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Court gives 'Crazy Joe' 11th-hour reprieve
“Crazy Joe” Spaziano receives a last-minute stay of execution on his 50th birthday September 25, 1995. In 1975 police charged Joe Spaziano with the 1973 rape-torture slaying of 18-year-old hospital clerk Laura Lynn Harberts. Jurors found Spaziano…
Volunteer Lawyers Resource Center's budget eliminated
This newspaper was describing how volunteer lawyer programs are being shut down due to lack of funding. There are other programs besides CCR that are trying to help prisoners on death row be represented in court. There has also been a dramatic…
Spaziano gets stay of execution
The judge for Joe Spaziano case gave Joe a delay his execution because of his lawyer did want to cooperate with the state attorney. Joe Spaziano was supposed to be executed for the murder of Laura Lynn Harberts who was 18 on August 1973 who was found…
Spaziano case sent to Sanford for appeal
Joseph Spaziano gets denied a stay of execution. The Florida Supreme Court decides that the new evidence regard the fact that a key witness in the 1976 murder trial lied must be heard by a Sanford court. The lower court was believed to be the place…
Arguments heard in death appeal
Death row inmate requests appeal in case two weeks before execution.
Spaziano's attorney asks court to halt execution
Joe Spaziano's attorney, Michael Mello, appeals the Florida Supreme Court to halt the execution.
Spaziano insists he's innocent
Spaziano later claims his innocence in court and Gov. Lawton Chiles delayed Spaziano's execution based on this information.
Spaziano's lawyer says state lied
Michael Mello, Spaziano's lawyer accuses Governor Chiles' office of lying and possibly tampering with evidence. Star witness in the case recants statement.
Joe Spaziano gets fifth death warrant
An updating of the case of Joe Spaziano as he receives his fifth death warrant, and a recounting of the last few events surrrounding Spaziano's trial.
Clemency sought in death case
The article discusses a plea for clemency in the death sentence of a motorcycle gang member after the key witness for the prosecution recanted their testimony.
Closing the door on innocence
News article covering Mello's continued defense of Joseph Spaziano 23 days before his execution is carried out.
Wilder Grants Death Sentence Reversal
Governor L. Douglas Wilder commuted Joseph M. Giarratano's death sentence. Giarratano's sentence was reduced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole in 13 years.
Legal Scholar on Death Row Fights to Halt Own Execution
Legal scholar Joseph Giarratano appeals to the Supreme Court in an attempt to commute his death sentence and save his life.
Second ruling, had it come earlier, may have saved some inmates, ex-public defender says
An article about a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed Florida courts to consider additional mitigating circumstances in death penalty cases.
'Death court' creates bottleneck of execution appeals, critics say
A newspaper account of the frustration felt by death penalty advocates at the slow appeals process, which they felt played into death row inmates motivation to extend their lives using drawn out appeals. The focus is on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of…
Death Row: Last Skirmish
A magazine article that discusses capital punishment in America and how lawyers are trying to get rid of it.
Escambia Cases Show Examples
News article describing the death penalty, judicial override, and examples from past cases that had examples of these issues.
Capital-Case Judges' Override Powers Trouble Lawyer
Attorney Jim Green supports a bill filed by Rep. James Burke that would overturn Florida's law which allows judges to issue death sentences against juries' recommendations.
Panel: Jurors Should Decide the Fate of Killers
An article in support of juries having the final say in death penalty cases. Says that judges should not have the ability to overrule a jury decision.