1 20 256 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/97040e71d30a05e6d126b5e336ade784.jpg f2e8867438cd5c4eb5abfd4bd8ce04d6 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 - The Florida Supreme Court has put on hold "Crazy Joe" Spaziano's latest appeal to overturn his death sentence until Gov. Lawton Chiles decides whether the convicted killer should be granted clemency. In an order Thursday, the court said it will hold Spaziano's motion for a new hearing "in abeyance" until Chiles announces his decision. When the governor will announce his intentions isn't clear. Dexter Douglass, the governor's general counsel, said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is still investigating the 22-year-old murder case to determine whether there is any new evidence. "We don't have any timetable on this," Douglass said. "We haven't gotten all of the information we are going to have." Chiles is being asked to absolve Spaziano of the charges that have kept him on Death Row since 1976. The former motorcycle gang leader was scheduled to be executed on June 27, but Chiles granted an indefinite stay after the state's main witness recanted key testimony. That witness, Anthony Dilisio of Pensacola, now says that what he testified to two decades ago wasn't true. He said he was coerced by police - and his father - to say that Spaziano took him to a rural dump and showed him the bodies of two women he said he killed. The case involved the death of Laura Harberts, an 18-year-old records clerk at an Orlando hospital, whose remains were found in rural Seminole County in 1973, and another person, never identified. Dilisio told The Herald in June that his memory is clearer about the time in his life when, as a teenager, he was the star witness in the sensational murder trial and a rape trial. Vermont law Professor Michael Mello, Spaziano's lawyer, called Thursday's court order "a very novel approach to judicial abstention - that the court ought to postpone a ruling pending a decision by another branch of government." But Mello said he is not optimistic that FDLE's new investigation will persuade Chiles to spare Spaziano. Only the government can recommend clemency, and then his recommendation must be approved by three Cabinet members. 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. Simmerman, Ryan Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 'Crazy Joe' appeal request on hold Subject The topic of the resource Florida Supreme Court Spaziano, Joe Florida Department of Law Enforcement Description An account of the resource The Florida Supreme Court has put a hold on "Crazy Joe" Spaziano's latest appeal attempt because the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is still investigating his murder case to figure out if there is any new evidence. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nickens, Tim Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Herald 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 1995-08 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Orlando, FL Tallahassee, FL Crazy Joe Spaziano Florida death penalty Florida Supreme Court https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/e97ad035787b82acd2cc25603544de4e.jpg e8014d43b6a004cfa43a7e129850179b https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/884fa9e95bc0de9de1bdaaa35704e9e2.jpg 3adb010b7e787a0715e8e87854412ad3 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/a0cd23992e7bd51e4ab0c89bf8e13885.jpg 49215f1b80a8991144bf9ffb7ff97864 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Leahey, Jordan Text Any textual data included in the document [start title page] [Name of Newpaper] The Miami Herald [heading underneath name] The Foremost Daily Newspaper of Florida [edition and date] Keys Edition – Sunday, December 1, 1996 [end title page] [Title] ‘Crazy Joe’ case takes bizarre turn [Subtitle]Justices won’t hear cops’ teeth theory [Authors] John D. McKinnon and Lori Rozsa [start page one] At 9 a.m. Wednesday, the seven justices of the Florida Supreme Court will part a black curtain and take their seats to hear the case of Florida vs. Joseph Robert Spaziano. What they won’t hear is the state’s latest theory in the bizarre case. Call it necrodentistry. Seeing its original murder case crumble in a Seminole County courtroom, Central Florida police are trying to link Spaziano to another unsolved murder. They now say the diminutive biker could have yanked the teeth from one corpse and put them in a second victim’s jaw. That might explain why the teeth don’t match. Farfetched? Sure – but [Footnote] Please see Spaziano 28A [end page one] [start page two] [Footnote] Spaziano, from 1A that’s nothing new in this case, which began with a psychic driving around the countryside with a skull in her lap and hypnosis of the state’s star witness. For Spaziano, now age 50 after 20 years on Death Row, the post-mortem dental theory is merely the latest indication that he still faces a long uphill climb proving his innocence. A jury convicted him in 1976 of the murder of Laura Harberts, an 18-year-old hospital clerk. Over the years, Spaziano survived five black-bordered death warrants. Last January, Circuit Court Judge O.H. Eaton Jr. conducted a six-day hearing in Seminole County and concluded, “In the United States of America every person, no matter how unsavory, is entitled to due process of law and fair trial. The defendant received neither.” He ordered a new trial. The state appealed, and that’s the issue before the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday. Orlando attorney James M. Russ will argue for the defense. Margene Roper of the State Attorney’s Office will represent the prosecution. In the past 11 months, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office investigators have labored to find evidence to make the Harberts case stick against the scrawny, cockeyed Outlaw biker, known as “Crazy Joe.” They visited Spaziano’s ex-wife, Linda, in South Florida. “They asked me a million questions. They believe he’s involved in lots of murders. He’s no killer. He’s no rapist, He is just an a------,” she said. “I have the feeling they’re looking hither and yon for some-thing to try him on,” said Gregg Thomas. He and Steve Hanlon, pro bono attorneys from the lar firm of Holland & Knight, also represent Spaziano. “It’s a vendetta,” charged Michael Mello, Spaziano’s on-again, off-again appellate attorney between 1983 and 1995. [heading] State denies ‘vendetta’ Florida officials deny it. Says Dexter Douglass, Gov. Lawton Chiles’ general counsel: “I’d venture to say that the state’s lawyers are more interested in reaching a just verdict than they are in vendettas.” But two factors intensify the emotional impact in the law enforcement community. One is Spaziano’s proud membership in the Outlaws, a notoriously brutal motorcycle gang. The other is Mello, Spaziano’s former lawyer. A law professor and former Florida Death Row defender, Mello is a harsh and persistent critic of capital punishment. Already, the Spaziano case has made Mello into something of a celebrity in highbrow legal circles. Last weekend, for example, he presented a paper on Spaziano’s case to the American Society of Criminologists’ annual meeting in Chicago. Police and prosecutors would hate to lose this one. To do so would put a serial killer that much closer to freedom, they say. [heading] Started with a corpse It began Aug. 23, 1973, when a man spotted a skeleton at a dump near Altamonte Springs. A dentist identified it as Harberts, who had disappeared a couple weeks earlier. The case went unsolved for months. Then amid a spate of publicity about crimes by local Outlaws, police got a call from a young woman who claimed that Spaziaono had raped her. That led police to her stepson, Tony DiLisio, a 16-year-old doper. Spaziano used to hang around his father’s boat marina. Tony offered little that the police could use. But the teenager seemed eager to help nail Spaziano. Finally, after police hypnotized him twice and took him to the dump, DiLisio suddenly remembered the biker showing him Harberts’ body. A jury in Sanford believed him in 1976, convicted and recommended life in prison. Judge Robert McGregor overruled and sentenced Spaziano to death. [heading] Witness recants On June 9, 1995, DiLisio recanted – 16 days before Spaziano’s scheduled execution. DiLisio said he had been a scared, troubled teen back then. He was only trying to get in good with police and his abusive father, who bore a grudge against Spaziano for having an affair with his wife. DiLisio might have had another reason for concocting a tale. He, too, was having an affair with his father’s bride-to-be, Keppie and secretly ached over the revelation that Spaziano was his rival, he says. After Eaton ordered a new trial, the Florida Attorney General appealed. And now the state Supreme Court must decide. [heading] ‘Decision will be final’ For the state, “the Supreme Court’s decision will be final for all practical purposes,” said Assistant Attorney General Richard Martell. Despite Eaton’s opinion, Spaziano’s lawyers wonder if some-how they will lose again, as they have so often in the past. Lately they’ve had one more thing to worry about. Orange County Circuit Court Judge Dorothy Russell recently read the testimony that Eaton heard. She came to exactly the opposite conclusion – that DiLisio also was a key witness in that case and now says he lied then, too. If the state wins before the high court, Spaziano could be back on Death Row. Chiles hasn’t changed his mind about Spaziano’s guilt, says Douglass, the governor’s top legal adviser. He’ll leave it to the courts. If Spaziano wins, the state must retry him within 90 days. The evidence is thin. The original trial prosecutor, Claude Van Hook, said that without DiLisio, there was “no case.” Other evidence: The victim’s roommate and boyfriend identified Spaziano – 2 ½ years after she disappeared – as a “traveling cook” who came to the apartment looking for Harberts. In a new trail, DiLisio’s original testimony could be presented – with a little legal maneuvering – although it would be subject to a strong attack by the defense. “It certainly is going to be a monumental undertaking to try to put something together,” Seminole County prosecutor Tom Hastings said. [heading] Linked to other murders? If the state can’t convict Spaziano for the Harberts murder, police want to connect him to other crimes. [image caption] Sentenced to death 20 years ago: Joseph Spaziano. [end page two] [start page three] Among the possibilities: [bullet point] The murders on New Year’s Eve 1974 of an Outlaw motorcyclist and his girlfriend in Chicago. Although police there cleared the case with another suspect years ago, a woman who lived with Spaziano and an Outlaw informant implicated Spaziano in 1995. [bullet point] Two unrelated murders of women in Orlando. “The information we received from the streets would indicate Spaziano was responsible for their deaths,” said Sgt. Dan Nazarchuk of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. The problem, he says, is that valuable witnesses are scared to testify. [bullet point] A second skeleton found at the dump in 1973 along with Harberts, never identified. [heading] A second skeleton Earlier this year, Seminole County deputies Ray Parker and Ralph Salerno reinterviewed witnesses from the original Harberts investigation. They took a statement from a woman who knew Spaziano then. She said that in the spring of 1973, she saw Spaziano at Daytona Beach with a “a young girl” riding on the back of his motorcycle. The girl asked her to hold her purse “for safekeeping,” according to the Seminole County sheriff’s office. The girl didn’t pick up her purse after the motorcycle ride. Five days later, she said, Spaziano showed up at her door “and demanded the purse.” She turned it over but not before peeking inside for the identification. She told Salerno and Parker that she remembered only that the girl was from Ann Arbor, Mich. Two months ago, Seminole police asked forensic anthropologist Dr. William Maples to examine the unidentified remains. They had been examined before. In 1973, Lawrence Angel of the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Anthropology concluded that the body was that of a white female 16 to 21, about five feet five inches, slender build. She had crooked lower teeth and two fillings in her upper teeth. According to a 1996, press release from the Seminole sheriff’s office, Maples concluded that the girl was 15 to 16 years old, five feet seven inches, 110 pounds and had crooked teeth. [heading] Help in ID Based on Maples’ description, a police artist drew a sketch of what the girl might have looked like. Seminole police asked Ann Arbor police and TV stations for help in identification. Deputies in Washtenaw County, where Ann Arbor is, came up with a missing persons case from 1970, three years before the Daytona Beach motorcycle ride. In April 1970, Cynthia Coon, 14, disappeared on her way to school. She was five feet four inches and weighed 110. She “looked a little bit” like the police artist sketch, Seminole sheriff’s spokesman Ed McDonough said. Dental records could establish and identification – the skull of the skeleton had crooked teeth and fillings, easy to match. But they didn’t match. Cynthia Coon had never been to a dentist in her life. Her father, Dr. William Coon, a pathologist, said “she had straight teeth,” no fillings. How to reconcile that? [heading] ‘Someone else’s teeth’ McDonough said Spaziano “had the habit of removing teeth from his victims.” Those found in the skeleton “probably weren’t her teeth. They could very well be someone else’s teeth.” Maples said that if anyone had tried to adhere teeth from one body into the jaw of this body, it would have showed. “If the corpse had fillings in places where there should not be fillings, there is a problem.” Maples said. Seminole police want the Coon family to give a blood sample for DNA testing. The family has not consented. McDonough still sees Spaziano as a suspect. “He was the type that removed teeth and put them back in other victims,” McDonough said. “He was very sick that way.” [image caption] Will argue for defense: Attorney James M. Russ. [end page three] Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 'Crazy Joe' Case Takes Bizarre Turn Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McKinnon, John D. Rozsa, Lori Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived McKinnon, John D. and Lori Rozsa. “‘Crazy Joe’ Case Takes Bizarre Turn: Justice Won’t Hear Cops’ Teeth Story.” The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), December 1, 1996, p. 1. