Feb. 1 INDIANA----new execution date Execution date set for convicted killer The Indiana Supreme Court has set an execution date for a man convicted 23 years ago of killing an Evansville family, putting an end to the longest-running appeal of any Indiana death-row inmate. The court ruled Monday that Donald Ray Wallace, 47, is to be executed on March 10 at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Earlier this month, the high court for the 4th time rejected an attempt by Wallace's public defender to overturn his sentence. Wallace was convicted in 1982 of shooting to death Patrick Gilligan, his wife, Theresa, their daughter, Lisa, 5, and 4-year-old son, Gregory. The Gilligans were killed Jan. 14, 1980 after surprising Wallace as he burglarized their home. Wallace still can appeal to Gov. Mitch Daniels for clemency. But in letters written to the Evansville Courier & Press over the last several months, Wallace said he has told his attorneys to not seek clemency, although court staff said the option was still open to him. The execution order has long been awaited by Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stan Levco, who as a young deputy prosecutor worked to put Wallace on death row. "Over the last year, it's become more of a reality to me that this execution was finally going to happen," Levco said. "But it's been so long, it's still hard to believe." Wallace had claimed in his appeals that his legal counsel at his sentencing was ineffective and failed to present sufficient mitigating evidence that would have generated sympathy for Wallace. The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in March denied his request to have his death sentence set aside. Diana Harrington, Theresa Gilligan's sister, said Levco, who has kept in touch with her over the last 25 years, called her family Monday evening to inform them of the execution order. "I can't quite believe it," she said. "It's just been so long." She said she expected to feel a rush of anger and bitterness toward Wallace. Instead, she said, she found herself saying prayers of gratitude for the years of support from the Evansville community, and prayers of concern for Wallace's family. "The support has been very important in our lives, Harrington said in a statement she released late Monday. "We hold only Donald Wallace responsible for his actions and recognize what a difficult time this is for his family." Wallace, along with 24 other death row inmates, has been held at the Maximum Control Facility in Westville since 2003 because of renovation work on death row at the Indiana State Prison. Wallace was expected to be transported the 10 miles back to the state prison 30 days before his execution. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: John Spirko might have been convicted largely because of lies he told authorities, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Flaws riddle Ohio death penalty case----Guilt doubted in '82 Van Wert slaying A man sent to death row 20 years ago for killing a village postmaster might have been convicted largely because of lies he told authorities, according to an investigation by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In a months-long review, the newspaper examined thousands of pages of court and investigative documents in the case of John Spirko, who likely faces execution this year for the murder of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48. Mottinger disappeared Aug. 9, 1982, from the post office in Elgin, Van Wert County a town of 96 residents 18 miles from the Indiana line. Her body was found a month later in a soybean field 50 miles away, wrapped in a paint-splattered curtain. She had been stabbed more than a dozen times. Spirko contacted police in October 1982, offering to trade information about her death in exchange for help on unrelated assault charges he was facing in Lucas County. He was sentenced to death in 1984, convicted of aggravated murder, kidnapping and assault. Investigators found no physical evidence linking Spirko to the crime. They based the case on Spirko's statements and the testimony of an eyewitness. The Plain Dealer reported that there are many inconsistencies between what Spirko told investigators and the facts of the case: -Spirko told Postal Inspector Paul Hartman that Mottinger's hands were bound behind her back with duct tape when she was killed. But her hands were not bound when her body was found. -Twice he told investigators that Mottinger had been stabbed in the back. Investigators found no evidence of wounds to her back. -Spirko said he saw items stolen from the post office during the abduction but knew nothing about $700 worth of stamps that were taken. Spirko told Hartman at least twice that he never saw any stamps among the stolen items. -Spirko told Hartman that Mottinger was wearing a gold watch and a gold necklace when she was killed and that he had seen both in the bag of loot. But in their testimony, Mottinger's family and a co-worker did not recall her wearing either. Spirko said he kept feeding Hartman new versions of the story of Mottinger's murder because "he wouldn't settle for nothin" else. I would tell him one story and the next day, he