High Court Upholds Death Penalty for ‘Freeway Killer’ in Teen-Agers’ Slayings

The state Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death sentence of so-called “Freeway Killer” William George Bonin for the murders of four teen-age boys whose nude bodies were found dumped along highways in Orange County in 1979 and 1980.

Bonin, 41, also has been convicted and sentenced to death for 10 similar slayings in Los Angeles County in a separate case pending before the justices.

The justices unanimously rejected Bonin’s contention that his 1983 trial in Orange County should have been transferred to Northern California because of extensive prejudicial publicity surrounding his trial in Los Angeles the year before.

The court, in an opinion by Justice Stanley Mosk, said that Bonin had shown “at the very most, the mere possibility” of an unfair trial in Orange County.

Bonin had failed to prove, as required by law, that there was a “reasonable likelihood” that jurors had formed such fixed opinions that they could not act impartially, Mosk said.

While 10 of the 12 jurors and three of four alternates had been exposed to news coverage of the Los Angeles case, most indicated during pretrial questioning in Orange County that they were unaware of the details, the court noted.

The facts that the Orange County community is a large one, that neither the victims nor the defendant were otherwise well known and that publicity had waned after the Los Angeles trial all supported Orange County Superior Court Judge Kenneth E. Lae’s refusal to order the case transferred, the justices said.

State Deputy Atty. Gen. Steven H. Zeigen praised the ruling, saying: “If anybody ever deserved the death penalty, certainly Mr. Bonin did. The nature of the crimes was totally outrageous.”

“There is no doubt in my mind that he received a fair trial,” Zeigen said. “None of the jurors made their minds up in advance. By the time they heard all the bits and pieces of evidence, there was an overwhelming case against him.”

State Deputy Public Defender Adrian K. Panton said he was disappointed by the ruling and believed there had been adequate evidence to transfer the trial from Orange County.

Bonin went on trial first in Los Angeles in October, 1981, for a series of 10 grisly, sex-related killings. Two accomplices, Greg Miley and James Munro, pleaded guilty to murder and later testified against Bonin.

Newspaper and television coverage of the Los Angeles case was extensive, with some accounts describing in detail the accomplices’ testimony.

Bonin’s case ended in Los Angeles in March, 1982, and a year later he went on trial in Orange County for the murders of Dennis Frank Fox, 17; Russell Rugh, 15; Glenn Barker, 14, and Lawrence Sharp, 17.

Judge Lae refused to move the case to a northern county and in August, 1983, a jury recommended the death penalty for the four murders.

On another issue raised in Bonin’s appeal, the justices agreed that defense trial lawyers were improperly denied the opportunity to present a rebuttal closing argument to jurors in a plea that Bonin’s life be spared.

After argument by the prosecution, the defense had made its initial argument, but when the prosecution then waived its right to rebuttal, Lae also barred a defense rebuttal.

The justices found that the final defense argument should have been permitted under state statutes but that no constitutional rights were violated--and that the error was harmless. “The defense’s opportunity to participate was not significantly limited,” Mosk wrote.

In the first argument, “defense counsel presented a full and unrestricted argument.”

In another ruling Monday, the high court affirmed the death sentence of James Leslie Karis Jr., 36, for the 1981 murder of Peggy D. Pennington, who along with another El Dorado County welfare worker was abducted at gunpoint in Placerville.

The justices, resolving a longstanding question, held that the exclusion of convicted felons and aliens from juries does not violate the constitutional right to a jury reflecting a fair cross-section of the community.

The unanimous opinion by Justice David N. Eagleson upheld state constitutional provisions that bar non-citizens and felons from jury service. Eagleson noted that Karis had not shown that the numbers of felons and non-citizens had “now grown so large” that they must be allowed on juries in California.