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-12-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 3 JPGs 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Miami, FL https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/86bc344cabc05589b38027186ae86b66.jpg c116f6a7090dba168f2f3670557fcbc9 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 A defense lawyer plans to challenge the secret state investigation that led Gov. Lawton Chiles to sign a new death warrant last week for “Crazy Joe” Spaziano. The basic problem with the secret report, said law professor Michael Mello, representing the condemned man: It’s the only part of the state’s case against Spaziano that’s still intact. At the very least, Spaziano should be allowed to read it and challenge it before it’s used as a justification to kill him, Mello said Monday. Replied Deputy Attorney Gen-eral Pete Antonacci: “We’re defending the governor. We think the governor acted prop-erly, and we think the warrant is viable and should be carried out.” The latest twists in the long case began two months ago, when the key trial witness against Spa-ziano recanted his testimony. At the trial, a teenaged Anthony Dilisio testified that Spaziano took him to a rural trash dump to show off the remains of murdered hospital clerk Laura Harberts. But Dilisio apparently didn’t recall details of the gruesome scene until he had been questioned extensively by police and hypnotized twice. Now, he says the memory was fabricated and his testimony was coached by investigators. In the wake of the revelations, Chiles postponed Spaziano’s exe-cution and ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to examine the case. Last week, Chiles signed another death war-rant for September after FDLE agents reported that several peo-ple--who were promised confi-dentiality by the state--recalled hearing statement that impli-cated Spaziano around the time of the murder. Mello said he’ll add the chal-lenge to his pending appeal before the state Supreme Court. But Mello says he’s not planning to pursue further appeals in the fed-eral district court if the current petition is rejected. 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. Payne, Shannon 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 'Crazy Joe' defense to dispute secret probe Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McKinnon, John D. 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 1995-08-29 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Woodland Park, NJ Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Description An account of the resource On Tuesday August 29, 1995, "Crazy Joe" Spaziano's defense lawyer Michael Mello challenges death warrant. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived McKinnon, John D. "'Crazy Joe' defense to dispute secret probe." The Herald (Woodland Park, New Jersey), August 29, 1995. "Crazy Joe" Spaziano capital punishment death penalty defense lawyer Michael A. Mello https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/2ec0d8d66ae9c84dd0e5b8f4baaf6009.jpg 6881f289078ddc30345de42ed45cb6df https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/96c3c5d8eafa567f2d08e6aa65d1f7c1.jpg 4f12b7d0179c7df0e2a0b378bd7f82f2 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] 'Crazy Joe' is granted a reprieve Death Row inmate to get new hearing By Lori Rozsa Herald Staff Writer [Start of the first column] The Florida Supreme Court issued an indefinite stay for condemned biker "Crazy Joe" Spaziano Tuesday --- nine days before his scheduled execution. Spaziano, who turned 50 on Tuesday, was visiting with his mother and sister on Death row when the news came in. He had already shaved his head in preparation for his death date with the electric chair a week from Thursday. "His overriding emotion was relief," said his attorney, Mike Mello, a volatile Vermont law professor. "But I think it's more the absence of terror and fear than the presence of anything like joy." The Supreme Court justices set a Nov. 15 deadline for a hearing on new evidence in the 20-year-old murder case. Tony DiLisio, the state's star witness in the 1976 murder trial, recanted his testimony this summer, saying he lied when he testified Crazy Joe showed him the body of Laura Lynn Harberts at an Altamonte Springs dump in 1973. Harberts was a a hospital records clerk. DiLisio, then 16, was the only witness to link Spaziano to the crime. The justices also kicked Mello off the case, citing his "flagrant disregard of this Court's procedures and directions." The court ordered the state office that represents indigent Death Row inmates, called Capital Collateral Representative, to represent Spaziano --- adding that volunteer help from a pri- [end of the first column] [Start of the second column] [Image with caption] DEATH ROW: Joseph Spaziano was to be executed Sept 21. [End Image Caption] vate law firm would also be welcome. A dispute between Mello and the CCR, as it's known, is at the heart of Tuesday's stay of execution. The decision comes four days after the justices refused to issue a stay, and ordered the evidentiary hearing to take place Friday. Last week the court ordered Mello to work with the CCR, which has represented Spaziano in the past. But Mello refused. After a flurry of motions where both criticized each other, the justices said it was obvious Spaziano [End page one] [Beginning of page two] [Heading] 'Crazy Joe' Spaziano wins indefinite stay of execution Top state court agrees to hear new evidence Spaziano, from 1A [start of the third column] needed more than a few days to sort out who is representing him. "We envisioned a spirit of cooperation between CCR and Mello that would guarantee the best representation for Spaziano," the justices said in Tuesday's opinion. "Unfortunately, the events of this past weekend make it clear that such cooperation does not exist." Catching up Marty McClain chief assistant at CCR, said his office has a lot of work to do on the case. They represented Spaziano until June. He said their first priority is to get a copy of a secret report on DiLisio that was prepared by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement at the request of Gov. Lawton Chiles. CCR investigators were questioned by the FDLE, and they told the agency about their unsuccessful attempts to get a statement from DiLisio. It is because of that cooperation with the FDLE that Mello said the CCR should not be permitted to represent Spaziano. Chiles stayed Spaziano's last execution date after DiLisio told The Herald that what he said in the murder trial and in a rape trial wasn't true. But after reading the FDLE report, Chiles issued another [end of the third column] [start of the fourth column] [Above image by Associated Press. Caption] KICKED OFF CASE: Mike Mello, a Vermont law professor. death warrant, saying he was convinced DiLisio is lying now, and was telling the truth at the trials. Chiles has refused to release that report, citing the need to protect witnesses who were guaranteed anonymity by the FDLE. "Obviously, this report contains statements of witnesses with material information," McClain said. "We need to know what that is. If the the information indicates Mr. Spaziano is innocent, we're entitled to that. If it's adverse to Mr. Spaziano, we need to know if that person is to be believed." Chiles blasts lawyer Just as the Supreme Court was issuing its decision Tuesdays afternoon, Chiles was holding a [end of the fourth column] [start of the fifth column] [Quote text box above from Mello] 'His overriding emotion was relief. But I think it's more the absence of terror and fear than the presence of anything like joy.' Mike Mello, Joseph Spaziano's attorney. [end quote box]. press conference across the street. He strongly criticized Mello. "I don't think he's serving his client," Chiles said. "I don;t think he's serving justice in general with what he's doing." But Mello said he accomplished what he set out to do---earn a stay and more time to investigate the new twists in the case. And he said he will not leave the case, though he acknowledges he needs help. "My top priority right now is to get a major Florida law firm willing to sign on as a pro bono counsel," Mello said. "We need to get that secret FDLE report. And we need to track down every piece of paper in all of the cases they've tried to pin on Joe." Ron Sachs, spokesman for Chiles, said the Supreme Court's stay doesn't change the governor's mind about Spaziano's guilt. "He remains convinced, waveringly so, about this case," Sachs said. Herald Staff Writer Mark Silva Contributed to this report. [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. Hampton, Samantha 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 'Crazy Joe' is granted a reprieve Subject The topic of the resource Spaziano, Joe Death row--United States Chiles, Lawton, 1930-1998 Description An account of the resource Joe Spaziano is granted a new hearing on his murder trial. Nine days before his execution date, the Florida Supreme Court has decided to hold Spaziano indefinitely to allow new evidence to be shown. Mello is kicked off the Spaziano case due Mello having issues following the court procedures and directions. The only witness to the murder trial, Tony DiLisio, has retracted his testimony linking Spaziano to the murder. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rozsa, Lori Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Rozsa, Lori. The Miami Herald 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 1995-09-13 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 Miami, FL Lawton Chiles https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/7c9325745e4cffe09632b159506dec88.jpg e12e6a49f2e5d700b214da95a966a810 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/d05cc4b677e03a540904a5bf46932274.jpg 61b9c21d4ed04364b3129acfc9ef3d3a 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 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. Berry, Rebecca Text Any textual data included in the document Tallahassee --- Satisfied with a confidential investigation into one of Florida’s longest-run-ing death row cases, Gov. Law-ton Chiles on Thursday signed a new death warrant for “Crazy Joe” Spaziano.     The protracted, 20-year trek to Old Sparky was sidetracked two months ago when the main wit-ness in the case recanted his testi-mony. Chiles ordered investiga-tors to look anew at the murder of Laura Harberts, an 18-year-old Orlando hospital clerk whose skeleton was found in a rural dump.       Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents interviewed the witness – who said he lied when he testified that Spaziano had shown him the woman’s remains – and at least eight oth-ers who did not testify in the trail but not say they have knowledge in the case.       Their names may never be released; all were promised ano-nymity by investigators.      “This exhaustive review removes any doubt in my mind about this case,” Chiles said. He is the third Florida governor to sign a death warrant in the case.      “I can honestly say they’re put-ting him to death through lies,” said Tony Dilisio, the witness whose original testimony tied Spaziano to Harbert’s body.      “What I said back then was all made up, fabricated.”      FDLE investigators told the governor: <ul> <li>New witness – including former motorcycle gang mem-bers and inmate who shared a cell with Spaziano – say Spa-ziano bragged of killing Harberts.</li> <li>Chicago police believe that Spaziano killed a fellow Outlaw and his wife after he had told them about the murder while drunk.</li> <li>An unidentified man told agents that he saw Spaziano and another man hauling something “the same shape and size of a human body wrapped in fabric” into a wooded area about the time of the Harberts disappear-ance.</li> <li>Before the trail, Dilisio told people other than the police about Spaziano showing him the</li> </ul> (PLEASE SEE ‘CRAZY JOE’, 16A) [Additional title on second page]: Recanted testimony fails to changed governor’s mind He signs new death warrant for ‘Crazy Joe’ (‘CRAZY JOE’, FROM 1A) bodies.     Dilisio said Thursday that he remembers telling many of his friends when he was a teenager about Spaziano and seeing bodies. “But it was all lies. It made me feel cool,” Dilisio said. “I remember bragging. It made me feel important. The more I told the story, the more believable it got.” Teen volunteers information Harberts disappear Aug. 5, 1973. Her remains were found there weeks later in an Altamonte Springs dump, lying atop another skelton that was never ideti-fied.       The case went unsolved – the medical examiner was never able to even determine a cause of death – until Tony Dilisio, then a 16-year-old drug user in juve-nile detention center, told police he had heard Spaziano brag about the slaying.      His recollections were vague so police hypnotized him to get details.     Spaziano was a biker he admired, Dilisio told them. One day, after drinking beer and tak-ing some LSD, he was taken to the dump by Spaziano, who dis-played two mutilated bodies.     Dilisio was a powerful witness in the case. The prosecutor in the case, Claude Van Hook, has said that Dilisio was not only the state’s “pathologist in this case,” but that also, without him, “we wouldn’t have case.”       Spaziano was convicted and the jury recommend life in prison. The judge instead sen-tenced Spaziano to death, citing the brutality of the crime from Dilisio’s account.       Witness recants      But two months ago, Dilisio told The Herald that his testi-mony at Spaziano’s 1976 murder trial was untrue. He said police coerced him to make the false statements. The promised to spring him from detention and drop breaking and entering charges if he cooperated.       He said Spaziano never took him to the dump, and never bragged about murdering the women. It was the police, he said that took him there, to jog his memory.       “I never saw any bodies,” Dili-sio repeated Thursday. “It just didn’t happen.”      The FDLE interviewed Dilisio June 13. He told him he was eager to please the police back then and told them what he thought they wanted to hear.      In their report, FDLE investi-gators called Dilisio’s recantation was rambling and contradictory. Report is secret       Mike Mello, Spaziano’s attor-ney, said he is trying to get the report, he names of the wit-nesses and investigator’s notes from the state.      “The reason they don’t want me to see the identity of these super secret witnesses is they have something to hide,” Mello said.      Mello said without the names, he has no way of questioning the people accusing Spaziano of murder. He also said Chiles and the FDLE are discounting Dili-sio’s recantation because what he is saying today is “inconvenient for the state.”       Dilisio has offered to take a lie detector test but FDLE investiga-tors haven’t replied.      “I guess they don’t want to hear what I have to say. I doesn’t fit in with their story,” Dilisio said.      Chiles said Spaziano has had enough chances.       “Joseph Spaziano has received due process,” Chilies said, “and justice demands that he now face the consequences for the crimes he has committed.” [Pull Quote]: ‘Joseph Spaziano has received due process, and justice demands that he now face the consequence for the crimes he has committed.” GOV. LAWTON CHILES [Pull Quote]: ‘But it was all lies. It made me feel cool. I remember bragging. It made me feel important. The more I told the story, the more believable it got.” TONY DILISIO, witness who recanted testimony against Spaziano [Photograph; Photograph Caption]: MULTIPLE APPEALS REJECTED: Joseph Spaziano Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 'Crazy Joe' is guilty, must die, Chiles says Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Florida Department of Law Enforcement Description An account of the resource One of 'Crazy Joe' friends says he was and was not lying to the cops and his testimony was a big part of putting Spaziano away. