CASE FACTS Court action

Some highlights of John Spirko’s death penalty case:

Aug. 9, 1982: 48-year-old Betty Jane Mottinger is murdered in the village of Elgin in northwest Ohio where she serves as postmaster. Stamps and money are stolen from the office, and Mottinger is stabbed 14 to 18 times in the chest and abdomen.

Sept. 13, 1983: Spirko and co-defendant Delaney Gibson are indicted in the death of Mottinger, with charges that could lead to the death sentence for both.

Sept. 9, 1984: Spirko sentenced to die.

April 10, 1991: Death sentence upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court.

May 17, 2004: The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upholds Spirko’s death sentence. The same day, the Van Wert County prosecutor dismisses charges against Gibson, who has never been arrested in the case.

Sept. 8, 2005: Gov. Bob Taft delays Spirko’s execution over questions of whether prosecutors presented inaccurate information at a clemency hearing earlier that summer. It’s the first of seven reprieves Spirko will receive.

Nov. 3, 2005: The Ohio Parole Board refuses to reconsider its second recommendation that Taft deny clemency.

July 30, 2007: Gov. Ted Strickland issues a seventh reprieve to Spirko so the state can further study DNA evidence from the slaying.

Jan. 3, 2008: Attorney General Marc Dann says no DNA evidence links Spirko with the killing.

Source: AP Research