Time is running out
Dublin Core
Title
Time is running out
Subject
Capital punishment
Editorials
Description
A 1995 St. Petersburg Times editorial urging Florida residents to contact gov. Chiles to pardon Joseph Spaziano's death penalty.
Creator
St. Petersburg Times (FL).
Source
St Petersburg Times. "Time is Running Out." (St. Petersburg, FL). June 15, 1995, p. 14a.
Publisher
HIST 298, University of Mary Washington
Date
June 15, 1995.
Rights
The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source.
Format
1 JPG
300 DPI
Language
English
Coverage
St. Petersburg, FL.
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Time is running out
Gov. Lawton Chiles should ask himself this question: Does he really want to send Joseph Spaziano to his death knowing that there are serious doubts about the man's guilt?
It's not enough to suggest, as Chiles has done, that the courts have the responsibility for making sure that innocent people are not executed by the state. Chiles signed Spaziano's death warrant and only Chiles can spare him from his date with Florida's electric chair on June 27.
Time is running out for both the gover-nor and the condemned man. What's the rush to execute Spaziano when so much doubt hangs over his conviction?
Spaziano was convicted for brutally murdering Laura Lynn Harberts, an 18-year-old Orlando hospital technician whose body was found tossed on a garbage dump in Seminole County in 1973. Everyone wants her killer brought to justice. But we risk compounding the the tragedy by turning our backs on the significant questions about Spaziano's guilt.
As we have said, Spaziano is no Boy Scout. A member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang, he earlier was convicted of raping and slashing a 16-year-old girl. He may deserve to rot in prison for that crime, but he does not deserve to die for a crime that he may not have committed.
The case against him dangled on a thin thread of hypnotically induced testimony from a witness who now says he doesn't remember a thing about his court appear-ance. "How do I know what I said back then was reliable?" Tony Dilisio asked in an interview with the Miami Herald last week.
Dilisio's pleas are just the latest in a stockpile of circumstances that ought to make Floridians uncomfortable. Wanting justice for Laura Harberts and her family is not mutually exclusive to being horrified that the state might electrocute a man based on blatantly flawed treatment by the courts.
Spaziano's jury, badgered by a judge to come to a verdict, had enough doubts about his guilt to recommend a life sentence., which was bumped up to death by the judge. Jurors were never told the state's witness recalled his convicting testimony only after he was hypnotized, evidence that is no longer admissible in Florida. For two decades the case was appealed, and it was reviewed by the state Supreme Court four times; at no time during the process did anyone revisit Dilisio. After the Herald found him, the governor's office says it will try to do just that.
Micheal Mello, a former appellate attor-ney for Spaziano and now a law professor in Vermont, hopes Chiles will see the case for clemency, but he's not optimistic. "So many people have blood on their hands that it sticks to the skin of no one," Mello says. "It's always someone else's responsibility to ensure that an innocent man is not de-stroyed by the Sunshine State."
People who believe it is their duty should send a fax to Gov. Lawton Chiles at (904) 487-0801, or write him at Plaza 5, The Capitol, Tallahassee, FL 32399. Although citizens reported they got the run-around this week when trying to phone the governor's office on the matter, his citizen's services office, (904) 488-7146, is keeping track of "yes" or "no" opinions on clemency for Spaziano.
Your Voice is important.
Gov. Lawton Chiles should ask himself this question: Does he really want to send Joseph Spaziano to his death knowing that there are serious doubts about the man's guilt?
It's not enough to suggest, as Chiles has done, that the courts have the responsibility for making sure that innocent people are not executed by the state. Chiles signed Spaziano's death warrant and only Chiles can spare him from his date with Florida's electric chair on June 27.
Time is running out for both the gover-nor and the condemned man. What's the rush to execute Spaziano when so much doubt hangs over his conviction?
Spaziano was convicted for brutally murdering Laura Lynn Harberts, an 18-year-old Orlando hospital technician whose body was found tossed on a garbage dump in Seminole County in 1973. Everyone wants her killer brought to justice. But we risk compounding the the tragedy by turning our backs on the significant questions about Spaziano's guilt.
As we have said, Spaziano is no Boy Scout. A member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang, he earlier was convicted of raping and slashing a 16-year-old girl. He may deserve to rot in prison for that crime, but he does not deserve to die for a crime that he may not have committed.
The case against him dangled on a thin thread of hypnotically induced testimony from a witness who now says he doesn't remember a thing about his court appear-ance. "How do I know what I said back then was reliable?" Tony Dilisio asked in an interview with the Miami Herald last week.
Dilisio's pleas are just the latest in a stockpile of circumstances that ought to make Floridians uncomfortable. Wanting justice for Laura Harberts and her family is not mutually exclusive to being horrified that the state might electrocute a man based on blatantly flawed treatment by the courts.
Spaziano's jury, badgered by a judge to come to a verdict, had enough doubts about his guilt to recommend a life sentence., which was bumped up to death by the judge. Jurors were never told the state's witness recalled his convicting testimony only after he was hypnotized, evidence that is no longer admissible in Florida. For two decades the case was appealed, and it was reviewed by the state Supreme Court four times; at no time during the process did anyone revisit Dilisio. After the Herald found him, the governor's office says it will try to do just that.
Micheal Mello, a former appellate attor-ney for Spaziano and now a law professor in Vermont, hopes Chiles will see the case for clemency, but he's not optimistic. "So many people have blood on their hands that it sticks to the skin of no one," Mello says. "It's always someone else's responsibility to ensure that an innocent man is not de-stroyed by the Sunshine State."
People who believe it is their duty should send a fax to Gov. Lawton Chiles at (904) 487-0801, or write him at Plaza 5, The Capitol, Tallahassee, FL 32399. Although citizens reported they got the run-around this week when trying to phone the governor's office on the matter, his citizen's services office, (904) 488-7146, is keeping track of "yes" or "no" opinions on clemency for Spaziano.
Your Voice is important.
Original Format
Newspaper
Vol. No./Issue No.
vol. 68, issue 5
Contributor of the Digital Item
Elms, Jason
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Williams, Megan
Files
Citation
St. Petersburg Times (FL). , “Time is running out,” HIST299, accessed March 12, 2026, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/167.