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rozsa, Lori Silva, Mark Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Miami Herald 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 1995-08-25 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 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 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/d6d165983bbdabe83da711ec4422a13a.jpg 266334acd6cf6cbb34027a1a96fe4e62 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 article Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Hildebrand, Paige Text Any textual data included in the document [heading] 'Crazy Joe' lawyers to square off today By Mark Silva Capital Bureau Chief [start of the first column] TALLAHASSEE - Florida's Supreme Court today will examine the case of "Crazy Joe" Spaziano, who faces the electric chair in two weeks, although it is unclear what the court is looking for in unexpected oral arguments. "It's not real clear to me, to tell you the truth," said Michael Mello, Spaziano's lawyer, who has filed several 11th-hour pleadings. "I really have only one argument in this case, which is they got the wrong guy." After nearly 20 years on Death Row, Spaziano is slated for execution Sept. 21 for the murder Laura Lynn Harberts, an 18-year-old hospital clerk whose skeletal remains were found in August 1973 with the remains of another, still unidentified 19-year-old woman among garbage strewn in woods near Orlando. The case rested on one witness. Recently, that witness, Tony DiLisio, claimed he lied at the 1976 trial when he said Spaziano had shown him the bodies. DiLisio now says his testimony was coerced. New death warrant Gov. Lawton Chiles postponed Spaziano's execution, giving the Florida Department of Law Enforcement time to investigate DiLisio's story. But after the FDLE reported that DiLisio had implicated Spaziano numerous times in conversations with friends, and that Spaziano had implicated himself in a jail house talk with another convict, Chiles signed a new death warrant. The investigation remains secret. Citing the confidentiality of clemency cases, the governor has refused to make public that FDLE report or the names of the people interviewed. The Supreme Court has [end of the first column] [start of the second column] reviewed Spaziano's case before. This is his fifth death warrant signed by three governors; Gov. Bob Graham signed one in 1985, Gov. Bob Martinez in 1989 and 1990, Chiles in May and August. In scheduling a hearing today at 2 p.m., the court has advised lawyers only that it wants to hear arguments on "all pending matters." Spaziano's lawyer has filed several motions. These include request to delay the execution, request for a new trial and a plea to reopen the appeal of Spaziano's sentence that was heard years ago. They include request to see the FDLE's report, and to provide money for Spaziano's defense - which Mello, a Vermont law school professor, has been handling from afar. Prepared to argue Mello will arrive at the court today prepared to argue for all of this. "I would have liked to have known whether there was anything in particular they were looking for," Mellow said Wednesday from his home in Vermont. "This is their meeting. I didn't ask for a hearing." The attorney general's office, arguing for Spaziano's execution, hasn't been given any more advance warning of the court's interests today. "There is just so much in all those motions, I think the court wants to have an opportunity to let them be heard," said Carolyn Snurkowski, the assistant attorney general appearing in court today. Supreme Court Clerk Did White suggest the ball actually is in Mello's court. "I think they will probably wait on Mike and see what he puts his attention on," White said. [end 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 'Crazy Joe' lawyers to square off today Subject The topic of the resource Lawyers Mello, Michael Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Silva, Mark 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 September 7, 1995 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida Description An account of the resource Michael Mello prepares to argue for Spaziano's innocence in Florida's Supreme Court two weeks before Spaziano's death sentence is carried through. https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/1e88ba54e92ebceed38552667be7e580.jpg 4875f5318751eeeebb812c482336507a 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 Florida Courts Delayed by Controversy Over Death Penalty 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 1986-11-23 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 .jpg Language A language of the resource English Subject The topic of the resource Death Penalty Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Marbin, Carol Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant The jurisdiction of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Description An account of the resource . Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Palm Beach Post 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 For eight years the small crossroads town of Lake City has focused its outrage toward Starke, the prison town where Theodore Bundy awaits Florida's electric chair for the brutal murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Diane Leach. But Tuesday, Lake City turned its anger to Atlanta, where a three judge panel from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the execution of Bundy, scheduled for that day. Lake City--and indeed, much of Florida, was still stinging from an 11th-hour stay granted Bundy by the Atlanta appeals court in July for his conviction in the murders of two Chi Omega sorority sisters at Florida State University. "I'm very hard pressed to explain to the average person on the street how our system can allow situations such as this," said State Attorney Jerry Blair, who prosecuted Bundy in the Leach slaying. "We've got some judicial activists there, and they are certainly perceived to have a bias toward death penalty cases, and the public is getting very frustrated." The 18 judges who sit on the 11th Circuit bench, which hears federal appeals from Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, have withstood much greater pressure--including a petition drive seeking the ouster of three of its members. In October, the House Judiciary Committee declined to recommend the impeachment of 11th Circuit Judges Frank Johnson, Thomas Clark and R. Lanier Anderson. The committee decided for the first time that federal judges could not be impeached on the basis of an unpopular judicial decision. The decision granted a new trial to two men sentenced to die in Georgia's electric chair for killing [end page] [start page] six members of the Alday family in Seminole County. It so outraged rural South Georgia that 100,000 people signed petitions seeking the impeachment of Johnson, Clark, and Anderson. Mike Mello is a defense attornry who has represented both Bundy and Nollie Lee Martin, convicted in the 1977 rapw and murder of a Boynton Beach convenience store clerk. Mello says he fears that outrage may have a "chilling effect" on the appeals court's independence. "That's the very reason why federal judges are appointed for life," Mello said. "The purpose is to remove the business of judging--especially judging emotionally laden, intense cases--from the political fray." Since the administration of Gov. Ruben Askew, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has issued 25 stays of execution for Florida death row inmates, compared to 18 stays from state circuit judges, 30 from the Florida Supreme Court, 54 by federal district court judges, eight from the U.S. Supreme C ourt and three from Gov. Bob Graham. The 25 stays are not a high proportion. Still, the appeals court's last minute stay of execution for Bundy--a former law student once accused of as many as 36 murders--prompted some people in the governors office to refer to the appeals court as a kind of bottleneck, slowing the process toward execution. "It's not kind of a bottleneck; it is a bottleneck," said Art Wiedinger, general counsel to Graham. Wiedinger suggested the Atlanta-based appeals court --and most of the federal court system--practices a kind of "legal fly-specking" that obscures the more important question of guilt or innocence in capital cases. "Most of the issues raised don't go to the search for truth or whether the person did it," Wiedinger said. "I'm not saying these are not important cases that need to be reviewed. But they are automatically reviwed by the Florida Supreme Court, and they don't need three or four or five reviews, which is the way we are now going." Graham said last week: "One thing that distinguishes a capital case from all other cases is that the accused has a strong interest in delay. "If one is serving 20 years for armed robbery, yu've got an incentive to want to expedite your appeal, because, if you're successful, you may get out of jail or get a new trial. In capital cases, people don't want to have finality because, if the finality is against them, they are going to be executed." Graham said the system must be changed, or "the whole process is going to be jammed." But Professor Steven Winter of the University of Miami Law School blames politicians, not judges, for the logjam of federal death appeals. Borrowing a metaphor from death penalty advocates, Winter argued that Graham has created the bottleneck himself by attempting to force more capital cases into the federal court pipeline than it was designed to handle. Graham signs as many as four death warrants every month. "There's a real question concerning the extent to which the system in Florida is affected by political concerns," Winter said. Three judges from the 11th Circuit expressed the same concern last month when--during oral arguments--they accused the Florida Attorney General's office of playing politics in its handling of Ted Bundy's Chi Omega murder case. In response, Attorney General Jim Smith charged that the three judges "verbally abused" Assistant Attorney General Gregory Costas and asked Chief Justice William Rehnquist to investigate the Oct. 23 incident. "These reported remarks were unwarranted and a significant departure from judicial impartiality," Smith charged in an Oct. 30 letter to Rehnquist. "I am especially at the court's hinting that, somehow, the state's position was more political than legal." Citing the incident, Blair, the Lake City prosecutor, suggested judges in the 11th Circuit have used their bench as a soapbox from which to fight capital punishment. "Unfortunately, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has a well-deserved reputation as a bastion of liberalism populated by people who have a philosophical disagreement with capital punishment and who use their public forum in court to promote their views on capital punishment," Blair said. "They are perceived in the eyes of many as frustrating the will of the people and, really, frustrating the criminal justice system." Criticism of the 11th Circuit's political philosophy dates back more than 20 years, before the circuit was even created. In 1981, the old 5th Circuit Court of Appeals--which included most of the Deep South--was split in half, with Florida, Georgia and Alabama joining the new 11th Circuit. Frank Johnson, who has sat on eight panels that granted stays to Florida death row inmates, cut his teeth judicially while a U.S. District Court judge in Montgomery Ala. Alabama Gov. George Wallace feuded bitterly with Johnson over his efforts to desegregate Alabama's public schools. Circuit Judge Elbert Tuttle, now on senior status, was one of a four member bloc of the old 5th Circuit--chronicled in former Circuit Judge Jack Bass's book Unlikely Heroes--who regularly challenged the Deep South's most well-rooted traditions, paticularly segregation. Tuttle and Johnson, who is a former U.S. Attorney, are considered by death penalty advocates and opponents to be members of a core of 11th Circuit Court judges with reservations about capital punishment. Still, many of the 11th Circuit's written opinions display not so much distaste for the death sentence as a desire that the ultimate penalty be administered fairly, Mello believes. Circuit Judge Joseph Hatchett, for instance, dissented from a decision not to hear the appeal of John Eldon Smith, condemned for the execution-style murder of a Bibb County, Ga., couple. Hatchett argued it was unfair for Smith to die when his wife, Rebecca, was given a life sentence for the same crime. Called the "death court" by Mello, the 11th Circuit hears more appeals from condemned inmates than any other--almost a third of the nation's total. "The 11th Circuit is an excruciatingly painful position because of the number of death cases it has to deal withcompared to any other circuit," said Bruce Winick, University of Miami Law School professor. "Judges in the 11th Circuit feel it in their bones, because these are the hardest cases." Some members of the legal system--including Graham, Smith, Blair and Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers--support legislation that would set a two-year limit on habeas corpus petitions, thus allowing death row inmates two years after they are sentenced to appeal in federal court. "The federal courts, in effect, have been called upon to make virtually unrestricted review of state court convictions," Bowers said. "As long as that is the case, there will be an interminable delay in ultimately resolving death penalty cases." [image - Frank Johnson] [image - Elbert Tuttle] [image caption - Appeals court judges Framk Johnson (left) and Elbert Tuttle.] 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. Enos, Dan 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 'Death court' creates bottleneck of execution appeals, critics say Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Subject The topic of the resource Bundy, Theodore 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 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. Description An account of the resource A newspaper account of the frustration felt by death penalty advocates at the slow appeals process, which they felt played into death row inmates motivation to extend their lives using drawn out appeals. The focus is on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which handled a disproportionately high number of death penalty appeals. