of neighborhoods torn by riots. [image] LOOTING SUSPECTS: Police stand over handcuffed looting suspects in Los Angeles on Thursday. Looters plundered businesses and torched buildings in brazen daytime assaults. SOUTH ROYALTON --- Convicting a police officer of a crime is a hard thing for a jury to do, Vermont Law School professor Michael Mello said Thursday. But Mello, who teaches criminal procedure and said he specializes in “the general issue of regulating police behavior,” was nonetheless surprised Wednesday when a jury found four Los Angeles Police officers innocent of charges in the beating of motorist Rodney King. “I was stunned by the verdict,” Mello said Thursday. “My jaw just dropped. When I had heard earlier that they were deadlocked on all counts but one, I had assumed that they were ready to convict.” Mello’s personal reaction to the jury’s decision was tempered, though, with a professorial view of the jury’s job. “You need to be careful about trashing the jury’s verdict without knowing what they had in front of them,” he said. “They had a responsibility to view the evidence, listen to witnesses and then make judgements about the credibility of what they see and hear. “On the other hand, you had an all white jury making those credibility judgements.” Rodney King is black. The four officers charged in his beating are white. Police on trial, Mello said, begin with a built-in advantage. “Juries identify with cops,” he said. “They tend not to identify with the victims of police brutality, especially in the case of someone who is not clearly an innocent victim.” 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. Lindsey, Megan 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 Verdict 'stuns' Vt. law professor Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hacker, Tom Subject The topic of the resource Verdicts King, Rodney Description An account of the resource Michael Mello gives his thoughts on the jury’s verdict of the Los Angeles police officers who beat Rodney King, who were found innocent. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Tom Hacker, “Verdict 'stuns' Vt. law professor,” HIST298, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/admin/items/show/142. 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 1992-05-01 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 300 DPI 1 JPG 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 Los Angeles, CA 1992 Los Angeles Los Angeles Police Rodney King Verdict Vermont https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/e5aaa56964a24ee4c657192bcb37aac5.jpg dabcc563148ac53e6e1c049b4a2a298a https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/2952d4f5cd491d3281d02dd1316d0299.jpg 7b025e2bf814cdf5c10de13c78263cec 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 <div>[start of page 1]</div> <div>[header] </div> <div>Florida Supreme Court </div> <div>Court hears Spaziano's death appeal</div> <div></div> <div>[subheading] </div> <div>An attorney for convicted murder Joseph Spaziano says his client deserves a chance to prove his innocence.</div> <div></div> <div>[start of the first column]</div> <div>An attorney for Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spaziano asked the state Supreme Court for a chance to prove his client is not guilty of the murder that is sending him to the electric chair in two weeks. </div> <div></div> <div>A lawyer for the state, however, urged the justices not to stay on Spaziano’s execution on “mere speculation.”</div> <div></div> <div>After hearing oral arguments Thursday, Florida’s high court will make a decision at its own discretion; Spaziano, 49, is scheduled to be executed Sept. 21 for the murder and mutilation of an Orlando woman 22 years ago. </div> <div></div> <div>During the hour-long hearing, justices and lawyers had exchanges about testimony at a trial held nearly 20 years ago, about judicial procedure, about the role of the state’s high court in reviewing capital cases. </div> <div></div> <div>“The proceeding before us has taken a rather free form,” Justice Harry Lee Anstead told Spaziano attorney Michael Mello. “This is the way you have approached this case before the court and it’s obviously causing us considerable difficulty.” </div> <div></div> <div>Mello, a Vermont law professor, has filed hundreds of pages of pleadings before Florida’s high court, but he began his presenta-</div> <div>[end of the first column]</div> <div></div> <div>[start of the second column] [image]</div> <div>[Capition] Spaziano </div> <div>He is scheduled to be executed Sept. 21 for the murder and mutilation of an Orlando woman 22 years </div> <div>[text resumes]</div> <div>tion by telling justices that all the issues were secondary because his client did not kill Laura Harberts. The 18-year-old hospital clerk’s body was found in an Altamonte Springs dump in August 1973. </div> <div> “I believe that if I had an opportunity to prove Mr. Spaziano’s innocence before a jury, he would be acquitted,” Mello said. “All I’m asking for… is a star of execution and the provision of resources.”