John G. Spirko, Jr. v. Betty Mitchell, Warden

368 F.3d 603, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 9526, 2004 WL 1085179
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMay 17, 2004
Docket00-4385
StatusPublished
Cited by88 cases

This text of 368 F.3d 603 (John G. Spirko, Jr. v. Betty Mitchell, Warden) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
John G. Spirko, Jr. v. Betty Mitchell, Warden, 368 F.3d 603, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 9526, 2004 WL 1085179 (6th Cir. 2004).

Opinions

BATCHELDER, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which DAUGHTREY, J., joined. GILMAN, J. (pp. 614-18), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.

OPINION

BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge.

John G. Spirko appeals the order of the district court denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. An Ohio jury found Spirko guilty of aggravated murder with specifications and recommended that he be sentenced to death. The state trial court accepted that recommendation and sentenced Spirko to death on September 24, 1984. Spirko’s motion for a new trial was denied, and his direct appeals of his conviction and sentence, his petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court and his petitions for post-conviction relief were unsuccessful. On March 31, 1995, he filed a petition for habeas corpus in the district court; he filed an amended petition and a request for an evidentiary hearing on March 10, 1999, alleging fifteen separate grounds for relief, each of which the district court addressed and found to be without merit. The district court denied the petition, and Spirko timely appealed.

Before us, Spirko argues that 1) the prosecution denied Spirko due process by knowingly presenting false evidence and a false theory of the case at trial; 2) the prosecution denied Spirko due process by violating the requirements of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963); 3) Spirko’s trial counsel were ineffective because they did not investigate the alibi claim of Delaney Gibson, who was indicted with Spirko for the murder; 4) the prosecution probably suborned perjury at trial; 5) the district court erred in denying Spirko’s actual innocence claim; 6) Spirko was denied due process by the prosecution’s use of a suggestive photo array and hypnotically refreshed testimony, and by his trial in an improper venue; 7) the district court erred in denying Spirko’s request for discovery and an evidentiary hearing; 8) Spirko was denied due process as a result of several errors during the sentencing phase of the trial. After reviewing the district court’s exhaustive opinion, we conclude that we agree with its findings and its conclusions1, and we will not separately address any of Spir-ko’s claims except those relating to the alleged Brady violations. We think that the Brady claims, although ultimately mer-itless, deserve specific attention.

The only Brady claim that Spirko actually argues in his brief is that the state withheld from him evidence that an individual named Delaney Gibson, who was [605]*605indicted with Spirko for the murder but escaped and remained a fugitive until well after Spirko had been tried and convicted, could not have been present when the murder was committed. It is useful to recount the facts relevant to this claim.

At approximately 8:30 a.m. on August 9, 1982, Betty Jane Mottinger was discovered to be missing from her post as postmistress of the Elgin, Ohio, Post Office in Van Wert County. Also missing were Mrs. Mottinger’s purse and approximately $750 in cash, postage stamps and money orders. Some three weeks later, her decomposing body was found in a bean field in neighboring Hancock County. The body, bearing between fourteen and eighteen stab wounds to the chest and stomach, was fully clad, wrapped in a paint-splattered curtain which appeared to have been used by painters as a drop-cloth, and tied with a cord similar to a clothesline.

The investigation into the abduction and death of Mrs. Mottinger was massive. Authorities interviewed over three thousand people and spent countless man hours seeking information to solve the crime. The prosecution followed anonymous leads, tips based on old hearsay, and any trail that might lead to probative evidence. The record is enormous and contains reports from the interviews and documents from the investigative efforts. Among the interviews documented in the record are the many interviews of the petitioner, John Spirko.