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1986-11-23 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 Florida Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Palm Beach Post 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals death penalty Elbert Tuttle Frank Johnson Kimberly Diane Leach Mike Mello stay of execution Ted Bundy Theodore Bundy https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/754e1032183901295e62c24e710e1bdc.jpg 578e8a126791520f0fe92df4ac655fe7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [title] ‘Mello’s responsible for Spaziano’s life’ [subtitle] Roger Parloff is a senior writer at The American Lawyer. This article is reprinted, with permission, from the April 1996 issue. “If this court intends to kill this innocent man by depriving him of the effective assistance of counsel,” pro bono counsel Michael Mello wrote the Florida Supreme Court last Sept. 8, “then it will do so without my complicity. I will not participate in a sham evidentiary hearing.” To stop the machinery of death from claiming his client, Mello threw himself in the gears. By refusing to show up to a hearing for which he had been given a week to prepare and highlighting that, in his opinion, his client was being denied effective assistance of counsel, he shamed the court into granting a stay of execution and time to prepare properly. For years the eccentric Mello, now a professor at Vermont Law School, had written in pleadings, law review articles, and newspaper editorials that his Death Row client, Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spaziano, was innocent. Mello’s writings were always passionate, always verbose, occasionally offensive, and never successful. Spaziano, a member of an Orlando motorcycle gang, was convicted in January 1976 of brutally murdering Laura Harberts, an 18-year-old hospital clerk, who disappeared on Aug. 5, 1973, and whose skeletal remains were discovered in a garbage dump 16 days later. While the case raised numerous perplexing legal issues, the most disturbing was that -- unbeknownst to the jury -- the testimony of the key prosecution witness, a troubled teen drug addict named Anthony DiLisio, consisted almost entirely of hypnotically recovered memories. Although the state Supreme Court later decided that hypnotically induced testimony was so unreliable as to be inadmissible per se, both that court and the federal courts refused to upset Spaziano’s conviction, since his trial lawyer had never objected to DeLisio’s testimony on those grounds. Indeed, his trial lawyer chose not to let the jury know that DeLisio’s testimony was hypnotically induced, fearing that the jury might give it undue credence if it knew. While Spaziano’s fourth execution warrant was pending in June 1995, DeLisio, now a born-again Christian, recanted his testimony, Gov. Lawton Chiles briefly stayed Spaziano’s execution to investigate the recantation, but in late August he issued a fifth warrant, claiming that a report by state investigators -- which Chiles refused to make public -- established the recantation was false. Spaziano was to die Sept. 21. On Sept. 8 Mello went to the Supreme Court seeking a stay of execution and an evidentiary hearing concerning the recantation. The court granted the hearing but refused to order a stay of execution. Instead, by a 4-to-3 vote, the court ordered Mello, an appellate lawyer with very little trial experience, no associates, and no investigator, to handle an evidentiary hearing one week later, on Sept. 15. The court also ordered the state’s Office of Capital Collateral Representative -- a public defender’s office devoted to capital post-conviction appeals -- to assist Mello. Mello refused to comply. “We would have thrown a hearing together,” he says, “put on enough evidence so that (the justices could say), ‘Yeah, you had your hearing,’ we would have lost, the [trial-level] judge would have made killer fact-finding against us, and . . . Joe would have been dead on time and as scheduled.” In a handwritten fax sent from his motel to the Supreme Court on the night of Sept. 8, Mello just said No. He wrote, among other things, that he and CCR could not provide competent assistance with just six days’ preparation. Mello also pledged that he would not surrender his 25 boxes of case files to CCR or to any other attorney in time for the hearing. “If you are going to kill an innocent man without a lawyer,” he wrote, “you will do so in such a way that the whole world will see what you are doing. . . . I will not be your mask.” The high court blinked. On Sept. 12 it threw Mello off the case but granted Spaziano a stay. Then, in January, after new pro bono attorneys at 470-lawyer Holland & Knight took over the case -- and the Supreme Court allowed them almost three months to prepare -- Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton Jr., of Sanford, overturned Spaziano’s conviction and granted a new trial. “Mike Mello’s responsible for Joe Spaziano’s life,” says H&K partner Gregg Thomas, who handled the hearing with his partner Stephen Hanlon and Orlando-based criminal specialist James Russ. Holland & Knight donated about $400,000 in lawyer time and $70,000 in costs to handle the hearing, Thomas estimates, not counting Russ’s time. The state has appealed Judge Eaton’s ruling to the Florida Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Spaziano is still serving life for the 1971 rape and battery of a 16-year-old girl. Mello believes Spaziano is innocent of that charge as well. But as Mello says, “that’s another story.” [Break of text] Judge Eaton overturned Spaziano’s conviction and granted a new trial. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Kurtz, Logan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 'Mello's responsible for Spaziano's life' Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Parloff, Roger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Subject The topic of the resource Spaziano, Joe Mello, Michael Description An account of the resource Michael Mello successfully argued for Joe Spaziano to receive a fair trial by refusing to show up to a hearing for which he had been given a week to prepare and highlighting that Spaziano was being denied effective assistance of counsel, he shamed the court into granting a stay of execution and time to prepare properly. Though Mello himself was thrown off of the case, this action allowed for Spaziano to have a new trial. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-04 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Roger Parloff, The New York Times, 1996. Reprint, The American Laywer, April 1996. Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/29dff63ea4bf031528d23136d9fdff69.jpg 337b98eaf72f25d6baf7ad2c1be510aa 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 Your "Kill the Lawyers" editorial, along with the daily televised antics of O.J. Simpson's all-star cast of defense lawyers, reveals much of what is wrong with the legal profession today. F. Lee Bailey's cynical playing of the race card suggests that the public's distrust of lawyers flows not from the fact that people don't understand what lawyers do, but rather that the public does understand. David von Drehle's recent book. "Among the Lowest of the Dead: The Culture of Death Row," provides a useful antidote to the public's revulsion with the culture of lawyers. Von Drehle explores Florida's recent experiences with capital punishment, and he does so by focusing on the people- lawyers, mostly, but by no means exclusively-who work within the reality of capital punishment as a legal and political system of deciding who dies, The book focuses on one character who was at the center of Florida's attempts in recent years to make executions a reality. Craig Bernard, who spent his entire legal career working on behalf of Florida's condemned population, was the architect and driving force behind the loosely affiliated group of lawyers who demanded that Flordia keep its promises of fairness to those whom the state was trying so hard to annihilate. Mr. Barnard did this work as a public defender, working for the lawyerly equivalent of sub-minimum wage; he always worked in self-imposed obscurity, insisting that others- including myself, during the two years I served as a public defender under Mr. Barnard-recuvebe the credit for victories for which he was really the person responsible. Significantly, Mr. Barnard's job was not, as you quoted Swift, to prove that "white is black and black is white, according to how they are paid." Rather, he always taught that our job, as lawyers for death row, was to fill out the full picture of the person whom the state wanted to kill, a portrait the seldom emerges at capital trails in the southern jurisdictions that comprise the Death Belt. It was all about situating the crime- and the criminal- in context.Mr. Barnard's aim was to tell the prisoner's whole story, in the hopes that such a full view would make it less easy to reduce his clients to one hideous crime they committed in one day of their lives (except for the ones who were innocent). Whenever I hear people trashing lawyers, I think about Craig Barnard. With the publication of Von Drehle's book, I hope that others will as well. Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "A Lawyer Who Served Life" Subject The topic of the resource Lawyers Description An account of the resource A newspaper article from the "Rutland Daily Herald" by Michael Mello. It is four paragraphs long. It discusses the public's view of lawyers and why they are not trusted Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mello, Michael Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mellow, Michael. “A Lawyer Who Served Life.” Rutland Daily Herald, April 5, 1976. 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 1976-03-05 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 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/7e20312c7f7a22de95500ff0a5548953.jpg 51cec1395d5c18674f087da6064aeca9 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 Time for a Bill of Rights The SA Constitution, which is presently under revision, should contain a clear definition of the rights and privileges guaranteed to MWC students. The inclusion of a Student Bill of Rights within the Constitution would have one overwhelming advantage over the present situation by making explicit the rights which we already have. Present ambiguities in crucial aspects of MWC life would be clarified. This Bill of Rights should include the following provision: A. Free inquiry, expression and assembly are guaranteed to all students and shall not be abridged. Discussion and expression of all views is permitted within the institution subject only to requirements for maintenance of order. B. The right of students, living in residence halls, to be secure in their persons, living quarters, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be abridged. C. Students have the right to due process of law in all matters concerning discipline or status as members of the College community. No disciplinary sanctions may be imposed on any student without notice to the accused of the nature and cause of the charges, and a fair hearing which shall include confrontation of witnesses against him. D. Organizations may be established within the institution for any legal purpose. Affiliation with an extramural organization shall not, in itself, disqualify the institution branch or chapter from institution privileges. Membership lists shall be confidential and solely for the use of the organization except that names and addresses may be required as a condition of access to College funds. E. The student media is to be free of censorship. The editors and managers shall not be arbitrarily suspended because of student, faculty, administration, alumni, or community disapproval of editorial policy or content. This freedom entails a corollary obligation under the cannons of responsible journalism and applicable regulations of the FCC. F. Students have the same rights of privacy as any other citizens and surrender none of these rights by becoming members of the academic community. These rights of privacy extend to residence hall living. The institution is neither arbiter nor enforcer of student morals. Social morality, not in violation of a public law, is of no disciplinary concern to the institution. These provisions were presented to the MWC student body in November, 1970. The Bill of Rights was based on an American Bar Association/Law Student Division report. It was ratified by the students by a vote of 1,447 to 43, only to be shelved by Chancellor Grellet Simpson. The time has come for a re-introduction of a Student Bill of Rights. M.A.M. H.M.M 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. Kowalewski, Carolyn 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 "Time for a Bill of Rights" Subject The topic of the resource Student activities College student newspapers and periodicals--Law and legislation Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mello, Michael A. 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 1 JPG 300 dpi Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context mello:39 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 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1978-02-21 Description An account of the resource Letter to the editor advocating for a Student Bill of Rights at MWC. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Bullet https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/b3e7299702f701899ea2492ef3485081.jpg c7d1d88464d3a51929568eae2e43ac4b 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 25 Innocent People Executed Since 1900, ACLU Study Claims Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michael Romaner Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Florida Times-Union Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Thursday, November 14, 1985 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/437dba2c13cf3299fe2780eaff20cb37.jpg ab8011cab891ba2be2184cde22fe635d 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 GAINESVILLE – The American Civil Liberties Union is hoping to rekindle the death-penalty debate with the release of a study yesterday claiming that at least 343 innocent people have been convicted of murder and other capital crimes since 1900. Professors Hugo Adam Bedau of Tufts University, a longtime opponent of capital punishment, and Michael L. Radelet of the University of Florida said they were convinced that of the 7,000 individuals executed in this century, 25 were erroneously convicted – including a man executed in Florida last year. Radelet said he and Bedau had to use their own judgment in determining innocence because “the states never admit putting a man to death by mistake.” The list include such famous defendants as Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, anarchists who were executed in 1927 for killing a paymaster and his guard; Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, executed in 1953 after the conviction for selling atomic secrets to the Soviet Union; and Bruno Richard Hauptmann, electrocuted in 1936 for the murder of the infant son of aviator Charles A. Lindbergh. All three cases spawned a host of contradictory studies of whether the convictions were justified. The research, presented yesterday to a national conference of criminologists in San Diego, also listed 19 people on Death Row it said came within 72 hours of being executed when their innocence was discovered. And many other victims of injustices spent years in prison in capital cases, the professors said. “Since 1900, there have been innocent people on Death Row nearly every year,” Radelet said. “Based on that, I would bet every cent I’ve got that there are innocent people on Death Row today.” About 1,600 prisoners are on Death Row in the United States according to the American Civil Liberties Union. “These horrible facts are dramatic proof of the ongoing fallibility of our death-sentencing laws,” said Henry Schwarzschild, director of the ACLU’s capital punishment project. “Judges, legislators and the American public are entitled to know about the unavoidable risk of executing the innocent.” Radelet and Bedau, author of The Death Penalty in America, have spent the last three years examining convictions in capital crimes. “I admit in many of these cases that had I sat on the jury, I would have found the guy guilty, also,” Radelet said yesterday. “Jurors, like the rest of us, are human beings. And human beings make mistakes.” The Radelet-Bedau study –ts 343 convictions, all but 25 of which were later overturned – not because of legal technicalities, Radelet said, but because innocence was established. Lawyers representing Death Row inmates already are preparing to use the study as a basis for defending their clients. Michael Mello, an attorney with a newly created office in Tallahassee that represents Florida’s indigent Death Row population, said yesterday he intended to file an appeal next week, based on the study, on behalf of Joe Spaziano. Gov. Bob Graham signed a death warrant last week for Spaziano, who was convicted of killing a Seminole County woman. He is scheduled to be executed Dec. 3. “Up until Mike’s study, we suspected intuitively that there were a lot of miscarriages of justice,” Mello said. “But what we now have is documentation of that.” But challenges of that documentation are likely. Last year, James Adams was executed for the murder of a Florida rancher. Radelet and Bedau contend that Adams was