Chiles spared Florida from a capital crime
Dublin Core
Title
Chiles spared Florida from a capital crime
Subject
Murder & crime
Capital punishment.
Description
Governor Chiles stops the planned execution of Joseph Spaziano for murder in order to review his court sentence. Little evidence has been found that holds gravitas in the case, which could spare Spaziano from the death penalty.
Source
"Chiles Spared Florida From a Capital Crime." The Palm Beach Post (Palm Beach, FL), June 16, 1995, p. 16a.
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
Palm Beach, FL
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Chiles spared Florida from a capital crime
Until Gov. Chiles intervened Thursday, Joseph Spaziano was going to be executed for murder in 11 days, even though:
Spaziano was president of a motorcycle gang in Orlando when Laura Lynn Harberts disappeared from her apartment in 1973. Sixteen days later, her body was found in a Seminole County garbage dump. The body was so badly decomposed that the medical examiner could not determine the cause of death. Although police began with a different suspect, they turned to Spaziano after Tony Dilisio, then 18, told them that two years earlier, when Mr. Dilisio was eager to join the gang, Spaziano had said something about the murder. Mr. Dilisio also said he had been drinking and using LSD and marijuana and couldn't remember what Spaziano had said.
After two sessions with a hypnotist, though, Mr. Dilisio was able to "recall" graphic, incriminating comments by Spaziano. The prosecutor told the judge in open court that without Mr. Dilisio's testimony, "we'd have absolutely no case here whatsoever." In his closing argument, he told the jurors that if they didn't believe Mr. Dilisio, they had to vote for acquittal.
The jurors were not told Mr. Dilisio had been hypnotized. The same hypnotist, Joe McCawley, had earlier helped an eyewitness "remember" evidence that helped send Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee to Death Row for 12 years. They were pardoned in 1975, after someone else confessed to the murder for which they had been convicted.
When Spaziano was tried in 1978, Florida allowed hypnotically assisted evidence. People under hypnosis are highly responsive to suggestions, which is why hypnotism helps some people diet or quit smoking. They are less alert to the difference between fact and fiction. For those reasons, Florida joined most other states in barring hypnotically assisted testimony--in 1985. In Mr. Dilisio's case, he had been using hallucinogens during the period he was "recalling." So if Mr. McCawley did find a "real" memory to recall, it may have been only a recalled hallucination.
After ruling hypnotic testimony inadmissible in another case, the Florida Supreme Court rejected an appeal to reverse Spaziano's conviction. Michael Mello, Spaziano's appeals attorney who is now a law professor in Vermont, blames "a legal technicality, the idiotic retroactivity doctrine." It holds, in effect, that evidence that can't be trusted today was reliable yesterday.
Spaziano has been to the Florida Supreme Court four times and the U.S. Supreme Court twice, losing all six times. Those are the "endless appeals" proponents of capital punishment complain about. But in none of these appeals--not one--was Spaziano's guilt considered. A guilty verdict can't be appealed without new evidence, and in Spaziano's case there is none. But under the logic, if not the law, of the Supreme Court's 1985 decision, there wasn't any old evidence, either.
If high courts had no reason to doubt Spaziano's guilt, the original jury did. Jurors twice reported they were deadlocked. Twice Judge Robert McGregor gave them the "dynamite charge," telling them they had a "duty" to reach a verdict. They finally found him guilty, then quickly recommended a life sentence. Mr. Mello has an affidavit from one juror saying the sentence was a trade-off because of "our doubts about whether Mr. Spaziano was guilty of the crime as charged."
According to Florida law, guilt is beyond a reasonable doubt, and doubt is not a basis for mitigating punishment. Judge McGregor overrode the jury and sentenced Spaziano to death. He knew, and the jury didn't, that Spaziano already was serving a life sentence for rape. Florida is one of only four states where judges are allowed to override a jury's recommendation.
Gov. Chiles signed Spaziano's latest death warrant, and Spaziano's countdown began until Gov. Chiles was persuaded to look back. He stopped the execution to review the case further. For a pardon, he would need three Cabinet members to join him. In any case, Spaziano still has five years to go on his 25-year minimum sentence from the rape case. He says he is innocent of the rape, too, and Mr. Mello is inclined to agree. That can be sorted out later.
Spaziano has waited on Death Row since 1978. Someone with authority finally noticed there is no case against him, no evidence that he committed the murder he would have died for.
