Thursday, January 10, 2008

Death Row Inmate Granted Clemency

Strickland based his decision on the lack of physical evidence linking John Spirko to the 26-year-old murder and "the slim residual doubt" about Spirko's responsibility for the Ohio slaying based on a careful study of the case.

Those factors make "the imposition of the death penalty inappropriate in this case," Strickland said.

Yeah. John Spirko is one of those "wrong place at the wrong time" kind of guys. Well, Until you read this.

On Feb. 16, 1970, Spirko was convicted of willful murder in Kenton County for the July 3, 1969, strangulation of Myra Ashcraft, 73, a Covington widow.

Ashcraft was found dead in her home by a neighbor, lying in her bed, her hands tied behind her, with a pillow over her head. Jewelry had been taken from her house.

According to a 2005 Cleveland Plain Dealer series on Spirko, the vote of a single juror spared him the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison, but got out on parole in 1982, having served 12 years.

Spirko was paroled from the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville just 13 days before the Mottinger kidnapping.


Society can breathe at ease of wrongfully killing some innocent person. Another reason I believe in the death penalty.... Because life in prison means twelve years in prison code.

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