innocent. His case is the only instance cited in the study of an innocent man being executed in the last 20 years. Among evidence presented in the study was a statement from a witness who said he saw someone fleeing the rancher’s house and that person “was positively not Adams.” The study also indicates that hair found clutched in the victim’s hand did not match Adams’ hair. “Much of this exculpatory information was not discovered until the case was examined by a skilled investigator the month before Adams’ execution. Governor Graham, however, refused to grant even a short stay to try to resolve these questions,” the study said. Radelet said it was a difficult decision for him to include the Adams case in the study. He said he expected backlash from it, but “I really believe that James Adams was innocent.” Art Wiedinger, assistant general counsel to Graham, said he was surprised that the Adams case was included in the report. He said Graham took extreme care in handling the case and reviewed the materials Radelet referred to. “They did supply memorandum, I think, the week before the execution, and based on that review, the governor felt there was no basis to overturn the conviction,” Wiedinger said. He said that not having read the study he had no opinion on whether it might alter popular opinion on the death penalty. But he said U.S. and Florida law require the exercise of extreme caution in capital cases. “Given all those safeguards, I think that meets all the problems.” Ernest van den Haag, a Fordham University professor and one of the nation’s leading authors promoting the death penalty, said yesterday from his New York home that it should be no surprise to anyone that innocent people have been executed. “Trucks do run over innocent people once in a while. We continue to drive trucks because we feel the advantages outweigh the costs,” he said. “I should say the same is true in justice. The advantages of having the death sentence outweigh the costs of making an occasional mistake.” Van den Haag also said he did not expect the study to result in any policy changes – “none whatsoever, because anyone with common sense knows that mistakes will be made.” Radelet said he hoped the study eventually would bring about the abolition of the death penalty. But he said he would be pleased if people “will remember that the possibility of convicting innocent people is very real.” This report contains material from wire services. 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 25 Innocent People Executed Since 1900, ACLU Study Claims Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Romaner, Michael Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Florida Times-Union 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 1985-11- 14 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida Subject The topic of the resource Death penalty 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 jpg 300 dpi Language A language of the resource English ACLU Florida https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/4eaf8041f3f58c810e1610558184ece9.jpg 18cceca6e25681e4dcb7f426cc6f2fe4 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/130335c6829fe0342a21a7ff9d102741.jpg 419c61b7da9e7635fa524ebb66727522 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 The 981 students who responded to the recent SA poll on 23-hour visitation indicated overwhelming support for “the creation of an experimental dormitory which would operate under a system of 23-hour visitation.” 80.1% of those returning the surveys favored the establishment of such a policy at Mary Washington College, and 58.7% indicated that they personally would live in a dormitory with 23-hour visitation. According to poll organizer Eric Wootten, the survey was distributed to the 1669 residential students at MWC. The purpose of the poll, according to its introduction, was to “determine whether students are satisfied with the present visitation policy and, if not, whether the option of twenty-three hour visitation is a desirable alternative.” These results are consistant with the findings of a similar survey conducted by the SA three years ago. 80.1% of those polled in 1975 favored extended visitation hours; this figure is exactly the same as the findings of the recent survey. The percentage of students willing to tolerate the possibility of an “increased security risk” rose 15% since 1975, from 79% to 94%. The percentage of students willing to “occasionally make other sleeping arrangements” under a policy of extended visitation also increased: from 77% in 1975 to 89% today. Other findings in the poll include: <ul> <li>65% favored and 21.2% oppressed the granting of the 23-hour option to students between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one who are financially independent. 13.3% had no option.</li> <li>70.8% favored and 21.9% opposed the granting of the option to students between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one who could secure parental consent. 7.3% expressed no opinion.</li> <li>96.6% were aware and 2.0% were not aware that “a system of 23-hour visitation could necessitate the use of…proper dress outside of your room.”</li> <li>84.1% realized and 13.3% did not realize that extended visitation might entail “sharing bathrooms with the opposite sex.”</li> <li>89.2 were aware and 8.2 were not aware that such a policy might necessitate “occasionally making other sleeping arrangements.”</li> <li>94% realized and 4% did not realize that 23-hour visitation could entail “increased security precautions.” Students had a wide range of comments on the question of 23-hour visitation. “23 hour would give us the freedom to live like the adults that the College says we are.” “It would put this school into the Twentieth Century.” “It’s totally against the whole purpose of MWC.” “We already have our morals established by the time we get to College. If students are going to have sex, they’ll have it regardless of the visitation policies.” “The visitation system is the most glaring anachronism at this school—an outdated leftover from a bygone time.” “23 hour visitation is ridiculous. We are here for an education, not a total social life.” “If a poor, neurotic girl has to have her boyfriend around 23 hours a day, let them either go to a motel, get married, or make use of Ball Circle. If offers no advantages except for whores and their clients.” “It would allow adults to make an obviously personal decision.” “My husband could visit me at any time.” “The demonstrated maturity of students on this campus does not seem to warrant mush optimism for the success of 23 hour visitation, but I think that I should be given a chance to stand or fall on its own merits.” “Dorm life is as much a part of our learning experience as are classes. We should have the option of as many lifestyles as possible.” “I have friends at schools that have 23 hour visitation, and they have little good to say about that system. Roommate friction is a big problem.” “It is absurd to say that a student is old enough to drink, vote and go to war, but not old enough to chose who should be in one’s room at any time.” “It’s worth a try.!” This recent poll was organized under the auspices of SA Whip Eric Wootten. Wootten commissioned Student Lobby Research Committee Co-Chairman Betsy Bowen in mid-September to conduct the survey. Bowen, who is also Chairman of the Special Projects Committee of the SA Senate, plans to conduct thorough research into the ramifications that 23-hour visitation would have on WMC. This research will include a study of other Virginia institutions of higher learning as well as an evaluation of the state of the Virginia law as it relates to 23-hour visitation. The results of the survey will be submitted to the Executive Cabinet later this semester for consideration. Wootten said that he plans to poll the parents of residential students, as well as alumni about the question of 23-hour visitation in the near future.</li> </ul> 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. Walsh, Eily P. Notes Additional information regarding your item. This content will not be viewable in the Public View. The surveys were conducted by the SA three years prior to the article. There are also quotes from students speaking about 23-hour visitation rights. 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 569 Would Live In 23-Hour Dorm Subject The topic of the resource Dormitory Life Description An account of the resource Students of Mary Washington College give their opinions on 23-hour visitation rights. Information is based off of polls taken to see how the students feel. It tells the reader of what is soon to come based off of the negative opinions. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mello, Michael A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mello, Michael A. "569 Would Live In 23-Hour Dorm." The Bullet, Tuesday, October 17, 1978, News Clippings, Box 1, April 19, 1976-October, 1979, 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 1978-10-17 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 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 College Life Dorm Life Student Polls Visitation Rights https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/80dd35f80e5c1d50a8a7dd704869ff0d.jpg 6d37b389440312912b545cb6773395e5 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/44811a075d236338decdcecf1c0760b8.jpg e00b0fdd75f149bee01d28ffb7fccdc1 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/b87f0fa2a0ee3e30139a805a0669183b.jpg 58ad9b0d21f658c209a07022665dd7e1 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 Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Ferrell, Claudine Text Any textual data included in the document The careful reader will have noticed an odd aspect of the recent debate on homosexuality contained within the letters and “Viewpoint” sections of the BULLET with the exception of the original “Viewpoint” on the issue, no gay student students have participated in that debate. This is not because members of the MWC gay community have nothing to say, nor is it because they do not wish to express those opinions in print; in fact, the BULLET received two letters from MWC homosexuals. But, because the authors of those letters were not yet ready to “come out of the closet” and hence felt that they could not allow their names to appear at the bottom of letters giving first hand accounts of what it is like to be a gay student at Mary Washington College, the BULLET refused to print the letters with “names withheld.” The BULLET has a long-standing-policy of requiring all letters to be signed. The advantages of this policy are obvious and it certainly is not the purpose of this editorial to suggest that it ought to be abandoned or that it should not apply in the great majority of instances. Departures from this policy should not be made lightly, but these two present letters do justify such a departure. Besides offering the gay viewpoint on the question of homosexuality (an important perspective on the issue to say the least), both letters were excellently written and one was so good that it could rightly be called a social document; they both offered insights into this important issue that BULLET readers would have found valuable. Yet it is unrealistic to expect these students to sign their letters, to make that a requirement, to say to them that they must “come out” before they can express their views as homosexuals in the newspaper. This requirement is unrealistic for obvious reasons: in addition to the possibility of conflict with family members at home if they were to know the truth, MWC students who have “come out” in the past have been subjected to harrassment, ridicule and ostracism on campus. Ivy Martin, who declared her homosexuality in 1976 and was branded the “campus queer” from that time until she graduated last May, is the best argument I know against requiring gay students to “come out” in the BULLET before their views as gays may be printed in the school newspaper. It is important to note that we are not dealing with unsigned letters here: both students were willing to sign their work. The BULLET Editorial Board would thus have known the identities of the authors; this is crucial for legal purposes and so that the Board could be assured that the writers were indeed MWC students and hence (because of the Honor Code) that they were in fact gay. What the authors of the letters could not allow was for their names to appear in print; the two letters would have appeared with “names withheld.” Many newspapers, including the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star employ a policy of withholding the names of certain letter writers in rare cases, so long as the newspaper can validate their identity and authenticity. These publications realize that it is unfair and unreasonable to demand that certain individuals sign their work in print. The author of the original “Viewpoint” explained that she refused to subject herself to “the pointing fingers, the jeers, the incrimination of those who check out what you wear and how you act and wonder ‘HOW COULD SHE?’ No, I‘ll not be MWC’s token gay.” Can we really blame her? It may seem that making an exception here is unfair to those who are required to sign their letters. But those two cases are not quite comparable: the great majority of people who write letters to the BULLET can sign them free from the fear that their lives at MWC will be ruined by doing so. This is not the case with these gay students writing as gay students. Once again Ivy Martin is an example of what MWC does to those who do “come out.” Is it really fair to equate a student writing and signing a letter about brick paths with a student writing and signing a letter which begins “as a gay student, I would like to address the present debate on homosexuality”? One advantage of pursuing a hard line on the present policy is simplicity: an absolute policy of not withholding the names of any letter writers solves the problem of deciding which letters to except from the general policy and which to reject. Whenever exceptions to a policy are made, the potential exists that the exceptions might become the rule. But there is no reason for this to happen. Withholding the names of these two gay students would not mean that the BULLET would thereafter be obligated to print every unsigned letter it received; on the contrary, the Editorial Board would still have the discretion to deny a letter writer the privilege of having his name withheld in print. As stated at the outset, exceptions to the general policy of requiring letters to be signed in print would only be made in rare cases. The question then becomes one of criteria, where to draw the line in deciding when to allow exceptions. It is impossible to state precisely what conditions would be excusing, but two standards do suggest themselves. First, the BULLET does not accept letters that violate the laws of libel, and this would be extended to include these “name withheld” letters. Secondly, the writer would have to convince the Board that there is a valid and compelling reason for his inability to sign the letter in print. The present case of the two gay letter writers, in which the destructive ramifications of compelling the author to sign his work in print is obvious, would be a good yardstick to use here. Most importantly, the Board would exercise simple common sense in deciding which letter to print “name withheld.” Common sense is, of course, a subjective concept that defies definition. It is conceivable that members of the Editorial Board could disagree on when it should apply in particular instances, but that is one advantage of having a five-member Board: no single person’s perceptions rule supreme. I do not believe that a policy of rare exceptions would create the massive problems that some assert; rather, it would give us the flexibility to deal reasonably with those letter writers who have a legitimate reason for not affixing their names to their work in print. MAM The Bullet Established 1922 Printed by and for the MWC Community in the offices of the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. Helen Marie McFalls, Editor-in-chief Michael Allen Mello, Managing Editor Gary Price Webb, News Editor John Matthew Coski, Features Editor Anita Lynn Churney, Business Manager The Bullet Mary Washington College is an affirmative action equal employment opportunity institution. It does not discriminate against any person for reasons of age, sex, marital status, race, nationality, religion, or political affiliation. The Staff of the Bullet Chief Assistant Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ruth Spivey Assistant Editors . . . . . . Jane Opitz and Laurie Shelor Photography Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Paul Hawke Assistant Photography Editor . . . . . . . . . .Pam Marks Advertising Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Anne Hayes Sports Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Candy Sams Assistant Sports Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Julie Harrell Circulation Managers . .Evelyn Watts, Juanita Grimm Staff Photographers . . . . . . . . Patty Shillington, Karen Noss, Felicia Mazur Staff--Tracy Hudson, Jean Smith, Betsy Rohaly, Laura Hall, Ann Lambert, Carrie Rebora, Dean Ball, Patrick Thompson, Mary Lee, Cynthia Nash, Mark Madigan, Cindy Goforth, Darla Fjeld. Vol. No./Issue No. Volume and issue number for the newspaper (if available) vol. 52, issue no. 10 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 A Case for Anonymity 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 jpg 300dpi 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, Virginia Subject The topic of the resource Gay students. College student newspapers and periodicals. