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Loading ...Court considers death sentence for Ohio neo-Nazi
10.13.2009 6:13pm EDT
(Washington) The Supreme Court seemed receptive Tuesday to reinstating the death sentence of a flamboyant neo-Nazi convicted of murdering three men in Ohio more than a quarter century ago.
Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray told justices during oral arguments that Frank Spisak had a fair trial and deserves death. Cordray urged the high court to reverse a federal appeals court ruling that found Spisak had an ineffective trial lawyer and found that his jury received faulty sentencing instructions.Spisak, 58, was convicted of three murders at Cleveland State University over a seven-month period in 1982 – crimes he said were motivated by his hatred of gays, blacks and Jews. At the same time, Spisak claimed his crimes were sparked by mental illness related to confusion about his sexual and gender identity. He wants to have surgery to become a woman.
The 1983 trial became a public spectacle as Spisak celebrated his killings in court and openly discussed his hateful views. He even grew a Hitler-style mustache, carried a copy of Hitler’s book, “Mein Kampf” during the proceedings and gave the Nazi salute to the jury.
The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled that Spisak’s trial attorney essentially gave up on his client in closing arguments by conceding that Spisak was “demented” and “undeserving of sympathy.”
Cordray acknowledged the defense lawyer’s argument was far from perfect, but said the attorney – now deceased – did the best he could with an unsavory client. He said the defense lawyer instead appealed to the jury’s sense of humanity to spare from death a defendant who was obviously very troubled.
“I don’t see easily how he could have done better,” Cordray said.
Michael Benza, representing Spisak on appeal, said the former defense lawyer essentially abandoned his client.
“It is the role of a defense counsel to advocate,” Benza said.
But most of the justices were skeptical of Benza’s arguments.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that the Supreme Court had never found a defense lawyer to be ineffective solely on the basis of a closing argument if his conduct during the rest of trial was acceptable.
“You’re asking us to take a new tack,” she told Benza.
Chief Justice John Roberts said Spisak’s lawyer seemed to be trying to make the best out of a difficult situation by admitting to the jury that his client’s behavior was awful.
“It seems to me this disagreement is over different styles of strategy,” Roberts said.
Benza also argued that the instructions to jurors were flawed because they were not told that one juror’s vote against the death penalty would prevent a death sentence. Ohio law now includes such an instruction, although none was required at the time of Spisak’s trial.
It’s the second time the case has come before the high court. The justices reinstated Spisak’s death sentence two years ago in a 6-3 decision that scolded federal appeals courts for second-guessing trial judges in murder cases.
However, the appeals court reached the same conclusion it did the first time and threw out Spisak’s death sentence.
Mr fisher more humane? so you think locking some one up for life is humane. he killed THREE people that is not humane i dont want him running around in three or four yrs when his parole is up so he can do it again thats kinda hard to take. sorry think we are on very difrent sides on this one
>some of you say oh its sad to kill him
No. Many of us are saying that us doing the killing lowers and dehumanizes ourselves. We become a slave to baser impulses of blood lust and vengeance.
We debase ourselves when we impose the death penalty. We should be better, more humane than that. Life without parole–and I know that it will take some hard work to make it so that life without parole becomes more of a reality.
they should hang him in the court yard as fast as he killed those people! some of you say oh its sad to kill him well i dont want ot feed him let hell take care of him
I am so very glad to have left Ohio. More mass murderers come from Ohio than any other state. They thump the bible, do not LGBT people, and have a backwoods mentality. Big cities like Cleveland are not as bad but the state is full of small towns and villages with a mind set that is scary. One would think that the state that was the gate way for the underground railroad, Quakers,and Amish would be more liberal but it is far from that. I am so glad my partner and I got out. I love my new home in Baltimore.
@blessed–you’re wrong. Note the case I mentioned from suburban Akron. He coulda been executed. Then what? Again, recall that it took the then-AG, Jim Petro (former Republican Cuyahoga County Commissioner from Rocky River, and known for very little other defense of constitutional law), coming up from Columbus to Akron to TELL Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan-Walsh that she WOULD release that man without delay. Another tidbit: at the time, the Summit County GOP chair, Alex Arshinkoff, was also known for picking up young trade from Akron bars…to the point that one night, a kid got outta Arshinkoff’s car on the OH 8 freeway (Near Blossom Music Center, @ Steeles Corners), troopers pulled up, and troopers told the kid he wouldn’t have a case ’cause Arshinkoff was…well, who he was. Blessedguy, what state do you live in? What do you know about Ohio and its laws, and its prosecution thereof? What do you know about the cost of a (possibly-inconclusive) million-dollar appeal versus the current cost of housing Spisak for the rest of his life?