</div> <div></div> <div>Witness’s recantation not enough for Chiles</div> <div> Anthony Dilisio, a key prosecution witness in Spaziano’s trial, recanted his testimony earlier this year, prompting Gov. Lawton Chiles to suspend Spaziano’s fourth death warrant. </div> <div> However, after an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement into the recent comments by Dilisio, Chiles said he had no doubts about the case and signed a fifth death warrant last month. </div> <div> Mello questioned the reliability of the FDLE investigation, which the governor has refused to release, as “supersecret information that supposedly reliable witnesses supposedly told FDLE that supposedly correctly reported to the governor.” [end of the second column] [start of the third column] <div>[image] Mark Foley/ The Assoicated Press </div> <div>[Capition] "I believe that if I had an opportunity to prove Mr. Spaziano's innocence before a jury, he would be acquitted," attorney Michael Mello said. </div> [text resumes] </div> <div> But Instead questioned the strength of Mello’s appeal before Florida’s high court. </div> <div> If Mello had filed the proper motion in trial court, he would have been required to meet two tests, Instead said. The first test is whether the recanted testimony was substantial enough to undercut Spaziano’s conviction; the second is whether the issue should have been raised earlier. </div> <div> Instead asked Mello if he could have jumped through “those two ordinary hoops.” </div> <div> “I can’t imagine new evidence more substantial than a disavowal of the critical testimony by the wit- [end of the third column] [start of second page] [start of the fourth column] ness,” Mello answered. </div> <div> Justice Ben Overton then interrupted the attorney, asking why he had not presented an affidavit from Dilisio recanting his testimony. </div> <div> “You have not filed in this record anything that says ‘I swear’, an oath by Dilisio,” Overton said. </div> <div> Justice Gerald Kogan did most of the questioning of Margene Roper, an assistant attorney general who presented the state’s case. </div> <div> Roper began by arguing that Spaziano had exhausted all his legal claims and was turning to Florida’s high court with issues that properly belonged before a trial court or the governor and Cabinet, sitting as the Clemency Board. </div> <div> </div> <div>Attorney: Spaziano shouldn’t die over procedural matters </div> <div> Kogan asks how the justices, regardless of the procedural problems, could ignore the issue of Dilisio’s recantation. </div> <div> “Apparently there is an allegation out there- and a strong one that the prime witness against the defendant in this particular case has recanted his testimony,” Kogan said. </div> <div> “Do we sit back and say ‘OK… It’s tough, Mr. Spaziano, we’re going to electrocute you because all these things should have been done before’?” Kogan asked. </div> <div> Roper replied the case should be seen by another court, disputed that Division had recanted his trial testimony in the FDLE interview and argued he hadn’t recanted his sworn testimony in pre-trial depositions. </div> <div> “It takes more than speculation after 20 years of litigation and fly-specking review by court upon court to stay an execution,” she said. [end of the fourth] [end article]</div> 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 Court hears Spaziano's death appeal Subject The topic of the resource capital punishment Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hallifax, Jackie Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Tallahasse Democrat 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 Michael Mello, Joseph Spaziano's attorney believes Spaziano deserves a chance to prove his innocence. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 300 dpi 2 JPGs https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/4e50c47cd450cfe9b6c8a717a31f5f75.jpg fb76ade2f12ab3436e15f80806a0aaf7 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 1, 1976-1979 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Text Any textual data included in the document Dear Editor: Bullet we got to hand it to you... Thanks for the royal screw. Where do students voice their opinions anymore? We want to commend you for your sensationalism and your success in twisting the facts to fit your fancy. We're glad you've won your awards for journalism- Now, how about working on the reporting that gives you such inappropriate headlines and unfactual articles. We hope you feel a little bit of guilt somewhere in your paper heart concerning the way you've misrepresented the facts, the students, and the administration lately. We thought you'd learn your lesson the first week you misrepresented a story with an outlandish headline that ruined a perfectly good story, but you evidently enjoy "misrepresentation of the truth." (Student Handbook). Let us correct some of your statements since you insist on relying on your own ideas when writing your articles, rather than involving adequate student input ( the people your writing for remember). Do we have a representative sample of students on our Bullet staff? We at Madison are growing "weary of our lonely struggle and are beginning to show signs of buckling in the face" of the distorted coverage you've been granting us. Schlimgen and Thompson did not try and "persuade other dormatories to follow the Madison Plan." First of all, there is no "Madison" plan- only one for all the students of MWC. There is no mention of Madison in the entire proposal that you printed up in your last edition. Secondly, we suppose