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mello, Michael Allen Description An account of the resource Editorial dealing with the Bullet's decision not to publish two letters by gay students because the students did not want their names printed. The editorial discusses the impact on gay students if their homosexuality is revealed, citing the case of Ivy Martin. It concludes by arguing for a policy of exceptions based on "common sense" and consideration of "valid and compelling reason[s]" to withhold names. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1978-11-30 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mello, Michael Allen [MAM]. "A Case for Anonymity." Editorial, The Bullet (Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA), November 20, 1978, p. 2. Bullet Editorial Board editorial gay students gays homosexuality Ivy Martin letters to editor libel Viewpoint https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/8cd0e54028010de33a0d2b1884905c80.jpg 5f1b353effa4f2c49da912419bda5ab3 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 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. Gaddie, Jason Text Any textual data included in the document A death penalty mistake On June 27, Joseph Robert Spaziano is scheduled to die in Florida’s electric chair. A powerful case can be made for why he shouldn’t. Spaziano, as his former attorney describes him, is no boy scout. He was a member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang. He was convicted of raping a 16-year-old and slashing her eyes in 1975. While he was serving a life sentence for that crime, he was indicted and convicted for the murder of Laura Lynn Harberts, an 18-year-old woman whose body was found in a garbage dump. But the lawyer, Michael Mello, now a law professor in Vermont, also describes Spaziano as a man who is going to be killed by mistakes, the errors of a judicial system that has deemed his case reviewed and therefore, inexplicably, has chosen to ignore a preponderance of reasons casting doubt that he was the murderer. As Mello wrote (see page 1D) in a plea to spare his former client, whom he represented on appeal, “Mr. Spaziano is, I believe in my bone marrow, innocent.” Give weight to the courts would not: A jury recommended a life sentence for Spaziano because of the member’s doubt of his guilt. Twice jurors told the judge they could not reach a verdict, and the judge pressured them saying. “do your duty to agree on a verdict, if possible, so this case may be disposed of.” The judge then overrode the jury’s sentence recommendation. The testimony of the state’s chief witness was based on recall extracted by police hypnosis, a fact not disclosed to jury or judge. The prosecution told the court that if it didn’t have this witness’ testimony. “we’d absolutely have no case here whatsoever.” Too late for Spaziano, the Florida Supreme Court ruled such testimony inadmissible because it is so unreliable. Two years after the murder, when attention turned toward Spaziano, he had no recall of where he was when the Orlando women disappeared. Although it is not an easy feat for most people to pick a time 24 months prior and re-create a day’s activities, Spaziano has another reason for being short on memory. In 1966 he suffered a severe head injury in a car accident, the variety of which is classically connected to organic personality syndrome. On the same day he signed Spaziano’s death warrant, Gov. Lawton Chilles said he was uncertain whether he would sign a bill the legislature passed that would reduce the importance of a jury’s sentencing recommendation. Spaziano’s experience should erase any doubt about the bill’s dangerous consequences. Clemency is the only clear route to justice in the Spaziano case, which Chiles should not let be another tragic example of the death penalty’s tragic flaw. No matter how one feels about capital punishment, no one should be able to bear the thought of executing a person by mistake. 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 A death penalty mistake Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-06-04 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant St. Petersburg, FL Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "A death penalty mistake." St. Petersburg Times, June 04, 1995. Subject The topic of the resource Executions--1990-2000 Death penalty Description An account of the resource A motorcycle gang member, Joseph Robert Spaziano, is convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of an 18-year old woman. However, new doubts emerge about the crime, and the court proceedings and Spaziano's mental health are called into question. Clemency for Spaziano is called for. https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/8a511095d19e3fde76afbbd768ab042e.jpg bbae588c2ddf046545cd601a100865f9 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 A letter from death row Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Subject The topic of the resource The prospect of capital punishment Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Newspaper Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 jpg. Language A language of the resource English 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 Let me ask a favor. Take a couple of minutes, if you will, to read a letter from Joe Giarratano. He is on death row in Virginia’s prison at Boydton. On Oct. 1 the Supreme Court turned down his last appeal. His legal roads have run out. If Gov. Doug Wilder refuses to intervene, Joe will be executed before the end of the year. By way of background: On the unchallenged record, Joe Giarratano was the product of a sordid childhood. He had a limited high school education. Those facts do not excuse, but they help to explain. In February 1979, when this sad chapter began, Giarratano was 21 years old, a drug addict, a drunkard, and a drifter working on a fish boat. The ugly details of the crime are now irrelevant. Joe was charged and convicted of the rape-murder of a 15-year-old girl and the murder of her mother. The only evidence against him came from five separate confessions he signed in the hours immediately after the arrest. The confessions were internally inconsistent: they smacked of police coaching. Following a brief non-jury trial, a judge sentenced him to death. That was almost 12 years ago. He has been spent his time studying law and remaking his life. I learned of the case three years ago. I spent hours reading the record and came away deeply troubled. I’m not sure Joe is guilty: I’m not sure he is innocent; but I’ve spent 50 years covering courts and I am certain of this: He was not convicted beyond a reasonable doubt. Now to the letter. It is dated Oct. 8, 1990: “I truly appreciate the efforts you have made on my behalf, and for bringing my plight to the attention of the public through your columns. Knowing that folks really care has been boon for my morale.” “Overall I am holding up well, and I remain hopeful. The news from the U.S. Supreme Court came as a surprise, though it is terribly frustrating to see that procedural default mechanisms can outweigh the truth-finding process in such obdurate fashion.” “Even though I understand the judiciary’s frustration with the capital cases, I really find it impossible to reconcile that imbalance with the Constitution (state or federal). The ball is now in the governor’s court, and I can only hope that he will exercise his executive authority.” “In the meanwhile my chin is up, and I keep fairly busy. I’ve recently completed an article for the Yale Law Journal. It is in the final editing stages. And I in the process of co-authoring another law review with Professor Mike Mello (Vermont Law School). The subject is the ‘forgotten’ Ninth Amendment of our Constitution.” “Early in November, 50 law students from Georgetown and Maryland will be coming to the prison, and I plan to talk to them about the Ninth Amendment and Lockean political theory and its role in the formation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.” “I’ve given two talks like this in the past, and I was amazed to discover how little is known about the historical underpinnings of the Constitution.” A personal note: I am not opposed to the death sentence. Given a killer in the weird mold of Ted Bundy, I see no reason for society to keep such a monster alive. The prospect of capital punishment may not be a deterrent to rape or murder – I doubt that it is, but that issue defies resolution. In truly heinous cases, a death sentence ought to be available to a jury as an option. But let me ask: what would be the point in killing Joe Giarratano now? In all my instincts I am a man of the law. But Joe was convicted 12 years ago by a single trial judge on evidence of doubtful reliability. The confused, suicidal drug addict of 1979 is gone. In his place one finds a young man with a good mind and a healthy outlook on life. How would killing him avenge the victims or sustain respect for judicial process? Some useful purpose ought to be served by putting Joe to death. I see no useful purpose at all. Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Hunter-Sowers, Ruby 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 A letter from death row Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kilpatrick, James K Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Description An account of the resource A newspaper article regarding capital punishment which includes a letter written by death row inmate Joe Giarratano. The Ninth Amendment is referenced addressing constitutional law and the existence of "unenumerated" rights outside those expressly protected by the Bill of Rights. Giarratano references in his letter the Lokean political theory which provides additional inquiry. Columnist James K. Kilpatrick expresses concern with the brief, non-jury trial, Giarratano had along with a case for reasonable doubt. Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1990-10-08 capital punishment Joe Giarratano Joseph Giarratano Mike Mello Ninth amendment https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/9527903e1c8978ce8a0f59344070a78c.jpg fdc007b3ce6410d831d2416bf842f801 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 [handwritten] Sunday- Aug. 27 [handwritten] St. Pete Times A man may die under cover of secrecy Martin Dyckman If Joe Spaziano had a fair trial, so did the Salem witches. For 302 years, no other American has been put to death on the unsupported testimony of an addled teenager. The state’s only witness now insists he lied under the influence of police pressure, hypnosis and possibly drugs at Spaziano’s murder trial 20 years ago. Yet the governor has ordered Spaziano’s electrocution to proceed Sept. 21. I do not understand how Lawton Chiles, a decent and considerate man, can be so certain. Even the jurors weren’t. They recommended life. Because this killing will be done in our names, we had all better pray that Spaziano really is the man who raped and butchered Laura Lynn Harberts, an Orlando hospital clerk, and left her body at a trash dump. But even if he is, there are serious implications that will outlive him. It will be the first time in memory that someone went to his death on the strength of secret evidence. Secret evidence! Even the Salem witches were condemned entirely in public. The governor has a Florida Department of Law Enforcement Report supposedly showing that the key witness, Tony DiLisio, was telling the truth then (and not now) when he testified that Spaziano took him to the dump and boastfully showed him the corpses of Harberts and another woman who was never identified. The FDLE’s new witnesses have never been heard or cross-examined in any court, however. They never will be, if the governor has his way, because the FDLE promised them confidentiality. It is claimed they are afraid of Spaziano’s former associates in the Outlaws motorcycle gang. This may be true. Still, courts have ways of putting witnesses on the stand without jeopardizing them. For example, one of the governor’s secret witnesses is said to be another former Outlaw already in the federal government’s witness protection program as an FBI informant. He says - according to the governor’s news release - that Spaziano had admitted to him before standing trial that he had killed the two women and had showed their bodies to a young man who he feared would betray him. Very interesting. For all we know, it could have been this witness himself who killed the women. The governor’s secret witnesses also supposedly include friends and family members who assert that the police and their lay hypnotist didn’t manipulate DiLisio and that he told the story he now denies before the hypnosis, before the trial, and for 20 years since. That too maybe true. But that governor’s secret evidence also includes the FDLE’s videotape of a June 14 interview with DiLisio in which he insists in forceful terms that what he says NOW is the truth. Such conflicts belong in open court rather than a secret file – especially when a life is at stake. I haven’t seen the tape. I do have what purports to be a transcript, sent by Spaziano’s attorney, Michael Mello, who has filed his bootleg copy of the tape with the Florida Supreme Court under seal. In the transcript, DiLisio says of the crucial visit to the dump that “The cops brought me there. I had never been there in my life until they brought me there.” Did Spaziano ever take him? “No, never.” Had he ever told the police anything before being hypnotized? “No, all the facts that I had I got from them to be able to read them back to them.” Throughout the transcript, the FDLE’s crack agent repeatedly refers to Spaziano as “Foranzo,” ”Sporanzo,” or “Spilanzo,” until DiLisio eventually corrects him. Could that be one of the reasons the governor doesn’t want the file made public? What else did the FDLE get wrong? And what has happened to the nation’s best open-government laws? Relying on a 1993 revision that caught the media lobby napping, Chiles invokes a total exemption for any record having to do with executive clemency. How convenient. Clemency happens to be one of the black holes of American jurisprudence. The Supreme Court won’t touch it. For all the courts care, the governor could go to Doak Campbell stadium at halftime and let the crowd decide Spaziano’s fate with thumbs up or thumbs down, Roman style. The governor’s spokesman, Ron Sachs, tried to persuade me it’s not a secret report because the governor and his staff have reviewed it “thoroughly.” Indeed. Much as we all love and respect Lawton Chiles, secrecy is a petri dish for corruption as well as for honest miscarriages of justice. Under such cover, a less trustworthy administration easily could sell pardons. It happened in Tennessee under Ray Blanton. Only the Florida Supreme Court, it appears, can now interrupt this fatal farce. Though the court no longer allows hypnotically induced testimony in criminal trials, it has refused to reopen Spaziano’s case on the grounds that his lawyers raised the issue too late. The state would argue that DiLisio’s recantation also comes too late. But, God help us all, what if he is telling the truth? Martin Dyckman is associate editor of the St. Petersburg Times. 