As I see it, on Ohio DRC’s site, Mr Spisak was born on 06 Jun 1951. He entered an Ohio prison on 13 Sep 1983; anybody who wants further details can look them up. It’s now 2009, making him 58, and he’s been in prison for 26 years. Hell no, I don’t want him paroled, and he shouldn’t be. If you knew anything about Ohio’s correctional system and its policies re: inmate mental illness, then you’d know exactly where he’d go if he was considered as much crazy as criminal.
Blessed, there’s another case. In Cleveland, near the Shaker line, along Doan Brook and across from Baldwin Hills reservoir. Kaiser used to be there. Dude who’s spent 20 years on death row because of an “informant”–an “informant” who just happened to have tons of incriminating evidence about himself, except the Cuyahoga Prosecutor had already offered him a deal. You wanna talk about that one too–again, another time when a man is on death row for a crime easily proved to be not his doing? I’m not about thug love. I’m about a legal system prosecuting the right person, as opposed to the easiest target. I want my Ohio taxes to prosecute wrongdoers. If you, Blessedguy, are so eager to see anybody die for a crime just to get “closure,” then it makes me wonder about your motives. Like a sociopath who wants to divert attention. Like you, just sayin’.
I suggest to shorten the wait period for death penalty because it’s just a waste of tax payers money. Let’s use the tax money to save people’s lives, such as the poors, the hungry and the sicks.
I can not believe that 365, would endorse death penalty, as we cried out that other countries use it against gays. Are you proud that we are in the top 5 countries in world that still use the death penalty. This is guy seems like he has a mental illness. He needs medical attention, yet he should remain in jail for life. I know Ohio like the death penalty, but it dose not solve anything. People will kill either from illness, drugs or hatred. United States should limit the death penalty, and become a civilize country. Yes, I am against the death penalty. Governmet makes mistakes and someday are government can use it against us.
I can not believe that 365, would endorse death penalty, as we cried out that other countries use it against gays. Are you proud that we are in the top 5 countries in world that still use the death penalty. This is guy seems like he has a mental illness. He needs medical attention, yet he should remain in jail for life. I know Ohio like the death penalty, but it dose not solve anything. People will kill either from illness, drugs or hatred. United States should limit the death penalty, and become a civilize country.
I’m not getting a raise for three years, yet Attorney General Cordray is pushing for another go-round on Spisak–which is going to cost tax money for both sides to fight. The state is fuckin’ broke, yet they’re obsessed with executions. It’s not about justice, it’s about revenge. Blood vengeance. Jesus H, I’m so glad that my streets are barely paved, and we have crumbling schools, $10k/year IN-STATE tuition at state universities, and these fucktards are wasting my money tryin’ to kill some freak who’s stayed behind bars for decades? Keep him in prison, stop bleeding the state budget any futher.
Keep in mind why this is such an issue in Ohio right now. A couple of weeks ago, down at Lucasville, they had some dude strapped down for his lethal injection. It stopped after two hours. They gave him a bathroom break. DRC staff couldn’t find a vein. Prison is punishment. I don’t give half a turd if I’m payin’ for his weekend brunch. I pay for kids I don’t have to go to school, don’t I? This bastard’s being punished and he’s removed from society. Same for Spisak. This is a pissing contest and a waste of my taxes.
One more thought. In Ohio–in Cleveland, specifically–there have been at least 1,000 people a year convicted of a felony–trace possession of a controlled substance. That’s for at least the last 20 years. A crack pipe with trace on it–hell, there’s trace on something like 70% of US currency. In Cleveland, it meant a damn-near-automatic felony, which will include prison time. The suburbs don’t do this, but Cleveland does. Poorly-educated, now you have a felony…which equals snowball’s chance of getting a job past the brushless car wash. This is a system concerned with anal-retentive Victorian Protestant propriety. Who else would be so short-sighted that they’d reintroduce 6,000 unemployable felons to a shrinking city every year? And they’re gonna do what to eat? That’s right.
Of course, we could also discuss the guy in an Akron suburb whose family paid for a DNA test proving he DID NOT rape his niece, nor rape and murder his mother-in-law, but it took the then-AG (a worthless GOP hack) to come up from Columbus and tell her that even Ohio’s casual approach to the Constitution couldn’t brook keeping an innocent man in prison (especially when the real rapist/killer was already doing time for another rape). Yeah, I’m fuckin’ angry, because all this law and order bullshit does exactly nothing to deal with real problems, and it’s nothing but bread and circuses to distract the ignorant and the bigoted from ongoing problems.
I refuse to lower myself to the level of people like Frank Spisak or Fred and Marjorie Phelps. While I have not love for these people, I do not lower myself to their level. Let them go to prison for hate crimes. I oppose capital punishment in all circumstances, even murder motivated by hate.