would come back for another story. And the more I told the more deeper I got into it, you know." Hartman, who retired in 2000 after nearly 3 decades in law enforcement, said he remains certain that Spirko deserves to die for killing Mottinger. "It is my belief that he did it," Hartman told the newspaper. "If and when they execute him, I will have no qualms. No qualms." Spirko says he's not guilty, but acknowledges that he lived a life of crime that leaves him virtually without credibility. "I'm convictable," the 58-year-old said. The key witness in the case was Elgin resident Opal Seibert, who testified she saw Spirko's former cellmate, Delaney Gibson Jr., outside the post office the morning Mottinger disappeared. Spirko's attorney Thomas Hill argues that Gibson was vacationing in Asheville, N.C., as late as 6 p.m. the night before Mottinger's murder. Asheville is about 500 miles from Elgin, or about an 8-hour drive. Hill said authorities had photographs of Gibson with a full beard on Aug. 7 and Aug. 8; the man Seibert saw was clean shaven. Spirko and his lawyers first saw the Gibson vacation photos in 1997, after years of litigation, the newspaper reported. It's unclear whether the Van Wert County prosecutor at the time, Stephen Keister, ever saw them. Keister, who left office in 1988, declined to discuss any aspect of the Spirko case. "My memory is fading. And a lot of things have been over the dam," he said. Gibson was never prosecuted in the Mottinger case. In May, the same day a federal appeals court denied Spirko's next-to-last appeal, Van Wert County authorities dismissed the kidnapping and aggravated murder charges against Gibson. Spirko's attorneys filed what is likely to be his final appeal this month, arguing that prosecutors withheld key evidence and presented a false case. Attorneys for the state of Ohio have 30 days to respond. At least 116 inmates condemned to die by U.S. courts have been exonerated based on new evidence since capital punishment was reinstated in the mid-1970s, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. No execution date has been set. Gov. Bob Taft could recommend clemency for Spirko before the sentence is carried out. Although insisting he was not guilty, Spirko asked the jury to recommend the death penalty. "From what I have heard, a lady that went to work, bothered no one, had a family, a husband that loved her, she was cruelly taken away, brutally murdered. She didn't get no appeal. But she deserved justice, and if that means me, then that's the way it should be. I'm convicted, I should die. It's simple; simple arithmetic." (source: Associated Press, Jan. 30) COLORADO: Prosecutors argue for maintaining killers' death-penalty eligibility Prosecutors asked the Colorado Supreme Court on Monday to make 2 convicted killers eligible for the death penalty after their cases were stalled by questions over who can impose capital punishment. Randy Canister and Abraham Hagos were convicted in separate cases under a law that required death-penalty sentencing decisions to be made by three-judge panels. Before sentencing hearings could be held, the U.S. Supreme court declared a similar process in Arizona unconstitutional, prompting Colorado lawmakers to require death-penalty decisions to be made by juries. The 2 men are still awaiting sentencing. They are the last remaining Colorado death penalty cases in doubt under the Supreme Court's June 2002 ruling. Hagos, who is already serving life in prison in an unrelated case, was convicted in Denver of hiring other people to kill a man expected to testify against him in a drug trial. Canister, who is being held in the Arapahoe County Jail, was convicted in the execution-style shootings of three teenagers in Aurora. Prosecutors told Colorado justices that judges in those cases were wrong when they ruled the U.S. Supreme Court decision applied directly to Colorado's death-penalty law, declaring it unconstitutional and meaning the only possible sentence for Hagos and Canister was life without parole. Colorado's law remained valid until February 2003, when the state Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional, Arapahoe County Chief Deputy District Attorney Paul Wolff said. "It created a big problem for Colorado's death penalty statute, but the U.S. Supreme Court left it to the states to decide how to deal with it," Wolff said. "A statute is not unconstitutional until this court says so." After the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling, Colorado lawmakers met in special session and approved a new law giving death-penalty decisions to juries. The law also said a new sentencing jury could be impaneled in certain cases. Defense attorneys contend the way the law was written means it applied only to Canister and Hagos - making it unconstitutional. "There's no doubt these individuals were targeted and no doubt this court should find this kind of legislation abhorrent," said attorney Hollis Whitson, who represents both men. Defense attorney Linda Frolich said there was no question the U.S. Supreme Court ruling made Colorado's death-penalty law invalid, meaning Hagos and Canister had to be sentenced to life without parole. "If the U.S. Supreme