your concept of "persuading" other dorms to follow our example is equal to several of our dorm members visiting several other dorms on campus to explain the proposal and make students aware of its implications. We were willing to sacrifice our visitation in order to get our point across and we didn't want to see any other dorm suffer for the same reasons. We made it clear to the administration for the beginning that we wanted to open the problem up to consideration and not hide it away in the corner somewhere. The residents of Madison did not "falter in their support of the new proposal"- they simply feel that passive resistance and the proper channels are the correct, mature and responsible method of dealing with problems of this nature involving a combination of administrative and student legislatures. Kathy Mayer neither took away or gave back our visitation, Cindy Reeves did both. Miss Mayer was consulted on the matter as any leader is consulted before one of his or her cabinets takes any action. Your "most valuable staffer" also made a blunder in his editorial where he states that Woodard "decides upon the proposal" because Woodard's vote is only one of eight from the administrative board. Agreed, your article is one of opinion and not of facts since it is classified as an editorial, but opinions also need facts to back them up. We also don't think we're talking about "power" in our protests, Mr. Vandever, only cooperation (in our minds) will solve anything in an educative atmosphere. Keep it up Bullet, you're helping to perpetuate the idea that college students are in fact inferior, incompetent, power-hungry immature little kids. Steven P. Schlimgen, Randal V. Kirby, Paul Hawke & and the Madison 34+1 Editor's Note: If Madison's attempt was not to seize power, and thus influence an administrative decision, the entire episode must be classified as a pointless prank. If Madison residents feel that "proper channels" are appropriate, why weren't these channels explored and exhausted before the existing procedures were so dramatically scorned? Anyone who claims that President Woodard is bound by a vote of the administrative board certainly is not aware of the "facts," and would do well to read the description of the President's powers in Mike Mello's article, "The function of the BOV" (Bullet, April 1, 1978). Further, Madison did indeed "grow weary of its lonely struggle." The dorm residents originally voted 36-1 to sign in "guest #1, guest #2, etc.," but as their visitation rights became threatened, the vote to continue the struggle dropped to only a 14-11 margin. Twenty-two supporters "buckled" under pressure. Also Kathy Mayer took full responsibility for both revoking and restoring Madison's visitation. It would seem that the only "misrepresentation" of which The Bullet is guilty, is one of not presenting the protesters in the favorable light they desire. T.J.V. AND G.P.W. 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 Dear Editor Subject The topic of the resource Student protesters Description An account of the resource A letter to the editor of the Bullet from several leaders of a student protest, criticizing Mike Mello's reporting of their student protest. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Schlimgen, Steven P. Kirby, Randal V. Hawke, Paul 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 1978-04-18 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 The Bullet Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Fredericksburg, VA Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 dpi Letter to the Editor Michael A. Mello student activism student discipline The Bullet https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/e42d31e9796722644ec47f1058f3b08e.jpg b5afe018f8bd9c8c8bf65099548b9c52 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 1, 1976-1979 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Tuesday, September 26, 1978. Photo by Paul Hawke. "Toga!" Hamlet House, without John Belushi, will be giving a toga party on September 29. Three of the House "Animals" are shown lounging on the porch of their cage. Pictured are Michael Mello, Skib Skibinski, and Randy Kirby. 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. Latane, Sharon C. 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 Toga! Photo Subject The topic of the resource Student newspapers and periodicals Description An account of the resource A photo of three male students standing on the porch of Hamlet House with a sign advertising a toga party. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hawke, Paul Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Hawke, Paul. "Toga! Photo". Mary Washington College Bullet, Tuesday, September 26, 1978, Michael A. Mello Papers, 1957 - 2008, Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington. 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 1978-09-26 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 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 Fredericksburg, VA Hamlet House Mary Washington Bullet Mary Washington College Michael Mello Paul Hawke Randy Kirby Skib Skibinski student social life The Bullet toga party https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/edb4b25a8b687808ee898ddbe5438732.jpg a70941ae424a70d6ce7c27d446a70c8b 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 1, 1976-1979 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document Students survey damage caused by last week's collapse of the curtain traveller in G.W. Auditorium, seconds before dancers were due to appear onstage. 