Last Updated: October 01, 1996
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Gene Miller of the Miami Herald declined to respond. Instead, he submitted the judge's order vacating the Spaziano conviction and ordering a new trial. These are edited excerpts:
Without (Anthony DiLisio's) testimony, there simply is no corroborating evidence ... to sustain the verdict. ... (He) now testifies that he did not tell the truth during the trial and provides a complicated explanation ...
(His family was) ruled by his father, Ralph DiLisio, who physically abused them. DiLisio tried to please his father but he never succeeded. ...
(At his business,) Ralph DiLisio started an affair with an (employee) named Keppy who seduced DiLisio when he was 15 and with whom he had frequent sexual intercourse. ... His father and Keppy ultimately married. ...
(Joseph Spaziano) worked at (the business) and DiLisio knew (him) ...
Keppy began ... a sexual relationship with the defendant. Ralph DiLisio found out and became angry. ... It was about that time that Ralph DiLisio asked his son if the defendant had told him that he mutilated women. (He hadn't,) but the idea was planted. ...
DiLisio's (teen) years included several brushes with the law. (While in juvenile detention, investigators) approached DiLisio for information. After being encouraged by his father to cooperate, (he agreed to hypnosis).
(Investigators implied charges might be dropped against DiLisio and that he might go home). They also supplied him with bits of information prior to the hypnosis session. He was scared. He went along with the police in an effort to please them and his father. ...
(Two experts who have heard tapes of the sessions testified that the hypnotist's technique was poor.) It is plain from (their) testimony ... that the information which was produced as a result was unreliable. ...
It is most likely that the crime scene depicted by DiLisio is a scene that
he created for the purpose of pleasing the police and his father. One of the
experts even pointed out that the actual crime scene did not match DiLisio's
depiction ... Every person, no matter how unsavory, is entitled to due process
of law and a fair trial. The defendant received neither. The validity of the
verdict in this case rests upon the testimony of an admitted perjurer who had
every reason to fabricate a story which he hoped would be believed. ... 