Court is demanding we do something, that has to be a declaration from them that something is unconstitutional," she said. If prosecutors were allowed to seat new juries to sentence Hagos and Canister, the men would lose substantial legal protections they deserve, Whitson said. Those protections include the right to a jury - or even a judge - that sat through the trial and was familiar with the case. "These are the only people in the universe who wouldn't have the same fact-finders," she said. Denver Chief Appellate District Attorney Robin Whitley argued that the law could cover people other than Hagos and Canister. He said when lawmakers changed the law, they meant to require new sentencing juries for people like Hagos and Canister, who had been convicted but not yet sentenced under the system of 3-judge panels. In its February 2003 ruling, the state Supreme Court invalidated death sentences for 2 men who had been sentenced by judges and required them to be sentenced to life without parole. (source: Associated Press) CONNECTICUT: Execution Law Fuels Rescheduling Frenzy The frenzied on-again, off-again schedule for Michael Ross' execution was in part a by-product of a state law that gives prison officials in Connecticut an unusually wide window to carry out a death sentence. Connecticut law requires that executions be carried out on the day specified by the judge who signed the death warrant, "or within 5 days after the day." That language - which led to five execution dates in 6 days for Ross - is rare among the 38 states with a death penalty, most of which require a lengthy delay for any postponement beyond the original date in the warrant. In Texas, for example, which has carried out more than 1/3 of all death sentences in the United States over the past 25 years, officials must wait at least 31 days before rescheduling a postponed execution. Only a handful of states, including Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland and Florida, give executioners a 5- to 7-day window to put a condemned inmate to death. In Ross' case, that window closed at midnight Monday, and his execution has been postponed indefinitely. Jim Marcus, executive director of Texas Defender Services, a nonprofit group that represents death row inmates, said the ticking clock in Connecticut's law puts undue pressure on those involved in last-minute appeals. "Litigation under the threat of an execution is a bad idea," Marcus said. "Having conference calls on a Saturday afternoon to try to hammer out issues is no way to adjudicate an execution." At the same time, Marcus acknowledged that it is defense attorneys who are frequently accused of filing late appeals timed to thwart executions. But with or without a long window, executions in most states go off with no delays, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington. And Stephen Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, said that under either system, repeated delays typically fade once death sentences become routine in a state. "The first execution is always like a rocket launch at Cape Kennedy - all of the litigation and indecision on the part of the courts," he said. "That diminishes dramatically as the number of executions goes on." (source: Hartford Courant) ******************* Death Penalty Revisited Murder victims' relatives, a retired prison warden and even a former death row inmate were among dozens Monday who spent hours urging a state legislative committee to scrap Connecticut's death penalty. Almost all the 75 speakers at the judiciary committee's hearing in Hartford backed a proposal to abolish the death penalty and make life in prison without release the state's worst punishment. "I'm here to tell you that I never met an inmate for whom I had no hope," said Mary Morgan Wolff, a retired state deputy warden who worked 27 years for the state Department of Correction. She and others urged lawmakers to consider life behind bars as a just and adequate sentence for the state's most violent convicts. The hearing took place on a day when the state's attempts to execute its 1st inmate since 1960 - confessed serial murderer Michael Ross - ground to a temporary halt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell, while not at the hearing, issued a statement saying she continues to favor capital punishment. "My position on this issue is unchanged," the governor said. "I believe there are crimes and actions which are so repugnant to society as to warrant the death penalty. The crimes of Michael Ross are such crimes." Ross, on death row since 1987, was to have been put to death by lethal injection at 2 a.m. Saturday. But a series of legal challenges by public defenders and others delayed that, even though Ross had said he wanted the execution carried out. Monday, his attorney was granted a delay to allow for a more thorough examination of Ross' mental competency. A new execution date may be months away, officials say. At Monday's hearing, many speakers told committee members that state-sponsored execution brings no relief to victims' families, sanctions killing, doesn't deter murder and can't be undone if someone is later found to be innocent. Laurence Adams, 51, of Boston, spoke