'American Taliban' John Walker Lindh's kin ask President Bush for mercy

The parents of convicted "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleaded with President Bush Wednesday to commute his 20-year prison stretch as a final act of mercy.
Frank Lindh and Marilyn Walker didn't help their son's case by slamming slain CIA hero Johnny (Mike) Spann's father, who blames the Muslim convert for failing to stop Spann's gruesome death in a 2001 Afghan battle.
"John Lindh had nothing to do with Mike Spann's death," Frank Lindh said in San Francisco. "It was a shameful thing, I think, for that father to continue to make those claims against our son."
The CIA paramilitary operative was gunned down in a firefight during a Taliban prison uprising at Mazar-e-Sharif two months after the 9/11 attacks.
Spann was videotaped questioning Lindh, who "didn't say a word," his dad, who's also named John, told the Daily News from his home in Winfield, Ala.
Since then, the grieving father has blamed Lindh for joining the Taliban, meeting Osama Bin Laden and failing to warn his son a violent uprising was in the works. He opposes any commutation of Lindh's remaining 13 years.
"I thought he ought to have got the damned electric chair," Spann said. He called Lindh's parents "cowards like he is."