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Thread: Mark Newton Spotz - Pennsylvania Death Row

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Judge stays Mark Spotz execution

    A federal judge has issued a stay of the scheduled Jan. 8 execution of condemned spree killer Mark Spotz.

    Spotz is facing three death sentences for the murders of June Ohlinger in Schuykill County, Betty Amstutz in Cumberland County and Penny Gunnett in York County. The murders were committed during a four-day rampage in 1995.

    This stay was for Gunnett's murder. Spotz previously received stays for the other two killings.

    Spotz's attorney, Robert Dunham, had argued in motions that he needed more time to research the case before filing Spotz's petition for federal review in the U.S. District Court of Pennsylvania.

    The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office countered that Dunham has represented Spotz throughout his post-conviction appeals beginning in April 1999 and so did not need more time to familiarize himself with the case.

    Thursday, Chief Justice Yvette Kane issued the stay, explaining the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling on a prior case, left "clear directives" that the court is "obligated " to issue a stay when a death row inmate has an active appeal.

    Spotz's petition for federal review is to be filed six days after his stayed execution date.

    http://www.ydr.com/crime/ci_22239607...potz-execution
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  2. #12
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Court upholds Spotz' conviction in brother's death

    Mark Spotz, the man waiting execution for killing three women in eastern Pennsylvania after killing his brother in Clearfield in January 1995, has lost his appeal of the manslaughter conviction in his brother's death.

    Clearfield County District Attorney William A. Shaw Jr. announced the ruling Monday and recounted the events that led to the deaths of four people.

    The Spotz brothers argued after Dustin’s fiancée’s teenage son placed a pet gerbil in front of Mark's face while he was watching television.

    Mark yelled at the child and threatened to hurt him. Dustin got upset and the argument escalated into a physical confrontation. Dustin stabbed Mark twice in the upper back with a butter knife. Mark threatened to kill Dustin, went upstairs and got a handgun and fired eight shots, two of which hit Dustin in the chest and killed him. After Dustin fell to the ground, Mark leaned over him and spit on his face before he and his girlfriend fled the residence.

    After fleeing Clearfield County, Mark Spotz killed women in Schuylkill, York, and Cumberland counties in a three-day period before his was captured in Carlisle Feb. 3, 1995.

    He was convicted by a jury in Clearfield County of voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, carrying a firearm without a license and another firearms violation. He was sentenced to 17½ to 35 years in prison for killing his brother and was sentenced to death for each of the women he killed during his cross-state spree.

    http://www.thecourierexpress.com/new...a4bcf887a.html

  3. #13
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Spree killer Spotz among death row inmates suing over solitary

    By Matthew Guerry
    The Clearfield Progress

    DuBOIS — Early in 1995, Mark Newton Spotz shot and killed his own brother in Clearfield County. In the ensuing days, he would kill three more people in a spree spanning Cumberland, Schuylkill and York counties.

    For killing his brother, Spotz was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. For killing his other three victims, he was convicted of first-degree murder and thrice sentenced to death in 1996.

    Today, after 21 years of solitary confinement and counting in State Correctional Institution Greene, Spotz and four other death row inmates are suing Pennsylvania prison officials in a federal lawsuit.

    The suit challenges Pennsylvania policies that “cruelly and baselessly hold death-sentenced prisoners in permanent, degrading, and inhumane solitary confinement.”

    The five prisoners, according to the lawsuit, spend 22 to 24 hours alone in their cells each day. Spotz, it said, experiences symptoms of prolonged isolation ranging from hopelessness to hallucinations.

    In 2017, it continues, he attempted suicide. He and the four other plaintiffs, the lawsuit said, have no way of challenging their confinement under the Department of Correction’s “blanket policy.”

    The suit asks the court to end the confinement of 156 death row inmates in Graterford and Greene state prisons. It is being brought against the wardens of those prisons and the state Corrections secretary.

    The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Pennsylvania, according to the Associated Press, has executed three people since 1976.

    Gov. Tom Wolf enacted three years ago a moratorium on the death penalty that he said will remain in place until a state Senate-commissioned study of capital punishment is complete.

    http://www.theprogressnews.com/progr...68ec9b1bd.html
    Last edited by CharlesMartel; 01-30-2018 at 12:24 AM.

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