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 A man may die under cover of secrecy Subject The topic of the resource Spaziano, Joe Capital punishment Description An account of the resource Joe Spaziano's execution is still likely to occur even though the only witness recanted his testimony. Most of the evidence that Governor Lawton Chiles has to condemn Spaziano has not been made publicly available or brought to court. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dyckman, Martin Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Dyckman, Martin. "A man may die under cover of secrecy." St. Petersburg Times. 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 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 St. Petersburg, FL Evidence Joe Spaziano https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/de98b1403237654e15c7a6f443f80ee0.jpg be7b0d99e5b4c6fbe6fb4b2cc55cece7 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/8affbde699646ecdade956cbd0367746.jpg 495525e8fca2740755ba49729ddd63c3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [title] A phony trial and a crucial issue: Justice [author] By Tony Proscio If you didn't know the players, you might have mistaken this for a romantic morality play: The tale of the Penitent Liar racing to the gallows to rescue the wrongly Convicted Man, just as the Crusading Lawyer lunges to stay the executioner's upraised hand. Great stuff. Standing room only. Free hankies with every performance. Trouble is, history is a lousy screenwriter. The case of the State of Florida vs. Joseph Spaziano-- the 20-year-old murder trial under examination in a Seminole County courtroom-- has all the makings of a first-rate tearjerker. The man about to be executed could well be innocent. The testimony that put him on death row is almost certainly false. And his "trial" was a mockery of the Constitution. It's an alarming story of American justice. But as a box-office blockbuster, it's got one giant problem: The cast stinks. The Wrongly Condemned Man. "Crazy Joe" Spaziano, is no Tom Hanks. He's a tough, scary-looking biker with a monster rap sheet and enough enemies (including several members of his own family) to overflow a medium-sized courtroom. The False-but-Penitent Witness isn't Brad Pitt, all doe-eyed remorse and misguided innocence. He's Tony DiLisio, a fast-talking former acidhead who seems to live permanently on the edge of hysteria. Twenty years ago, as a drugged-out teenager, he succumbed to police entreaties and two sessions of shamelessly suggestive hypnosis to accuse Spaziano, a former buddy, of torture and murder. A born-again Christian, he now admits that he was lying when his hand first rested on the Bible. Still, after days of anguished deliberation, a jury reluctantly believed his fabrication, and Spaziano headed for the electric chair. And the original Crusading Lawyer is no Jimmy Stewart. He's an angry ideologue who writes legal briefs that read like temper tantrums, a guy who insists on referring to his adversaries (including federal appellate judges) by the unprintable names of private body parts. These are not people you're likely to fall in love with. No one is going to become engrossed in this story for its glamour. In fact, many people seem to have missed the point of it entirely, apparently because it consists largely of small-town grotesques with often dark, imponderable motives. All of this may explain how surprised I was when Jim Leusner, a reporter for The Orlando Sentinel, approached me last week outside Judge O.H. Eaton Jr.'s courtroom in Seminole County, during a break in the Spaziano hearing. to ask me this remarkable question: "Has The Herald lost its objectivity on this story?" Huh? Lost its objectivity? For what? Because its reporters and editors were somehow enthralled by the allure of these magnetic personalities? Entranced by their Gandhi-like serenity? Blinded by their charm? What element of this story, I wanted to ask him, would have caused The Herald suddenly to shed its principles? No matter how little one might think of this newspaper--and I happen to think quite highly of it-- what possible motive could there be for casting ethics aside in this of all cases? What he meant, I suppose, is that Lori Rozsa, The Herald's lead reporter on this story, was the first journalist to pierce through to DiLisio's conscience and hear him admit his 20-year-old lie. On June 9, Rozsa went to DiLisio's Pensacola home seeking his view of his flimsy 1975 testimony. After getting the door slammed in her face, she used the salesman's classic stratagem she thrust her foot past the doorjamb. DiLisio soon gave in and finally told her what he previously had told only his pastor. He lied and had sent a man to probable death. That was dramatic (and top-notch) reporting. It demonstrated Rozsa's skill and determination. It yielded a Page One story. What it did not do is alter The Herald's interest in the case of Florida vs Spaziano. Well before Rozsa ever went to Pensacola--in fact, before her editor was even convinced that it was worth the trip--The Herald already had prepared an editorial saying that Spaziano's trial was a hopelessly [image-Proscio] [image caption- Tony Proscio was the Herald's associate editor from 1992-95. Now New York City's deputy commissioner of homeless services he wrote this article for the Herald] [end of Page one] [beginning of Page two] deficient basis for executing him. Why? Because we had read the transcripts of the trial and of DiLisio's abracadabra "hypnosis." Because we looked for corroboration, physical evidence, convincing testimony, and found absolutely none. Before the witness had recanted anything, before any Herald reporter had met him or even contemplated meeting him, keen observers of the legal system inside and outside the paper already had smelled the constitutional stench of a shamefully bad trial. The Florida Supreme Court, intrigued by DiLisio's recantation and Rozsa's reporting, eventually ordered the current hearing. As a result, Judge Eaton is expected to decide today or sometime very soon whether he believes what DiLisio says today, or what he said 20 years ago. Yet in all this high legal drama, the heart and soul of this horrendous matter seems to have been lost. Namely: The case against Spaziano smelled to high heaven before The Herald ran the first story on it. It was a phony prosecution, based on a single witness with a disastrous drug habit, several clear motives to lie, a story that took weeks (and two sessions of hypnotic suggestion) to concoct and a number of assertions that contradicted the known evidence. Were there two bodies or one? Were they side-by-side or piled one atop the other? Were they both young, or was one of them noticeably elderly? Were they covered or in plain view? Were they in a dump or an orange grove? Did Spaziano boast of murdering them or merely hint of committing other, similar murders? All of that depends on when the teenage DiLisio was talking, and to whom. Yet the whole prosecution of Joe Spaziano rested on this one troubled kid's twisted, incredible tale. Don't believe me. Believe the state's prosecutor at trial: "If you don't believe Tony DiLisio," he told the jury then, "the only possible verdict was not guilty." Eventually jurors reached the wrong conclusion. But don't blame them: No one ever told them about the hypnosis or the contradictions. Whether to believe Tony DiLisio is a crucial issue, but it's not the fundamental issue. The fundamental issue has nothing to do with DiLisio, or with Lori Rozsa, or with The Herald. It has to do with the electric chair, with justice and with this simple question: Does Florida dare -- does any decent society dare-- to electrocute a human being based on a trial like the one they gave Joe Spaziano 20 years ago? And if so, why bother with trials at all? That's what I should have said to Sentinel reporter Jim Leusner. Sometimes, though, the truest things don't come to your mind right away. Sometimes, you have to think things through awhile to get them right. Sometimes, the truth can take 20 years to tell. [image-Rozsa] [image caption- Rozsa] [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. Nameroff, Griffin 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 A phony trial and a crucial issue: Justice Subject The topic of the resource False testimony Witnesses Description An account of the resource On January 21, 1996, the Miami Herald reported that Tony DiLisio admitted to lying in his testimony in the Spaziano trial twenty years prior. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Proscio, Tony Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Proscio, Tony. "A phony trial and a crucial issue: Justice." Miami Herald, January 21, 1996, C1. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-01-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Language A language of the resource English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPGs 300DPI Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Miami, FL https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/5610a6453d79eddaeb82d9f6ce824c1b.jpg bfd33fcd8302b711a9b49f3c2015c564 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/c19b485d412c41dff3c25e2fd86769cf.jpg 8d1b7685b8bf6a836aa3338fd7a26784 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [start page one] [heading] A witness Says He Lied, But the Execution Is On [subheading] Florida Says Case Review Raises No Doubt By Larry Rother [start of the first column] MIAMI, Sept. 30- At his trial, no physical evidence linked Joseph Spaziano to the murder of a young Orlando woman, only a drug-addled teenager's lurid testimony about being taken to a garbage dump and shown the sexually mutilated decomposing remains of the victim. That was all the jurors needed to convict him. But now, 20 years later, with Mr. Spaziano's death warrant already signed and the electric chair waiting, that witness, Tony DiLisio, has come forward to say he lied. He fabricated the story, he asserts, to please police investigators, who planted details of his testimony in his memory during hypnosis and promised to spring him from a drug rehabilitation center if he cooperated "I've been bound up in lies, and I finally made a decision to do what's right," Mr, Dilisio, a 38-year-old automobile restore and lay preacher who lives in Pensacola, Fla., said in a telephone interview. "I've been shaking inside for the last 20 years, and it finally came tome to speak the truth. I had a path I had to choose because the man was going to be expected in two weeks." But despite Mt. DiLisio's recanting his story and other irregularities that have been documented but lawyers, private investigators, and [start of the second column] newspaper reporters, reexamining the Soaxiano case, Florida is pressing ahead with its effort to electrocute Mr. Spaziano. Earlier this month, Gov. Lawton Chiles denied that "there has been no rush to judgment on this thing," and assailed Mr. Spaziano's lawyer, saying his tactics "look pretty manufactured to me."  By his own admission, Mr. Spaziano was anything but a model citizen when he was arrest for the 1973  torture-murder of Laura Lynn Harberts, an 18-year-old hospital clerk. President of the Orlando chapter of the Outlaws motorcycle gang, Mr. Spaziano earned the nickname Crazy Joe from his erratic behavior after a truck ran over his head in his hometown of Rochester. He was also well-known in Central Florida as a marijuana dealer, fence, and pimp. But transcripts of the trial reveal that the prosection's case against Mr. Spaziano rested not on his notoriety but almost exclusively on the account of Mt DiLisio, who was a 16- [start of the third column] year-old biker wannabe at the time of the killing. "If we cant get in the testimony of Tony Dilisio, we'd have absolutely no case whatsoever," one prosecutor told the judge on the case at the time. What the jurors were not told was that Mr. DiLiso's testimony had been induced by hypnosis. Nor was the panel informed that his only visit to the murder site was conducted by police, who were frustrated at his inability to recall even the most basic details of the killing under hypnosis. In 1985, a decade after Mt. Spaziano was convicted, the Florida Supreme Court ruled the testimony derived from memories refreshed by hypnosis is so intrinsically suspect as to be inadmissible in court. But, in an effort to avoid a series of lengthy and costly retrials the decision was not applied retroactively, and Mr. Spaziano's conviction stood. "They should have ordered a new trail back the," argued Michael Mello, a lawyer who, until recently, had been representing Mr. Spaziano since the case was handed over to him the day he joined the public defender's office more than a decade ago."This is the only capital case I am aware of in which the critical testimony was the product of hypnosis." Mr. Mello now teaches law at the Vermont Law School in South Royalton, VT., and had continued to handle the Spaziano case on a pro bono basis until the Florida Supreme Court removed him from the case, criticizing him got what the justices called his "flagrant disregard of this Court's procedures and directions." Mr. Mello said in a telephone interview that he had represented more than 70 condemned men but that Mr. Spaziano is the only one he was absolutely convinced was innocent.  According to affidavits Mr. Mello has obtained from the jurors in the case, Mr. Spaziano's conviction was obtained despite lingering doubts, [end page one] [start page two] [start of the fourth column] But as Justice Gerald Kogan a member of the Florida Supreme Court who has criticized what he calls the state's "unseemly rush to execute a man," noyed recently, judges in Florida no longer have authority. Instead, the "jury's vote for life imprisonment would be legally binding today," and Mr. Spaziano would automatically be spared the electric chair even if convicted. At the time he was being questioned, Mr. DiLisio was a frequent user of LSD and marijuana who had been sentenced to a drug rehabilitation center and was largely estranged from his family. Police detective took him to see Joe B. McCawley, a hypnotist whose work had been previously discredited in another notorious Florida murder trial.  