Murderer’s Execution Formally Scheduled

A judge Friday scheduled convicted killer Robert Jackson Thompson’s execution date for Aug. 21, a formal step necessary before Thompson’s appeal moves into the federal courts.

Thompson, convicted in the murder and sexual molestation of a 12-year-old Anaheim newspaper boy, is probably at least five years away from execution, most prosecutors and defense attorneys involved in death-penalty cases believe.

“This is just another step we have to take, but an important one,” said Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James G. Enright, who prosecuted Thompson seven years ago.

Enright did not speculate about how many years it would take before Thompson is executed but said Thompson’s appeal “has a long way to go.”

Three other county men on San Quentin’s Death Row--James A. Melton, John George Brown and William George Bonin--have had execution dates scheduled since the state Supreme Court upheld their death sentences. All are in the early federal appeal stages.

Thompson, now 42, was sentenced to death Dec. 6, 1983, for the 1981 murder of Benjamin Brenneman, a newspaper carrier with the Orange County Register who had been seeking subscriptions in an Anaheim apartment complex where Thompson lived.

Thompson had been paroled just a few weeks earlier, after serving a sentence for molesting a young boy.

Thompson eventually admitted kidnaping Benjamin, tying him up and carrying him off in his car in the trunk. But he has never admitted committing the murder.

Last February, the state Supreme Court upheld Thompson’s death sentence. His case was then remanded to Superior Court Judge Francisco P. Briseno, who had issued the original death sentence, for Friday’s formality. Thompson was not present during the brief hearing.

His appellate attorneys will now ask for a stay of execution, which in all previous death-penalty cases has been perfunctory as the appeal moves into federal court.