Chiles stays Spaziano execution
Dublin Core
Title
Chiles stays Spaziano execution
Subject
Capital punishment
Description
Newspaper report from 1995 on the staying of the execution of alleged murder John Spaziano by Florida Governor Lawton Chiles after a witness recanted his testimony due to it being acquired through hypnotic assistance, which had been banned after the conclusion of the trial.
Source
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
Publisher
HIST 298, University of Mary Washington
Date
1995-06-16
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
2 JPGS
300 DPI
Language
English
Coverage
Tallahassee, FL
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
TALLAHASSEE — With a crucial witness recanting his testimony, Gov. Lawton Chiles has called off this month's execution of Joseph "Crazy Joe" Spaziano.
Spaziano was condemned for the 1973 murder of Orlando nurse Laura Lynn Harberts, whose sexually mutilated body was found in a trash dump near Altamonte Springs.
He has spent 20 years on death row and was scheduled to die in the electric chair June 27. But Tony Dilisio, a key witness, told Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents this week that he was manipulated by investigators and his testimony was untrue.
Diliso was hypnotize to help him recall details. Hypnotically enhanced testimony has since been banned in Florida as unreliable.
Now Chiles wants to ponder whether Spaziano's sentence should be carried out. Spaziano's fourth death warrant will expire June 30.
After FDLE's review, Chiles has several courses of action: He can choose to let Spaziano remain on death row indefinitely, he can sign a fifth death warrant or he can try to convince three members of the Cabinet to join him in pardoning Spazino or commuting his death sentence to life in prison.
The governor's general counsel, Dexter Douglass, said Chiles decided to delay the execution based on an article in the Miami Herald and editorials in the St. Petersburg Times that "raised doubt in the minds of the people of Florida."
Those reports appeared after several Florida newspapers, including the Times, published an impassioned essay by Spaziano's former attorney, who wrote that he felt his client was innocent.
"It has been brought to our attention through the press that allegations and statements that we've read that this man may be innocent," Douglass said.
John Currie of the governor's Citizen's Services Office said his staff fielded 148 calls this week on the Spaziano case — 130 callers urging Chiles to grant clemency and 18 encouraging the governor to let the execution go ahead.
Michael Minerva, head of the state office that represents many death row inmates, said he was relived to get word of the stay.
"I hope it's because there's substantial doubt about the guild, but I don't know," Minerva said, "But for now the execution has been stayed indefinitely.
"Those are the terms of his order."
Douglass, the governor's general counsel, would not reveal what other evidence investigators expect to gather during the review.
Attorneys for Spaziano are exploring the controversial issue of repressed memories because Dilisio's testimony was said to be plucked from his memory by hypnosis.
The ban on hypnotically enhanced testimony in criminal trials came after the Spaziano trial and is not retroactive.
A;though it is rare for governors to delay scheduled executions, Chiles has done it before.
In January 1993, he rescinded the fourth death warrant for Larry Joe Johnson four days before Johnson's scheduled execution. The governor's pause was prompted by a Florida Supreme Court opinion in which three of the justices wrote that they denied Johnson's appeal with their hands tied by procedural law.
Johnson, a Vietnam veteran, suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome. His lawyers argued he was suffering from side effects from medicine at the time he killed a service-station attendant with a shotgun.
Chiles' temporary stay didn't save Johnson.
The governor signed a new death warrant, and Johnson was executed in May 1993.
The same thing could happen with Spaziano.
— Information from Times staff writer Gregory Enns, the Orlando Sentinel and Associated Press was used in this report.
Spaziano was condemned for the 1973 murder of Orlando nurse Laura Lynn Harberts, whose sexually mutilated body was found in a trash dump near Altamonte Springs.
He has spent 20 years on death row and was scheduled to die in the electric chair June 27. But Tony Dilisio, a key witness, told Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents this week that he was manipulated by investigators and his testimony was untrue.
Diliso was hypnotize to help him recall details. Hypnotically enhanced testimony has since been banned in Florida as unreliable.
Now Chiles wants to ponder whether Spaziano's sentence should be carried out. Spaziano's fourth death warrant will expire June 30.
After FDLE's review, Chiles has several courses of action: He can choose to let Spaziano remain on death row indefinitely, he can sign a fifth death warrant or he can try to convince three members of the Cabinet to join him in pardoning Spazino or commuting his death sentence to life in prison.
The governor's general counsel, Dexter Douglass, said Chiles decided to delay the execution based on an article in the Miami Herald and editorials in the St. Petersburg Times that "raised doubt in the minds of the people of Florida."
Those reports appeared after several Florida newspapers, including the Times, published an impassioned essay by Spaziano's former attorney, who wrote that he felt his client was innocent.
"It has been brought to our attention through the press that allegations and statements that we've read that this man may be innocent," Douglass said.
John Currie of the governor's Citizen's Services Office said his staff fielded 148 calls this week on the Spaziano case — 130 callers urging Chiles to grant clemency and 18 encouraging the governor to let the execution go ahead.
Michael Minerva, head of the state office that represents many death row inmates, said he was relived to get word of the stay.
"I hope it's because there's substantial doubt about the guild, but I don't know," Minerva said, "But for now the execution has been stayed indefinitely.
"Those are the terms of his order."
Douglass, the governor's general counsel, would not reveal what other evidence investigators expect to gather during the review.
Attorneys for Spaziano are exploring the controversial issue of repressed memories because Dilisio's testimony was said to be plucked from his memory by hypnosis.
The ban on hypnotically enhanced testimony in criminal trials came after the Spaziano trial and is not retroactive.
A;though it is rare for governors to delay scheduled executions, Chiles has done it before.
In January 1993, he rescinded the fourth death warrant for Larry Joe Johnson four days before Johnson's scheduled execution. The governor's pause was prompted by a Florida Supreme Court opinion in which three of the justices wrote that they denied Johnson's appeal with their hands tied by procedural law.
Johnson, a Vietnam veteran, suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome. His lawyers argued he was suffering from side effects from medicine at the time he killed a service-station attendant with a shotgun.
Chiles' temporary stay didn't save Johnson.
The governor signed a new death warrant, and Johnson was executed in May 1993.
The same thing could happen with Spaziano.
— Information from Times staff writer Gregory Enns, the Orlando Sentinel and Associated Press was used in this report.
Original Format
Newspaper
Contributor of the Digital Item
Kolodny, Jacob
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Williams, Megan
Files
Citation
“Chiles stays Spaziano execution,” HIST299, accessed March 12, 2026, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/170.