Clemency sought in death case
Dublin Core
Title
Clemency sought in death case
Subject
Clemency
Death penalty
Description
The article discusses a plea for clemency in the death sentence of a motorcycle gang member after the key witness for the prosecution recanted their testimony.
Creator
Metz, Kevin
Source
The Tampa Tribune
Publisher
HIST 298, University of Mary Washington
Date
1995-06-29
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
Tampa, FL
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Tallahassee- The Key witness against a motorcycle gang member sentenced to death in a 1973 murder case joined the condemned man Wednesday in asking Gov. Lawton Chiles for clemency.
However, attorneys for Joseph Spaziano are losing hope that a Florida Department of Law Enforcement review of the police investigation and trial will convince Chiles to spare the 49-year-old member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Brotherhood.
"If Joe sees the end of July, I'll be surprised," said Spaziano's attorney, Michael Mello, a University of Vermont Law professor. "I don't have any faith in the courts anymore in this case and it's really difficult for me to say that."
Chiles indefinitely stayed Spaziano's execution and ordered the FDLE investigation earlier this month after the prosecution's star witness, Anthony Dilisio, came forward to dispute his original testimony in the case.
Spaziano, nicknamed "Crazy Joe," was convicted of murdering and mutilating Orlando hospital aide Laura Lynn Harberts and leaving her body in a trash dump near Altamonte Springs in 1973.
He was sent to death row in 1976 almost entirely based on the testimony of Dilisio, who at the time was an 18-year-old abuser of illegal hallucinogens and who first remembered Spaziano boasting of the murder while under hypnosis by police.
Testimony induced by hypnosis no longer is allowed as evidence in Florida courts. The jury in the case, which recommended against the death penalty, was not told Dilisio was hypnotized.
Dilisio, 37, now says he doesn't remember Spaziano taking him to the garbage dump and bragging "Man, that's my style," while viewing the mutilated bodies of two women.
"Anthony just feels that he has to do what's right and that he was just manipulated by the police and he never saw any bodies," said Dilisio's attorney, Kelly McGraw of Pensacola.
Spaziano's attorneys have long asserted that Dilisio was coaxed into "remembering" Spaziano taking him to view the bodies and believe their client was convicted only because of his membership in a motorcycle gang.
In fact, Dilisio, a lay preacher who works in Pensacola restoring classic automobiles, now says he only vaguely remembers the trial or anything before his 21st birthday.
McGraw said Dilisio told FDLE agents in a videotaped interview that the first time he saw the bodies at the dump was when police officers - not Spaziano - took him there.
"I find that to be a recantation," McGraw said.
Mello sent Chiles a nearly 200-page plea for clemency Wednesday, including Dilisio as one of the parties requesting clemency.
However, Mello and McGraw questioned whether FDLE investigators would probe the methods used to convict Spaziano or simply try to discredit Dilisio's new testimony.
"The investigation is beginning to smell more like a whitewash," Mello wrote to Chiles.
Dexter Douglass, Chiles' chief legal counsel could not be reached for comment Wednesday and other attorneys for the governor said they could not comment on the clemency request.
A spokesman for the FDLE also declined comment on Spaziano's case.
Dilisio has agreed to submit to a lie detector test to prove his claims, a test FDLE initially requested but never performed after Dilisio agreed, McGraw said.
Mello said he would not be surprised if Chiles signs Spaziano's fifth death warrant Friday after FDLE submits its report. Three previous warrants were stayed as the case worked its way through the legal system.
A fourth, scheduled to be carried out June 27, was stayed after Dilisio cam forward.
[Picture of Joseph Spaziano: Joseph Spaziano, shown here in 1976, was convicted in the 1973 death of a hospital aide.]
However, attorneys for Joseph Spaziano are losing hope that a Florida Department of Law Enforcement review of the police investigation and trial will convince Chiles to spare the 49-year-old member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Brotherhood.
"If Joe sees the end of July, I'll be surprised," said Spaziano's attorney, Michael Mello, a University of Vermont Law professor. "I don't have any faith in the courts anymore in this case and it's really difficult for me to say that."
Chiles indefinitely stayed Spaziano's execution and ordered the FDLE investigation earlier this month after the prosecution's star witness, Anthony Dilisio, came forward to dispute his original testimony in the case.
Spaziano, nicknamed "Crazy Joe," was convicted of murdering and mutilating Orlando hospital aide Laura Lynn Harberts and leaving her body in a trash dump near Altamonte Springs in 1973.
He was sent to death row in 1976 almost entirely based on the testimony of Dilisio, who at the time was an 18-year-old abuser of illegal hallucinogens and who first remembered Spaziano boasting of the murder while under hypnosis by police.
Testimony induced by hypnosis no longer is allowed as evidence in Florida courts. The jury in the case, which recommended against the death penalty, was not told Dilisio was hypnotized.
Dilisio, 37, now says he doesn't remember Spaziano taking him to the garbage dump and bragging "Man, that's my style," while viewing the mutilated bodies of two women.
"Anthony just feels that he has to do what's right and that he was just manipulated by the police and he never saw any bodies," said Dilisio's attorney, Kelly McGraw of Pensacola.
Spaziano's attorneys have long asserted that Dilisio was coaxed into "remembering" Spaziano taking him to view the bodies and believe their client was convicted only because of his membership in a motorcycle gang.
In fact, Dilisio, a lay preacher who works in Pensacola restoring classic automobiles, now says he only vaguely remembers the trial or anything before his 21st birthday.
McGraw said Dilisio told FDLE agents in a videotaped interview that the first time he saw the bodies at the dump was when police officers - not Spaziano - took him there.
"I find that to be a recantation," McGraw said.
Mello sent Chiles a nearly 200-page plea for clemency Wednesday, including Dilisio as one of the parties requesting clemency.
However, Mello and McGraw questioned whether FDLE investigators would probe the methods used to convict Spaziano or simply try to discredit Dilisio's new testimony.
"The investigation is beginning to smell more like a whitewash," Mello wrote to Chiles.
Dexter Douglass, Chiles' chief legal counsel could not be reached for comment Wednesday and other attorneys for the governor said they could not comment on the clemency request.
A spokesman for the FDLE also declined comment on Spaziano's case.
Dilisio has agreed to submit to a lie detector test to prove his claims, a test FDLE initially requested but never performed after Dilisio agreed, McGraw said.
Mello said he would not be surprised if Chiles signs Spaziano's fifth death warrant Friday after FDLE submits its report. Three previous warrants were stayed as the case worked its way through the legal system.
A fourth, scheduled to be carried out June 27, was stayed after Dilisio cam forward.
[Picture of Joseph Spaziano: Joseph Spaziano, shown here in 1976, was convicted in the 1973 death of a hospital aide.]
Original Format
newspaper
Contributor of the Digital Item
Thiessen, Annika
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Williams, Megan
Files
Citation
Metz, Kevin, “Clemency sought in death case,” HIST299, accessed March 12, 2026, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/178.