Notable (split-the-difference?) capital commutation in Ohio

As detailed in this news report, Ohio death row defendant “John Spirko will not be executed for the 1982 murder of Betty Jane Mottinger. But he’ll never get out of prison, either.”  Here more from the news report:

Citing the lack of physical evidence in the 1982 murder and what he described as “slim residual doubt” about Spirko’s guilt, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland said today that executing the death-row inmate would be “inappropriate.”  Instead, Strickland commuted Spirko’s sentence to life in prison without parole.

Spirko attorney Tom Hill said today that Spirko was relieved at the governor’s decision to spare him from lethal injection. But Hill, who as Spirko’s lawyer has described the evidence of Spirko’s actual innocence as overwhelming, expressed disappointment that Strickland did not pardon his client outright, or commute his sentence to time already served and release him.

Governor Strickland’s statement in support of this commutation is available at this link.  Here are key passages from that statement:

John Spirko was convicted, by a jury, of a heinous murder.  At times, when he wasn’t denying having committed the murder, he appears to have admitted doing so.  Ohio and federal trial, appellate and supreme courts reviewed his conviction and upheld it.  Alibi claims and claims regarding evidentiary weaknesses, including more recently developed theories and interpretations of evidence, were considered by those courts and rejected.  In addition, Governor Taft and I granted Mr. Spirko, collectively, seven reprieves to allow for the analysis of DNA related to the case.  Once completed, these DNA tests neither exonerated Mr. Spirko nor implicated him or anyone else….

Nonetheless, I have concluded that the lack of physical evidence linking him to the murder, as well as the slim residual doubt about his responsibility for the murder that arises from careful scrutiny of the case record and revelations about the case over the past 20 years, makes the imposition of the death penalty inappropriate in this case….

Based on [my] review, I have decided to commute Mr. Spirko’s sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

So, apparently my state’s Governor is not convinced Spirko was wrongly convicted.  And yet, Gov. Strickland was concerned enough about his guilt that he does not want the state of Ohio to carry out the sentence a jury imposed and that numerous courts have affirmed.  And yet, despite these concerns about guilt, the Governor believe he should sentence Spirko to spending the rest of his days on earth confined to a small cage.

For a host of political reasons, I understand Gov. Strickland’s interest in splitting the difference here.  If Spirko is in fact innocent, this commutation is a grave injustice to him; if Spirko is in fact guilty, this commutation is a grave injustice to the victims of his crime and the legal system.  So, I am not sure if Solomon would be proud of embarrassed by such a baby-splitting decision.