In October of 1982, Spirko initiated contact with law enforcement officers, including postal inspectors. Spirko, who was then in jail in Lucas County, Ohio, on unrelated charges, told the officers that he had information about Mrs. Mottinger’s killing, and suggested that in exchange for the officers’ help on those charges, he could help them in the Mottinger case. Over the next several weeks, Spirko gave a series of differing accounts of the murder. His tales included persons named “Rooster,” “Dope Man,” “Spooky” and “Dirty Dan.” Early in his “cooperation” with the postal inspectors, he told Inspector Paul Hartman that he had been at a party where an unnamed person had told him that three white males had murdered Mrs. Mottinger after the three had gone to the post office to claim a package containing heroin, had gotten into some kind of scuffle, and had been forced to kidnap the postmistress. According to Spirko, while he was at the party, he saw a cream-colored handbag with brown trim, containing coins, some money orders and gold jewelry. He changed his story a few days later, telling Inspector Hartman at the outset of the interview, “Look Paul, I’ve thrown you a few curves and you have thrown me a few curves. From now on, it’s going to be straight down the line.” Spirko went on to say that he himself had been commissioned by The Dope Man2 to retrieve a package containing heroin from a man named Rooster, and claimed that Spirko and another man had driven to a house where Spirko saw Mrs. Mottinger’s body. Spirko said that the body was already bound; that one of the men in the house had unwrapped it to recover a cigarette lighter; and the body had about 15 stab wounds. Spirko related further that [606]*606the Dope Man decided that Rooster should be killed, and that Spirko had driven Rooster and two other persons to an undisclosed location where Rooster was shot and buried in a marsh.

A few days later, Spirko expanded his story to include a man named “Swartz,” who told him that Rooster and Dirty Dan had killed Mrs. Mottinger because she had bitten Rooster when he forced her to perform oral sex on him. Spirko claimed that he and Swartz had gone to the house where the murder was committed; there he saw Rooster and Dirty Dan with blood on their clothes and a gray curtain which was torn at the end; he also saw a brown car, inside of which was a cream-colored purse with brown trim, containing money orders, change and gold jewelry.

The next day, December 9, Spirko again changed his story. This time, he said it was in fact Rooster who had told him how the murder took place, and that Rooster had said that the only thing that bothered him about the murder was the “whoosh” sound that the knife made when he stabbed Mrs. Mottinger. Although Spirko stuck to his claim that Rooster himself had been killed, he now said that Rooster’s body had been deposited in a swamp in Florida. And on December 10, Spirko described to Inspector Hartman the clothing that Mrs. Mottinger had been wearing when she disappeared.

Hartman next interviewed Spirko on December 13, 1982. Spirko now claimed that he and Swartz had actually been present when Mrs. Mottinger was killed. First, Spirko said that while he was watching television in the house, Rooster had chased Mrs. Mottinger outside where Rooster and Dirty Dan had stabbed her. Later in the day, Spirko told Hartman that an unknown biker, along with Rooster and a man named Dean or Dino, had taken turns raping Mrs.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Harris v. Green
E.D. Kentucky, 2024
JOHN J. CONNOLLY, JR. v. THE STATE OF FLORIDA
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2023
McKinney v. Parris
W.D. Tennessee, 2022
Braswell v. Phillips
W.D. Tennessee, 2022
Gary Hughbanks v. Stuart Hudson
2 F.4th 527 (Sixth Circuit, 2021)
Dellinger v. Mays (DPLC1)
E.D. Tennessee, 2021
Williams v. Brewer
E.D. Michigan, 2020
Daniels v. Winn
E.D. Michigan, 2020
Thomas v. McCullick
E.D. Michigan, 2020
United States v. Richard Donaldson
666 F. App'x 513 (Sixth Circuit, 2016)
James Hooker v. City of Toledo
644 F. App'x 675 (Sixth Circuit, 2016)
United States v. Abdullahi Farah
766 F.3d 599 (Sixth Circuit, 2014)
Tyler Young v. Scott Owens
577 F. App'x 410 (Sixth Circuit, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
368 F.3d 603, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 9526, 2004 WL 1085179, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/john-g-spirko-jr-v-betty-mitchell-warden-ca6-2004.