to the latter. He spent 30 years in prison, some of it on Massachusetts' death row, until his defense lawyer found long-forgotten testimony showing Adams was wrongfully convicted in 1974 of a 1972 robbery and murder. Adams, released in May 2004, said if Massachusetts hadn't abolished the death penalty in the late 1970s, he most likely would have been executed for a crime he didn't commit. "I'm here today because Massachusetts abolished the death penalty," he said. He was the 1st speaker to win applause from the scores of death-penalty opponents filling about 2/3 of a large 2nd-floor hearing room of the Legislative Office Building. Robert Nave of Waterbury, executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty, sparked applause when he said state-sponsored killing is wrong. "This is not a forum on Michael Ross. It is about a system that is not working, about poor public policy," Nave said. "Life in prison can be appropriate." Elizabeth Brancato, 53, said initially she wanted her mother's killer put to death. But after her rage subsided, she said, she came to believe that the man's execution would not bring her peace. Brancato did not identify her mother or her mother's killer. One speaker who did ask that the death penalty be maintained was Helen Williams, whose son, Waterbury police Officer Walter Williams, was murdered while on duty in December 1992. His killer, drug dealer Richard Reynolds, is on death row for shooting Williams point-blank in the head. "I hope you people will not abolish the death penalty," she said. "My son will be 34 forever." The hearing ended shortly before 8 p.m. It was not clear if the committee will send a proposal to the full legislature for further debate. The hearing began with a point-counterpoint presentation by 2 of the state's best-known attorneys in death-penalty cases - Gerard Smyth, the state's chief public defender, and Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly, who has sent 6 convicts to death row. Sitting next to Connelly in front of the committee, Smyth launched into a series of arguments over why the death penalty should be abolished and be replaced by life in prison without the possibility of release. One of the key reasons for the abolition, he said, is that the death penalty is administered arbitrarily, depending on who is on the jury and who is on the state Supreme Court at that particular time. "The determination of who lives and who dies is totally subjective and controlled by a variety of arbitrary factors," Smyth said. Despite the viciousness of the crimes committed by those now on death row, Smyth said, "That statement that they are the worst of the worst is simply not true." Of 33 criminals who were convicted of multiple murders, only two are now on death row, he said. In a recent case, Jonathan Mills did not receive the death penalty after being convicted for killing 4 people. He was convicted of killing a 43-year-old woman and her children after going to their home in Guilford to steal an ATM card to buy drugs. Mills was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences, plus 20 years for strangling a fourth victim in another incident. Some of those who have committed multiple murders "are worse than the people on death row," Smyth told the legislature's judiciary committee. Among 69 people who were convicted in Connecticut of capital felony - causing a death in the commission of a felony - only seven are on death row, he said. "The system is broken, and if you want to fix it, you should abolish the death penalty," Smyth said. But Connelly, sitting next to Smyth, rejected the oft-repeated notion that the death penalty has geographical imbalance because 6 of those now on death row were all prosecuted in Waterbury. Connelly responded that the prosecutions simply have been more successful in Waterbury - not that there were any more such cases there. Since the mid-1970s, he said, Waterbury has actually had fewer capital felony cases prosecuted than Hartford, Fairfield and New London counties. "I think there's a lot of misinformation out there about the death penalty," Connelly said. "We're nowhere near the top." Connelly argued that Connecticut has "perhaps the strictest death penalty in the entire country." (source: Hartford Courant) **************** Connecticut community reacts to death penalty postponement Some people in eastern Connecticut say they're disappointed a serial killer's execution has been delayed again. Michael Ross was scheduled to die last night. But a new appeal on his behalf, questioning his competency, has caused a fourth delay. The execution was put off 3 times last week. One man in the town of Griswold, where some of the victims lived, says he feels sorry for the families. Tom Vitagliano compares Ross to a dog with rabies and says "you shoot the dog." Another resident says Ross's execution should go forward because "the families have suffered enough." But another man thinks death would be too easy for Ross. He suggests the confessed killer be locked into the smallest cell that can be found. Prosecutors say they will try to obtain a new death warrant, but it could take months before all the legal issues are aired. (source: Associated Press)
