Florida Supreme Courts grants Spaziano a stay of execution
Dublin Core
Title
Florida Supreme Courts grants Spaziano a stay of execution
Subject
Capital punishment
Description
This article is about a stay of execution granted by the Florida Supreme to Joe Spaziano after Michael Mello refused to send his paperwork to state lawyers.
Creator
Barnes, Brad
Source
Pensacola News Journal
Publisher
HIST 298, University of Mary Washington
Date
1995-09-13
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
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
[Header]
Florida Supreme Court grants Spaziano a stay of execution
By Brad Barnes
News Journal Staff Writer
[[start article]]
On Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spazian-o’s 50th birthday, the Florida Supreme Court announced he will not be executed as planned next week, because his attorney refused to cooperate with state lawyers.
“I had the real pleasure of telling Joe about the stay, which he thought of as his birthday present from me,” said Spaziano’s attorney Michael Mello. “Isn’t that just pure Hollywood?”
It is the fifth time Spaziano has dodged a death warrant for the 1973 murder of Laura Lynn Har-berts, an 18-year-old Orlando hos-pital worker.
Spaziano’s fourth stay was granted in June, after Tony DiLi-sio, 37, of Pensacola told authori-ties in June his damning testi-mony against Spaziano 20 years ago was coerced by police.
“He asked me to send his thanks and his love to Tony DiLisio,” Mello said. “Joe was very, very impressed and grateful that Tony had the guys to stick his neck out the way he did in this.”
After an investigation, Gov. Law-ton Chiles rejected DiLisio’s claims and signed a new warrant, scheduling Spaziano’s execution for Sept. 21.
But Tuesday the high court said a indefinite stay was required be-cause Mello has refused to cooper-ate – despite a court order – with a state agency ordered to investi-gate a new Spaziano appeal based on DiLisio’s recanted testimony.
Mello refused to send his files to Capital Collateral Representative, a state agency that represents death row inmates.
Tuesday’s ruling extended the deadline for the hearing to Nov. 15.
In the ruling, the court said that decision by Mello indicated he
[[Photo]]
[caption] Associated Press. Michael Mello, above, has won a stay of execution for his client, Joseph Spaziano. [end caption]
had effectively withdrawn as Spa-ziano’s attorney. The court said it was aware Spaziano is opposed to the agency being involved in his case.
“Spaziano is faced with a choice,” the court wrote, saying it was up to him to be represented by CCR, a competent volunteer attorney, or no one.
But Mello still considers himself Spaziano’s lawyer.
“I do, and so does Joe, and so does his family,” Mello said.
[[end article]]
Florida Supreme Court grants Spaziano a stay of execution
By Brad Barnes
News Journal Staff Writer
[[start article]]
On Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spazian-o’s 50th birthday, the Florida Supreme Court announced he will not be executed as planned next week, because his attorney refused to cooperate with state lawyers.
“I had the real pleasure of telling Joe about the stay, which he thought of as his birthday present from me,” said Spaziano’s attorney Michael Mello. “Isn’t that just pure Hollywood?”
It is the fifth time Spaziano has dodged a death warrant for the 1973 murder of Laura Lynn Har-berts, an 18-year-old Orlando hos-pital worker.
Spaziano’s fourth stay was granted in June, after Tony DiLi-sio, 37, of Pensacola told authori-ties in June his damning testi-mony against Spaziano 20 years ago was coerced by police.
“He asked me to send his thanks and his love to Tony DiLisio,” Mello said. “Joe was very, very impressed and grateful that Tony had the guys to stick his neck out the way he did in this.”
After an investigation, Gov. Law-ton Chiles rejected DiLisio’s claims and signed a new warrant, scheduling Spaziano’s execution for Sept. 21.
But Tuesday the high court said a indefinite stay was required be-cause Mello has refused to cooper-ate – despite a court order – with a state agency ordered to investi-gate a new Spaziano appeal based on DiLisio’s recanted testimony.
Mello refused to send his files to Capital Collateral Representative, a state agency that represents death row inmates.
Tuesday’s ruling extended the deadline for the hearing to Nov. 15.
In the ruling, the court said that decision by Mello indicated he
[[Photo]]
[caption] Associated Press. Michael Mello, above, has won a stay of execution for his client, Joseph Spaziano. [end caption]
had effectively withdrawn as Spa-ziano’s attorney. The court said it was aware Spaziano is opposed to the agency being involved in his case.
“Spaziano is faced with a choice,” the court wrote, saying it was up to him to be represented by CCR, a competent volunteer attorney, or no one.
But Mello still considers himself Spaziano’s lawyer.
“I do, and so does Joe, and so does his family,” Mello said.
[[end article]]
Original Format
Newspaper
Contributor of the Digital Item
Marshall, Alec
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Williams, Megan
Files
Citation
Barnes, Brad, “Florida Supreme Courts grants Spaziano a stay of execution,” HIST299, accessed March 12, 2026, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/228.