Spaziano's lawyer files new requests

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Spaziano's Lawyer Files New Requests

But he said he won't attend Friday's hearing because he needs more time to prepare.

By Rene Stutzman

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The attorney for condemned murder Joseph Spaziano on Sunday filed new requests for a stay of execution with the Florida Supreme Court, saying he needs more time and money to prepare for a hearing Friday in Sanford.

And attorney Michael Mell of White River Junction, Vt., said stay or no stay, he would not attend Friday's hearing.

The requests from Mello came just two days after the same court refused to grant the same requests. Instead, it ordered Spa-
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ziano's defense to present new evidence of his innocence to a circuit judge in Sanford.

The prosection's key witness in the case, Anthony Frank DiLisio, in June told investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that he lied to jurors at Spaziano's trial 19 years ago.

At the trail, DiLisio testified that Spaziano took him to an Altamonte Springs dump and pointed out the body of Laura Lynn Harberts, who was slain in 1973, and another victim. 

Spaziano is schduled to die Sept. 21 for murdering Harberts.

Please see Spaziano, C-4
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Attorney refuses help from defenders group

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Mello said he could find no attorney willing to take over the case.

Spaziano from C-1

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His case gained notoriety this spring as Spaziano's earlier execution date approached. Mello writes several Florida newspapers, challenging the conviction and saying that DiLisiio had begun to waffle on his account.

Gov. Lawton Chiles order the FDLE to investigate, but after its conclusion, Chiles signed Spaziano's fifth death warrant.

Mello in Sunday ripped the Florida Supreme Court's Friday ruling. In a pair of motions filed with the court by fax, Mello wrote that he planned to appeal its decision to the US Supreme Court but needed a stay to give him time to complete the paperwork. 

In a second motion, he argued the defense needs more time to prepare for Friday's hearing.

"WHat the Florida Supreme Court did on Friday was not a victory," Mello said by phone from his home in Vermont. "What they have given us is the illusion of due process...while making it totally impossible for me to participate."

Mello said Florida denied his request dor money, and he does not have the dinds to investigate or even travel to Florida for the hearing. He said he simply would not
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make the trip. 

"It's better that he not have an attorney at the hearing than he have the illusion of representation at that hearing," Mello said.

Mello said he attempted but found no attorney willing to take over the case.

However, in its ruling Friday, the state Supreme Court said the state's death-row equivalent of a public defender's office, Capital Collateral Representative, is capable and competent to represent Spaziano. It wrote that Mello should use its resource if he does not have his own.

Mello said he would not let CCR take back the case, aaccusing it of botching an appeal earlier this year.

Matin McClain, CCR's chief assistant said his agency thinks Spaziano is innocent and is prepared to take back the case, but Mello "has all the files, and he won't give them to us... I'm very distressed by the situation that Mr. Spaziano finds himself in. He's innocent man on death row, and we're supposed to be helping him, and we don't know what's going on."

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Joseph Spaziano talks about execution, scheduled for Sept. 21, during an interview last week at Florida State Prison in Starke.

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