Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Convicted murderer Thomas M. Thompson could die by
lethal injection in
two to three months, now that the U.S. Supreme Court
has paved the way for
the state to set a new execution date.
But as the family of victim Ginger Fleischli gears up
to attend the execution
after another year's delay, Thompson and his team of
attorneys are determined
not to give up.
"He's very disappointed," said Thompson's San
Francisco-based attorney,
Andrew Love, "but he still has hope and faith that he
will ultimately get a new
trial and that justice will somehow prevail."
Gregory Long, another of Thompson's lawyers, said the
likely next step will be
to petition the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to
hear what he considers
new evidence.
Jack Fleischli, the victim's brother, said he cried
for a few minutes after hearing
about the ruling yesterday, and then was able to
celebrate it.
"It definitely made my year," said Fleischli, 48, who
plans to attend the
execution with his brother, Michael, and "see justice
done."
"The death penalty in this case was the decision of
the jury some 17 years
ago," he said. "It was the right decision."
Thompson's execution was called off two days before
its scheduled date last
year on Aug. 5, after the 9th Circuit granted him a
stay.
That court, citing an administrative error in failing
to hold an appeal hearing a
year earlier, threw out the rape charge that provided
the "special circumstance"
necessary for the Orange County man's death sentence.
Thompson was convicted in 1983 of raping and murdering
Ginger Fleischli, a
Laguna Beach nanny, two years earlier. David Leitch,
convicted of
second-degree murder in the case, was sentenced to 15
years to life in prison.
He is eligible for parole next year.
Long said Leitch testified during a recent parole
hearing that he saw Thompson
having consensual sex with Ginger Fleischli sometime
before she was stabbed
five times in the head.
"What we need to do is get back in front of the
circuit and see if this new
evidence from David Leitch will convince them that
they ought to grant Tom
relief," said Long, who is based in Los Angeles.
Orange County prosecutor Mike Jacobs said he was not
surprised by either
the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling yesterday or the news
that Thompson's
attorneys plan to pursue further appeals.
"I expect them to file some more petitions for
relief," Jacobs said. "I don't
expect them to stop."
Thompson's claim that he had consensual sex with
Fleischli was noted in the
Supreme Court's majority opinion, which was written by
Justice Anthony M.
Kennedy.
Love said the case has been a "procedural morass."
It was marked by the unusual stand last year by seven
former prosecutors who
raised concerns about Thompson's death sentence. In a
legal brief, they said
Leitch, who had been romantically involved with the
victim, was a likelier
candidate for the crimes.
Kennedy acknowledged that this is not "an ordinary
case" but said he saw no
evidence of Thompson's innocence.
Still, Kennedy described the circuit court's recall of
the execution mandate as a
"grave abuse of discretion."
Jack Fleischli, an actor and entertainment lawyer,
supported Kennedy's
criticism of the 9th Circuit Court, and added his own.
"It really calls into question the integrity of the
justices themselves when they
use their personal bias against the death penalty to
influence them and motivate
them to manipulate" decisions so as to strike down
death sentences, he said.
Lance Lindsey, executive director of Death Penalty
Focus, a statewide
organization fighting to get rid of the death penalty
in California, put the 5-4
ruling in a different light.
"By one vote, he dies. That really has a kind of Roman
circus, thumbs-up,
thumbs-down sort of quality to it," he said.
Lindsey called the criminal justice system "highly
politicized" and "very
imperfect."
Anyone who is familiar with this case, he said, knows
there has been a
"tremendous variance" in the interpretations of the
evidence. "It's extremely
distressing that it's gone this far."
--
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