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. Dana Baumgartner Notes Additional information regarding your item. This content will not be viewable in the Public View. There is nothing to indicate what newspaper this was from. 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 Students Survey Damage Description An account of the resource Students survey the damage after a traveller collapsed on the Auditorium's stage. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hawke, Paul 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 1978-04-04 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 Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Mello: 45 Subject The topic of the resource Student newspapers and periodicals Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Fredericksburg, VA Auditorium Mary Washington College https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/ecb3e4206a206ec6691686041f5d5c6d.jpg 93d57f16684fb90860baed8db58fb00d https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/a7048b74d1a27cea2070b3dae4c4be5e.jpg af89533815566d073a7e373eef47ab19 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/5768f5b9a65e75714244615ea798d467.jpg 6c66fe2d2cf8b763a271ab81d086ea2e https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/4e0c8af954f45da279ca1a311223dc95.jpg 99b513973fdaf033be0fd504624c4727 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 2, 1983-1994 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Vol. No./Issue No. Volume and issue number for the newspaper (if available) 37/209 Text Any textual data included in the document Serial killer Ted Bundy learned late on the night before his execution last month that the U.S. Supreme Court had denied his last-minute appeal for a stay of execution. The phone message came from the Barnard home of Michael Mello, an assistant professor of law at Vermont Law School. Mello, a nationally recognized specialist in death-row cases, advised Bundy's lead counsel during a frantic effort to save the murderer's life in the days leading up to his execution. Mello has been either one of the main lawyers or advised other lawyers or advised other lawyers on some 125 capital punishment cases. He is arguing two death-row cases this month before a federal appeals court in Atlanta. He had been advising Bundy's attorneys in a peripheral manner for several years until the Friday before Bundy's death on Jan. 24. Then he became centrally involved. Mello never met Bundy. He did, however, pass messages to him. On the Sunday before Bundy's death, for example, the serial killer asked Mello through a paralegal what he should do about his confessions. Bundy had been meeting with detectives from four states and had so far told them he had murdered 23 young women since the mid-1970s. Mello's message to Bundy: "Shut the (expletive) up." Bundy's wife later told Mello that when she heard the message it was one of the few times she smiled during the final week of her husband's life. An interview with Mello in his law school office last week provided a glimpse into the 11th-hour legal maneuverings to stop Bundy's execution and into the world of death row. Mello's views on capital punishment have appeared everywhere from "The New York Times" to the "Washington Post" to "The Wall Street Journal". He also has appeared on the television program "Nightline". His attitude on the death penalty can be easily summed up: He absolutely and totally opposes it. Mello said that Bundy's question to him about confessions two days before he was electrocuted put him in a quandary. "On the one hand, if he wanted to make it right with God and confess, who am I to say, "Don't". And as a citizen I liked the fact that the confessions were closing investigations and giving the families a sense of closure, too, so they could move on with their lives. "On the other hand, I was also convinced that his confessions were devastating to his legal case, and were absolutely sabotaging his defense. They were offensive because it looked like he was trading on the bodies of his victims to save his own life. "That's what did it," he said, "Judges are human." Bundy would likely be alive today if it wasn't for those confessions, Mello believes. Regarding his blunt advice to Bundy that Sunday, he said: "I thought the time had passed for subtlety and sugar-coating. When you're passing messages to people of questionable mental capacity, you have to be clear and direct." Mello, who teaches criminal law and criminal procedure at Vermont Law School, first became involved in death-row cases while a law clerk with a federal appeals court judge in Birmingham, Ala., after graduating from law school. "I became my judge's 'death clerk.' I did all the death penalty cases that came through the office. That's where I became aware and then outraged about what was going on, particularly in Florida." What was going on, Mello says, was that there were minors on death row, along with mentally retarded and mentally ill people. These people are not just legally mentally incompetent, he said, "but crazy the way my mother thinks of as