Joe Spaziano gets fifth death warrant
Dublin Core
Title
Joe Spaziano gets fifth death warrant
Subject
Capital punishment
Spaziano, Joe
Description
An updating of the case of Joe Spaziano as he receives his fifth death warrant, and a recounting of the last few events surrrounding Spaziano's trial.
Creator
Moss, Bill
Source
Moss, Bill, “Joe Spaziano gets fifth death warrant,” St. Petersburg (Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA), August 25, 1995.
Publisher
HIST 298, University of Mary Washington
Date
1995-08-25
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
Fredericksburg, Va
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Tallahasse- Gov. Lawton Chiles signed a fifth death warrant Thursday for Joseph Robert "Crazy Joe" Spaziano, the Outlaws motorcycle gang member who was condemned to die for the 1973 rape and murder of an Orlando hospital clerk.
Chiles based his decision on a new report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement which he ordered after news reports raised questions about Spaziano's guilt. The report was intended to remove that cloud of doubt; instead it created a new firestorm because the governor decided to keep it secret.
Spaziano's attorneys argue that he was wrongly convicted based on testimony from a drugged-out teenager elicited under hypnosis by prosecutors. But Chiles said the two-month investigation by the FDLE showed the prosecution was fair and the evidence was strong.
"This exhaustive review removes any doubt in my mind about this case," Chiles said. "This review upholds the finding of every court that has heard this case- Joseph Spaziano has received due process and justice demands that he now face the consequences for the crimes he has committed."
Interviews with 25 witnesses, according to Chiles' aides, provided new evidence that Spaziano raped, murdered and sexually mutilated 18-year-old Laura Lynn Harberts in 1973.
Spaziano's lawyers were outraged that the governor refused to release the report or identify the witnesses who talked to investigators.
"I am saddened that American law has reached the level where people can die based on anonymous reports which can't be cross-examined, (in which) names are withheld, and the truth of which is never tested in public," said Patrick Doherty, a Clearwater attorney.
Chiles stayed the execution June 15 after a report in the Miami Herald cast doubt about Tony Dilisio's testimony against Spaziano, and editorials in the Herald and St. Petersburg Times urged a delay in the execution. Dilisio, who has a history of heavy drinking and drug use, told the Herald that he could not recall Spaziano taking him to see the bodies of two women at a dump near Altamonte Springs, a key piece of testimony.
The signing of a fifth death warrant leaves Spaziano with little hope of avoiding the electric chair Sept. 19, one week before his 50th birthday. The only death row inmates to have survived more than four warrants were Willie Darden, who was executed in March 1988 on his seventh warrant, and Raymond Clark, electrocuted in November 1990 on his fifth warrant.
Pending in the state Supreme Court are Spaziano's appeals to strike down the testimony elicited under hypnosis and to win a new trial based on Dilisio's reported recanting of his 1974 statements. But his lawyers conceded in June that their best hope was a clemency decision from the governor.
Now it's the secrecy of the document Chiles used in making his decision that could give defense lawyers a new grounds for appeal. Doherty said he will confer with co-counsel Michael Mello about a motion seeking the FDLE report.
"I don't know whether it's true, whether it's false, whether it's exaggerated, whether the people making these statements are sane or insane, whether they themselves have made deals," he said. "I don't have any information that would bear on whether it's credible or believable. That's what should keep Floridians awake at night. Because if it could happen to Mr. Spaziano it could happen to you or your child or anybody else."
Mello, a Vermont law school professor who began representing Spaziano in 1983 when he practiced law in Florida, said it's particularly troubling he can't get courts to hear his client while the state's law enforcement agency "manufactured" new evidence that sealed Spaziano's fate.
The report "has the indicia of unreliability all over it," Mello said.
"Dexter Douglass, Chiles' general counsel, said the report is confidential under state law as part of a clemency.
"There's another reason in this case," he said. "Several of the people they interviewed would not give statements except with the understanding they were protected because of fear for their lives."
[Photograph; photo caption]: Joseph Spaziano is scheduled to be executed Sept. 19.
Chiles based his decision on a new report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement which he ordered after news reports raised questions about Spaziano's guilt. The report was intended to remove that cloud of doubt; instead it created a new firestorm because the governor decided to keep it secret.
Spaziano's attorneys argue that he was wrongly convicted based on testimony from a drugged-out teenager elicited under hypnosis by prosecutors. But Chiles said the two-month investigation by the FDLE showed the prosecution was fair and the evidence was strong.
"This exhaustive review removes any doubt in my mind about this case," Chiles said. "This review upholds the finding of every court that has heard this case- Joseph Spaziano has received due process and justice demands that he now face the consequences for the crimes he has committed."
Interviews with 25 witnesses, according to Chiles' aides, provided new evidence that Spaziano raped, murdered and sexually mutilated 18-year-old Laura Lynn Harberts in 1973.
Spaziano's lawyers were outraged that the governor refused to release the report or identify the witnesses who talked to investigators.
"I am saddened that American law has reached the level where people can die based on anonymous reports which can't be cross-examined, (in which) names are withheld, and the truth of which is never tested in public," said Patrick Doherty, a Clearwater attorney.
Chiles stayed the execution June 15 after a report in the Miami Herald cast doubt about Tony Dilisio's testimony against Spaziano, and editorials in the Herald and St. Petersburg Times urged a delay in the execution. Dilisio, who has a history of heavy drinking and drug use, told the Herald that he could not recall Spaziano taking him to see the bodies of two women at a dump near Altamonte Springs, a key piece of testimony.
The signing of a fifth death warrant leaves Spaziano with little hope of avoiding the electric chair Sept. 19, one week before his 50th birthday. The only death row inmates to have survived more than four warrants were Willie Darden, who was executed in March 1988 on his seventh warrant, and Raymond Clark, electrocuted in November 1990 on his fifth warrant.
Pending in the state Supreme Court are Spaziano's appeals to strike down the testimony elicited under hypnosis and to win a new trial based on Dilisio's reported recanting of his 1974 statements. But his lawyers conceded in June that their best hope was a clemency decision from the governor.
Now it's the secrecy of the document Chiles used in making his decision that could give defense lawyers a new grounds for appeal. Doherty said he will confer with co-counsel Michael Mello about a motion seeking the FDLE report.
"I don't know whether it's true, whether it's false, whether it's exaggerated, whether the people making these statements are sane or insane, whether they themselves have made deals," he said. "I don't have any information that would bear on whether it's credible or believable. That's what should keep Floridians awake at night. Because if it could happen to Mr. Spaziano it could happen to you or your child or anybody else."
Mello, a Vermont law school professor who began representing Spaziano in 1983 when he practiced law in Florida, said it's particularly troubling he can't get courts to hear his client while the state's law enforcement agency "manufactured" new evidence that sealed Spaziano's fate.
The report "has the indicia of unreliability all over it," Mello said.
"Dexter Douglass, Chiles' general counsel, said the report is confidential under state law as part of a clemency.
"There's another reason in this case," he said. "Several of the people they interviewed would not give statements except with the understanding they were protected because of fear for their lives."
[Photograph; photo caption]: Joseph Spaziano is scheduled to be executed Sept. 19.
Original Format
Newspaper
Contributor of the Digital Item
Godfrey, Sarah
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Williams, Megan
Files
Citation
Moss, Bill, “Joe Spaziano gets fifth death warrant,” HIST299, accessed July 12, 2026, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/189.