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John Spenkelink
John Arthur Spenkelink (March 29, 1949 – May 25, 1979) was a convicted American murderer. He was executed under controversial circumstances in 1979, the first convict to be executed in Florida after capital punishment was re-legalized in 1976, and the second (after Gary Gilmore) in the country.
==Crime, legal controversy==
A drifter who had served time in California for petty crimes, and had escaped from a prison work farm, Spenkelink shot and killed a fellow small-time criminal named Joseph Szymankiewicz in 1973 in Tallahassee, Florida. He claimed that he acted in self-defense: that Szymankiewicz had stolen his money, forced him to play Russian roulette, and sexually assaulted him. However, evidence indicated that Spenkelink had left their shared motel room, returned with a gun, and shot Szymankiewicz in the back. He turned down a plea bargain to second-degree murder which would have resulted in a life sentence. In 1976 he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. In 1977 Governor Reubin Askew of Florida signed his first death warrant, but the Supreme Court stayed the execution pending consideration of 22 separate appeals. In 1979 Askew's successor, Bob Graham, signed a second death warrant. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall issued a second stay, which was overturned by the full Court.
Spenkelink's case became a national ''cause célèbre'', encompassing both the broader debate over the morality of the death penalty and the narrower question of whether the punishment fit Spenkelink's crime. His cause was taken up by former Florida Governor LeRoy Collins, actor Alan Alda, and singer Joan Baez, among many others.〔Von Drehle, David. ''Among the Lowest of the Dead: Inside Death Row''. New York: Fawcett Crest (imprint of Ballantine Books), 1996. ISBN 0449225232 pp. 49-51〕 Also at issue was the assertion that capital punishment discriminated against the poor and underprivileged. (Spenkelink often signed his prison correspondence with the epigram, “Capital punishment means those without capital get the punishment.”〔John Spenkelink: (ExecutedToday.com archive ) Retrieved April 28, 2011.〕)
The execution was finally carried out on May 25, 1979 in "Old Sparky", the Florida State Prison electric chair. That morning Doug Tracht, a popular Jacksonville disc jockey, aired a recording of sizzling bacon and dedicated it to Spenkelink.〔Michaud S, Aynesworth H (1999): ''The Only Living Witness''. Penguin Putnam, ISBN 0-451-16372-9, p. 10.〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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