crazy - people who talk to spaceships." "I learned that there were a lot of innocent people on death row, and just in general that the legal system that decides who dies is lousy. It's class-based and racist. I learned that most people on death row are there because they had bad lawyers." There are nearly 2,200 people on death row nationwide. Florida alone has about 320 death-row inmates. And so Mello turned down an offer to work in the corporate law department at the prestigious national law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore and headed to Florida. His first job was as an assistant public defender representing death-row inmates. Then in the fall of 1985 the Florida Legislature created a state agency to represent all indigent inmates on Florida's death-row. The idea, Mello says bitterly, "was if we give them lawyers we can kill them faster." It had just the opposite effect, however. Mello, who joined the agency at its outset, said the agency attorneys "shot down executions left and right." When he started work for the state. Mello immediately encountered the Bundy case, but the agency decided to farm it out to a private law firm from another state. Among other reasons, the five lawyers were already tremendously overburdened, representing 150 death-row inmates. "You could have three lawyers working full-time on Bundy with an unlimited budget and still not do the complexity of that case and that man justice," Mello said. The Bundy case, which actually was two cases proceeding on two different appellate track in different courts, was taken over by the Washington law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. (Llyod Cutler was chief counsel for President Jimmy Carter.) Mello then left the Florida state agency to work as a litigation attorney to work as a litigation attorney for Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. Meanwhile, James Coleman, one of Wilmer's partners and an acquaintance of Mello's, had become Bundy's lead counsel. When Florida Gov. Bob Martinez signed a death warrant for Bundy on Jan. 17, scheduling his death by electric chair seven days later, Coleman headed down to Florida to get appeals started, and he and Mello began a series of telephone discussions. "On the Friday evening before the execution, Jim and I were on the phone together and he had the trail transcript in front of him, and we saw an issue that had gotten stays in half a dozen cases before Bundy, and, as it happened, two after him. "In the course of the conversation we realized for the first time that Bundy's case had this critical issue in it - an issue I had helped to develop in other Florida cases." Bundy had received death sentences for murdering 12-year-old Kimberly Leach in Florida 11 years ago and for the killings of two Florida State University sorority sisters just three weeks before that. The critical issue was this: In the Leach trial the jury had been told "that sentencing isn't on your shoulders - it's merely a recommendation - when in fact, a recommendation of life carries great weight in Florida," Mello said. Though a jury only advises a judge in capital cases on what it thinks is a proper sentence, the U.S. it is not on their shoulders, and so it goes to the judge. He then refers back to the jury - therefore neither judge nor jury has that awesome responsibility of deciding if an individual deserves to die. It's a very human emotion to not want to take on that responsibility. "This isn't a legal technicality. This is a real big deal. This is exactly why so many people end up on death row who shouldn't be. And why so many stays are granted on this very issue." Mello, working out of his office at the law school, dictated a short statement of the issue to be put in federal court papers that would be filed the next morning, which was a Saturday. The court papers filed that morning challenged the constitutionality of the death sentence. At noon the federal District Court denied the petition, and at 6 p.m. the federal Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta unanimously affirmed the District Court's denial. "I was thunderstruck that we were in and out of the Court of Appeals already," Mello said. On Sunday he and Coleman went through the Leach trial transcript and realized how powerful the issue was, stronger than those that had gotten stays in a half a dozen cases up until then. They gathered all the relevant information together and on Monday, the day before the scheduled execution, Coleman filed an application for a stay of execution at the U.S. Supreme Court. He also filed applications for stays at the trial court and the Florida Supreme Court. "On Monday we waited and waited. The day got later. The state court litigation wasn't concluded until 6 p.m., and we immediately took it up to the U.S. Supreme Court." Coleman and another lawyer went to the prison where Bundy was being held to visit with him for what might have been the last time. Mello was left to deal with the Supreme Court - which he did by telephone from his home in Barnard. It mainly involved checking in periodically that night to see if the justices had reached a decision and when the decision would be released. "While I was waiting for the court, I took a couple of calls from people who told me about the increasing the line and came back and told me we had lost