[photograph caption]: Joseph Spaziano in 1976: He was scheduled to die June 27.
Until Gov. Chiles intervened Thursday, Joseph Spaziano was going to be executed for murder in 11 days, even though:
- Key evidence was based on a discredited theory of hypnosis.
- He was sentenced to death by a judge who overrode the jury's recommendation of life in prison.
- The jury doubted his guilt.
- He couldn't be charged with the crime today.
Spaziano was president of a motorcycle gang in Orlando when Laura Lynn Harberts disappeared from her apartment in 1973. Sixteen days later, her body was found in a Seminole County garbage dump. The body was so badly decomposed that the medical examiner could not determine the cause of death. Although police began with a different suspect, they turned to Spaziano after Tony Dilisio, then 18, told them that two years earlier, when Mr. Dilisio was eager to join the gang, Spaziano had said something about the murder. Mr. Dilisio also said he had been drinking and using LSD and marijuana and couldn't remember what Spaziano had said.
After two sessions with a hypnotist, though, Mr. Dilisio was able to "recall" graphic, incriminating comments by Spaziano. The prosecutor told the judge in open court that without Mr. Dilisio's testimony, "we'd have absolutely no case here whatsoever." In his closing argument, he told the jurors that if they didn't believe Mr. Dilisio, they had to vote for acquittal.
The jurors were not told Mr. Dilisio had been hypnotized. The same hypnotist, Joe McCawley, had earlier helped an eyewitness "remember" evidence that helped send Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee to Death Row for 12 years. They were pardoned in 1975, after someone else confessed to the murder for which they had been convicted.
When Spaziano was tried in 1978, Florida allowed hypnotically assisted evidence. People under hypnosis are highly responsive to suggestions, which is why hypnotism helps some people diet or quit smoking. They are less alert to the difference between fact and fiction. For those reasons, Florida joined most other states in barring hypnotically assisted testimony--in 1985. In Mr. Dilisio's case, he had been using hallucinogens during the period he was "recalling." So if Mr. McCawley did find a "real" memory to recall, it may have been only a recalled hallucination.
After ruling hypnotic testimony inadmissible in another case, the Florida Supreme Court rejected an appeal to reverse Spaziano's conviction. Michael Mello, Spaziano's appeals attorney who is now a law professor in Vermont, blames "a legal technicality, the idiotic retroactivity doctrine." It holds, in effect, that evidence that can't be trusted today was reliable yesterday.
Spaziano has been to the Florida Supreme Court four times and the U.S. Supreme Court twice, losing all six times. Those are the "endless appeals" proponents of capital punishment complain about. But in none of these appeals--not one--was Spaziano's guilt considered. A guilty verdict can't be appealed without new evidence, and in Spaziano's case there is none. But under the logic, if not the law, of the Supreme Court's 1985 decision, there wasn't any old evidence, either.
If high courts had no reason to doubt Spaziano's guilt, the original jury did. Jurors twice reported they were deadlocked. Twice Judge Robert McGregor gave them the "dynamite charge," telling them they had a "duty" to reach a verdict. They finally found him guilty, then quickly recommended a life sentence. Mr. Mello has an affidavit from one juror saying the sentence was a trade-off because of "our doubts about whether Mr. Spaziano was guilty of the crime as charged."
According to Florida law, guilt is beyond a reasonable doubt, and doubt is not a basis for mitigating punishment. Judge McGregor overrode the jury and sentenced Spaziano to death. He knew, and the jury didn't, that Spaziano already was serving a life sentence for rape. Florida is one of only four states where judges are allowed to override a jury's recommendation.
Gov. Chiles signed Spaziano's latest death warrant, and Spaziano's countdown began until Gov. Chiles was persuaded to look back. He stopped the execution to review the case further. For a pardon, he would need three Cabinet members to join him. In any case, Spaziano still has five years to go on his 25-year minimum sentence from the rape case. He says he is innocent of the rape, too, and Mr. Mello is inclined to agree. That can be sorted out later.
Spaziano has waited on Death Row since 1978. Someone with authority finally noticed there is no case against him, no evidence that he committed the murder he would have died for.
[photograph caption]: Joseph Spaziano in 1976: He was scheduled to die June 27.
Original Format
Newspaper
Contributor of the Digital Item
Trommer, Elise
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Williams, Megan
Files
Citation
“Chiles spared Florida from a capital crime,” HIST299, accessed March 12, 2026, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/171.