During an initial hypnosis session, the transcript reveals, Mr. DiLisio was not helpful, talking of hearing Mr. Spaziano brag about hiding stolen motorcycles at an orange grove by a lake but supplying no useful details about the Jarberts killing. But two days later after police took him to the garbage dump to "refresh" his memory. Mr. DiLisio [Image of Joseph Spaziano- Associated Press] was again put into a light trance and questioned. This time, after some prodding, was asked about a corpse he said: "I think I saw one," but then described the remains as that of "an old woman" before Mr. McCawley furnished him with the correct details. Mr. DiLisio said that he has known all along that "what I did was bad," but thought that because perjury laws "I would have to go to prison for it if I ever brought the truth forward." He now accuses the police of brainwashing and manipulation him, describing himself as a frightened and confused teen-ager, eager  [start of the fifth column] for attention and affection and eager to get out of juvenile detention at any cost. "I was like a fog on a leash, with a bone in front of me," he said. "They liked what I did, and it gave me gratification that I was cooperating with them. I was a disturbed child at that time." Following the public outcry about the case as a result of Mr. DiLisio's recantation in June, Gov. Lawton Chiles issued an indefinite stay of execution pending investigation by the Florida Police Department of Law Enforcement. On Aug. 24, though he signed another death warrant, saying that "this exhaustive review removes any doubt in my mind about the case."  Since the death penalty was restored in Florida in 1978, 34 people have died in the electric chair, making the state second only to Texas in the number of executions. During his successful reelection campaign last year, Mr. Chiles, a populist Democrat, was stung on television ads sponsored by a conservative opponent, Republican Jeb Bush, that accused him of being soft on the more 300 convicted killer sitting on the state's death row. Just after Labor Day the Florida Supreme Cout rejected, by a 4-3 voted, a request for an indefinite stay of execution and approved a Sept. 21 execution for Mr. Spaziano in the electric chair at the Florida State prision in Starke, But less than a week later the court partially reversed itself, ordering a hearing on the new evidence by Nov. 15. Mr. Spaziano's case is now being handled by a state agency that presents indigent inmates on death row, and by a Miami law firm. To help the proceedings along, Mr. DiLision has agreed to take a polygraph test, be injected with truth serum to yo cooperate in any other fashion that is requested. "I don't know whether Jow Spaziano is guilty or innocent," Mr. DiLisio said. "but I know that I lied then and that the only thing I have to gain now is a clear conscience. I'm not defensive, I'm not confused. I have no fear, and as long as I speak the truth at all times, I can stand strong, and the truth will prevail." [end of page two] [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. 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 A witness says he lied, but the execution is on Subject The topic of the resource Death Penalty Witnesses Description An account of the resource A witness in the Spaziano case says that he lied and fabricated the story of Spaziano murdering a young Orlando women. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rother, Larry Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The New York 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 1995-10-01 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 2 JPGs Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Miami, Fl https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/fcdc858be11c8a35a7fc0aa717c11aa8.jpg 5b1efa9bd8f5be341db14583b8849e7f 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 It is impossible to understand Mary Washington College's recruitment of Black students apart from the entire admissions policy. The affirmative action program exists within and is an integral part of the total recruitment sector of the College; it is not a separate entity. The recruitment program of MWC begins with "college search." Every year Mary Washington College sends out self-descriptive brochures to 10,000 Virginia and 15,000 out-of-state high school students who meet the basic admissions standards of the College. The College Search Program is a part of the Admissions Testing Program, and MWC receives a list of qualified high school students who indicate interest in pursuing a liberal arts education. Dean of Admissions H. Conrad Warlick observes that this first step in the recruitment process does not take race into consideration: "We are not excluding anyone. We are including everyone in this search." All Virginians who qualify are sent a brochure. Mary Washington College also participates in state-wide college day and college night activities. MWC was a leader in this program all-inclusive, boycotting high schools that excluded one race or the other. Warlick relates that "Mary Washington said we will not participate in programs that are not open to all students ... we helped turn the screws on school districts that didn't want to include all students." Further, representatives of the College visit many individual Virginia high schools. Some of these secondary schools do not have college day functions; Other specially request MWC to make an individual visit. Several of these schools are predominantly Black; for example, this year representatives of Mary Washington visited all Richmond high schools, most of which are predominantly Black. The College also participates in a program sponsored by the National Scholarship Fund for Negro Students and the Richmond public schools. Similar programs for minority are organized in Washington DC. Outside of Virginia, MWC is represented at many college fairs: large, arena-style programs at which 300 to 400 colleges make a showing. These fairs are often held in urban centers such as Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, and New York. All these efforts, however, can only go so far. Dean Warlick notes that "the student must decide to apply to Mary Washington College." The College cannot decide for them. Mary Washington College does have control over the second stage of the process: the decision to admit or reject an applicant on the basis of that applicant's qualifications. The College's dedication to non-discriminatory admissions is most obvious at this stage, the stage at which the institution exercises the most control. The final decision. like the initial decision to apply, is up to the student: only the applicant can ultimately decide to attend MWC rather than other institutions that might have accepted him. Dean Warlick emphasizes that of these three stages of the admissions process, the "College has control over only one. It's not like busing secondary school or elementary school students from one area of a town to another, where they basically have no choice about where they will go. In the collegant sector, the choice of where a student elects to go or not is the student's. The institution doesn't really have much control." 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 Affirmative Action at MWC Subject The topic of the resource Affirmative Action Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mello, Micheal A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Bullet 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 1978-04-25 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Language A language of the resource English Description An account of the resource Michael A. Mello wrote this article on affirmative action in the MWC admissions process. 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 JPEG 300 dpi Affirmative Action Programs Affirmative Action programs in education Article Michael A. Mello The Bullet https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/157bae4befc15b4e68a1c893aa2cf6e4.jpg 98fe43910567e74bf6b4fafad9b3194f https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/6ff940c444cbe44dcf3bae8e8e5be6c0.jpg db2ec8dc5782b53618f6e270334bef70 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [Start page] [Title] Against the Death Penalty—The Relentless Dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall by Michael Mellow. [Subtitle] Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1996, 331 pp., hardcover--$ [Article Begins] By any measure, the author of this new book, Michael Mello, is the leading law scholar-teacher-litigator in death penalty law and has been for several years. For the many others of us trying to make our marks in this field, Professor/Attorney Mello is both a hero and daunting presence. His most recent book-length effort, Against the Death Penalty, certainly reaffirms his leadership in this field and adds to death penalty scholarly literature a tour de force treatment of the roles of Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall in the current era of death penalty jurisprudence. The result of this first-rate legal scholar having zeroed in on this important aspect of two of the most important Supreme Court Justices of this century is a truly extraordinary volume. Justice Brennan served on the Court from 1956 to 1990, and Justice Marshall served from 1967 to 1991. As a result, they were there together for the stream of major death penalty opinions from 1972 through 1990. In all but one case, they voted identically; in all but two cases, they even took the same perspective on the key legal issues of the case. As the book title reveals, their opinions relentlessly argued against the death penalty, sometimes in the majority but most often in dissent. Death penalty opponents will find in these opinions (and in Mello’s commentary on them) ample support and encouragement for their positions. Death penalty supporters, while presumably rejecting the bottom lines of the opinions, nonetheless will find them fascinating to read. For those uninterested in the death penalty but students of the Court and the use of dissenting opinions, Mello’s exploration of the history, jurisprudence, and judicial politics of the sustained dissent will be equally valuable in that regard. The book is nothing if not thorough. In keeping with the traditions of legal scholarship, Mello documents his 210 pages of text with nearly 1,500 textual footnotes. While I tend to join those advocating for abolition of the footnoting style of traditional legal scholarship, in particular law review articles with longer textual footnotes than primary text, the delightful thoroughness of Mello’s work reminds me of the value of such detailed footnoting. In fairly striking contrast, the reader searches in vain for other than the most summary of the table of contents. Given the richness of the volume, a detailed guide to its contents somewhere up front would have been a valuable addition. As it is, the pages of text are divided into four chapters with the simplest of titles. Not that there aren’t subsections in the chapters; they just never made it into the sort of detailed table of contents so helpful to readers. Mello’s first chapter, “The Two Justices,” gives the reader 83 pages and 554 footnotes of background information on these two Supreme Court giants. This chapter not only documents thoroughly the background and experience of the Justices, but it also provides delightful up-close-and-personal snapshots of such episodes as Brennan’s prodigious notetaking in law school and Marshall’s coy response to notification of his nomination to the Court. This chapter tells us about the human beings inside the robes, while the rest of the book focuses upon their roles as Supreme Court Justices. [End first page] [Start second page] The second chapter, labeled with similar frustrating economy of words (“Legitimacy in History”), provides the reader with a quite interesting treatment of dissenting opinions in Supreme Court history and with forays into the products of such great dissenters as John Marshall Harlan, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis, and William O. Douglas. While this chapter largely leaves the focal point of the death penalty, it is excellent. I often have heard law students say they don’t pay much attention to the dissenting opinions because, after all, they are just the sour grapes of the losers in the decision-making process. Mello’s chapter on the legitimacy of dissenting opinions throughout Supreme Court history should be made required reading for such students. In chapter three, “Legitimacy in Theory,” Mello takes the concept of the dissenting opinion through a tour of a variety of viewpoints on law and legal development, ranging from natural law to sociological jurisprudence to critical legal studies. After comparing and contrasting the perspective upon dissenting opinions in each of these jurisprudential camps, Mello returns to struggle to put meaning into the Eighth Amendment and to “answer definitively the question of what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.” (155) Mello’s conclusion: “Some will find the answer in social or moral certainties; others will find those truths to be subjective. No one can have the ‘last word.’” (155) The final chapter, “Legitimacy in Judicial Politics,” takes the reader inside the day-to-day workings (and personal politics) of the Court. Noting that all death penalty cases are put on the “discuss” list by the Justices, it is clear nonetheless that Brennan and Marshall argued more strenuously for some cases than for others. This chapter includes excerpts from memo’s to Justice Marshall from his clerks, from other interviews of Supreme Court clerks, and from the intense behind-the-scenes maneuvering that occurred in several key death penalty cases. Yes, this extraordinary book is about death penalty jurisprudence at the Supreme Court level, but it is so much more. In addition to the detailed and copiously documented discussion of the death penalty opinions by Justices Brennan and Marshall, the volume contributes a major treatment of the fundamental notion of dissenting opinions in the American legal system and in jurisprudential thought. Serious death penalty scholars will find the book to be essential, but any student of the Supreme Court in general or of dissenting opinions in particular must also give this volume a prominent place in their library. The book is superb, and once again we are indebted to an extraordinary scholar, Michael Mello. Victor L. Streib Dean and Professor of Law Pettit College of Law Ohio Northern University Ada, Ohio 45810 [in handwriting] 419/772-2000 [End second page] Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Book Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Dhue, Helen Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Against The Death Penalty--The Relentless Dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall Subject The topic of the resource Book review Capital Punishment Description An account of the resource Dean and Professor of Law, Victor L. Streib's positive review of Michael Mello's book "Against the Death Penalty--The Relentless Dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streib, Victor Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPGs 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Washington D.C.