by one vote. Five to four. And the four were on the issue that we had not identified until that Friday." Mello called the prison so Bundy could be told of the decision - and then he poured himself "a nice stiff glass of Wild Turkey." Mello, who was not paid for working on the Bundy case, asked how he felt when he heard of the court's decision. "Sick. Flattened. Guilty, because I hadn't identified the issue earlier. Real angry that somebody was going to be executed for what were mistakes by his lawyers." Mello says he goes back and forth on that way of thinking. "This has not been a great day," he said earlier last week. "So today I blame myself." He said he doesn't blame Coleman. If not the death penalty for a man like Bundy, who was a suspect in as many as 36 sex murders across the country, then what? What do you do with the Ted Bundys of the world, Mello was asked. Life imprisonment? "Yeah, life in prison. Incarceration," Mello said. "The important thing is to keep them away from us as long as they're still dangerous. "The question is: What do we get out of killing the Ted Bundys? What we got was a spectacle that should make all civilized people pause. What happened outside that prison made people cringe all over the world." The unfairness of how the death penalty is applied is so overwhelming, Mello said, that he has never had to confront the moral issue it presents. "But if push comes to shove, I'd probably have to say that I am opposed" on moral grounds. Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Conger, Jeffrey Notes Additional information regarding your item. This content will not be viewable in the Public View. Features one picture of Michael Mello. 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 Professor worked on final Bundy appeals Description An account of the resource Michael Mello gave advice to Ted Bundy and his legal counsel. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Heil, Andrea 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 1989-02-13 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 Connecticut Subject The topic of the resource Bundy, Ted Capital punishment 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. Bob Martinez Coleman Death Row execution Florida Michael Mello Ted Bundy U.S. Supreme Court https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/57864f6eef015ae70aee39be6d4408fa.jpg 75c7a50af141a9718863751efeb4bab9 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 3, 1995 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Clearwater - Rather than prolong their client's stay on death row with legal appeals, the attorneys for Joseph "Crazy Joe" Spaziano want him declared innocent and pardoned by the governor. "We have made the decision that after 20 years of being in the courts, Mr. Spaziano's best chance of justice lies with the governor," said Pat Doherty, one of Spaziano's attorneys. Doherty and Spaziano's other attorney, Mike Mello, sent a letter to Gov. Lawton Chiles this week informing him of their decision to file a petition for clemency. In the petition, they will ask Chiles to pardon Spaziano, Doherty said. Spaziano was schedules to die June 27 for the 1973 murder of Orlando nurse Laura Lynn Harberts. But Tony Dilisio, a key witness against Spaziano, told Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents that he was manipulated by investigators and his testimony was false. On June 15, Chiles called off the execution indefinitely. Dilisio has said he will sign the clemency petition, Doherty said. Chiles spokesman Ron Sachs said he did not know if the letter had been received. If it had, it would be sent to the governor's lawyers for review. Sachs described clemency as an act of mercy "approved sparingly, if at all, in capital cases." Normally, with a stay of execution, the attorneys would be scrambling to appeal the case. Doherty said he and Mello feel it would take a long time to prepare a new case to go before the court. At any time, Spaziano's execution could be rescheduled, and the case might not be ready. Many of the witnesses necessary to a new case are out of the country and it would take months, even years before a hearing could be set, Doherty said. "The problem is the courts have had 20 years to set aside this case and they have chosen not to do so," Doherty said. Besides, Doherty said, at this stage, the courts would be reviewing the case for technical violations in earlier trials. The merits of the case itself would not be discussed and so the courts cannot give Spaziano what his lawyers say he deserves, vindication. "We want him to walk," Doherty said. " He never committed this crime." The attorneys realize the strategy is risky. Chiles has granted stays of execution in the past, only to resign the death order later. