Convict Welcomed to Wife’s Family After Secret Wedding Behind Bars

Joseph Harrington described his son-in-law as “not only a bright man, but the most fascinating man I have ever met.”

Eileen, his wife, and Eileen Truxton, their daughter, had similarly effusive praise.

But Willie Ray Wisely is not just any brother-in-law, and his marriage to Gail Marie Harrington is not just any marriage.

Wisely, 34, is fighting a 1982 murder conviction. He lives in the Orange County Jail, which is where he and his law clerk were married--behind bars, in secret, on Christmas Eve, 1986. Only this week did prosecutors and the public find out about the marriage.

Drug Charges Denied

The in-laws were on hand for a press conference called by Gail Harrington on Friday afternoon. She spoke about their unusual union and denounced charges, filed Aug. 13, that she had smuggled Wisely drugs.

Harrington, a law student, has worked for a private attorney who handled litigation for the American Civil Liberties Union on several lawsuits challenging conditions in the Orange County Jail.

The charges are “a personal vendetta” by the district attorney’s office to smear Harrington’s reputation as a law clerk and to jeopardize her future as a lawyer, her husband said. He was heard through a speaker phone on a table in front of Harrington.

Dispensing Legal Advice

Wisely said prosecutors have singled him out for harassment because of his well publicized 6 1/2-year defense effort and because of the legal advice he has provided fellow Orange County inmates.

Michael Capizzi, Orange County’s chief assistant district attorney, replied that “we felt . . . Wisely was a murderer, we charged him for murder and 12 jurors agreed. I think his statements should be taken in that light.”

Although Capizzi characterized Wisely as “just a con” no matter what he thinks of himself, the Harringtons think he is something special--and innocent.

“I love him like a brother-in-law,” said Truxton, 27, who works in the accounting office at Lorimar Videos in Culver City, “and I can’t wait for the day he gets out.”

Joseph Harrington, 50, a retired oil worker, said that when he learned of his daughter’s wedding he decided to check up on his new son-in-law. After plowing through 6,000 pages of trial transcripts and police reports, he said he was “absolutely convinced a murder never took place.”

Crushed by Truck

The murder charges stemmed from the death of Wisely’s stepfather, John E. Bray, who was crushed under the falling cab of his own semi-truck March 9, 1981, while he was working on the engine. The prosecution contended that Wisely rigged the cab to fall. Wisely said the cab slowly dropped on Bray due to a design flaw, and he said he has affidavits from International Harvester to prove it.

Harrington on Friday also dismissed Sheriff’s Department allegations that she and her husband had engaged in “mutual sexual touching” in a holding cell during one of her visits. Both have said the marriage has not been consummated and the only time they have even kissed was during the wedding ceremony.