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper article Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Guidon, John 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 Spaziano to take case to governor instead of courts Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Henry, Kaylois Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived St. Petersburg Times 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 1995-06-24 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 Spaziano, Joe Description An account of the resource Spaziano's lawyers want him to be declared innocent and pardoned by Governor Chiles. One of the key witnesses for Spaziano's original case admitted he lied in his original witness testimony. Clemency Joe Spaziano Mike Mello Tony Dilisio https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/91cd38cf4d7feb29cedd17be8f290617.jpg f364e1fc7434d9f01c680081e9b7c334 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 Execution still on, judge says Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/d56f6bbcf41117ce287882b584bd26d2.jpg 781f0c8804b813682a5978d97c605e14 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 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Calling the appeal “a gross abuse” of the legal system, a federal judge Tuesday refused to postpone the execution of convicted police killer Alvin Bernard Ford, scheduled to die Thursday in the state’s electric chair. Meanwhile, a divided Florida Supreme Court blocked the scheduled execution of John O’Callaghan by a 4-3 vote an hour after hearing arguments in the condemned inmate’s mercy appeal. His execution was also scheduled for Thursday. Attorneys for Ford, anticipating the ruling against their client, filed an appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal in Atlanta before U.S. District Judge Norman C. Roettger even announced his decision in West Palm Beach. “Time is at a premium,” said Michal Mello, one of Ford’s three attorneys. The 31-year-old Ford, who has exhausted more appeals than any other Death Row inmate, will die at 7 a.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke unless the appeal court or the U.S. Supreme Court finds a reason to delay the execution. Ford was convicted of shooting to death Fort Lauderdale police officer Dmitri Walter Ilyankoff during a bungled restaurant robbery in 1974. The Florida Supreme Court upheld his sentence five years later. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his appeal. Gov. Bob Graham signed his first death warrant in 1981. A month later – and 14 hours before he was to be electrocuted – the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal granted a postponement. The court dissolved the stay 13 months later. In April, Graham again signed Ford’s death warrant. The state Supreme court denied a stay May 25. Roettger used strong words Tuesday to express his irritation with Ford’s latest appeal, which was based on his attorneys’ belief that Ford is now insane. “This is absolutely a classic pattern of a defendant allegedly having a mental problem and perceiving a rook card in this possession… and holding it in the vest pocket until the last possible minute,” Roettger said. Richard Burr III, along with Mello, tried to convince the judge that Ford should be examined by psychiatrists and the results presented in court. In the past two years, Ford has gradually developed severe paranoid delusions, Burr said. He became obsessed that the Ku Klux Klan was keeping his family hostage, and torturing then, in a “pipe alley” near his cell. He now believes that he is a member of the Klan, that he personally has overturned the death penalty and is staying in prison only because he wants to, Burr said. Florida law – and the U.S. Constitution, Mello argued – prohibit the execution of an insane person. Burr and Mello contended that Ford’s sanity never has been formally determined in court. Joy Shearer, an assistant state attorney general, disagreed. “A determination of sanity has been made, and properly so, by the governor,” she said. Last December, Graham appointed a panel of three psychiatrists to examine Ford to determine if he understood the death penalty and why he had been sentenced to die. They found he did. One doctor called Ford’s delusions “contrived and recently learned.” But Burr and Mello said the decision by the panel of psychiatrists didn’t constitute a true judicial hearing. Judge Roettger, who also denied an execution stay for Ford in 1981, chastised the attorneys repeatedly for waiting until “the very last, frantic minute” to raise the issue of Ford’s sanity. “This has got to be a gross abuse of the system,” he said. After the two-and-a-half-hour hearing, Mello denied that he and Burr had “sandbagged” the case. “We filed absolutely as soon as possible. If the claim would have been ripe before, we would have filed it then,” he said. O’Callaghan, 38, was under a death warrant for the Aug. 20, 1980 killing of Gerald Vick, a bodyguard for the co-owner of a Hallandale bar where O’Callaghan worked. The high court’s decision to intervene in O’Callaghan’s case came after a circuit court last Thursday refused to issue a stay of execution. The Supreme Court gave no explanation for its unsigned, one-sentence opinion. Nor did the justices say whether they will grant O’Callaghan’s request for 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 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 Execution still on, judge says Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hoffman, Lisa Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Miami Herald Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984-05-30 Language A language of the resource English Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment--Florida. 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 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 Miami, Florida