THE WAIT GOES ON: Families of John...
THE WAIT GOES ON: Families of John Wayne Gacy’s 33 murder victims were bitter that it took 14 years of appeals before his execution in Illinois this week. The wait is long for prosecutors too. Seven of 28 Death Row inmates from Orange County have been on appeal for a decade or more. The longest: William Charles Payton, sentenced over 12 years ago for the rape and murder of a Garden Grove woman. . . . Assistant Dist. Atty. John Conley favors keeping appeals from going to the federal courts: “It’s frustrating, because it never seems to end.”
Death Row Veterans
Seven Orange County men have been on California’s Death Row in San Quentin for more than 10 years.
William Charles Payton: 12 years, 2 months.
John George Brown: 11 years, 11 months.
James A. Melton: 11 years, 2 months.
Jaturun Siripoongs: 11 years, 1 month.
William G. Bonin: 10 years, 9 months.
John L. Visciotti: 10 years, 6 months.
Robert J. Thompson: 10 years, 5 months.
Source: Orange County district attorney’s office
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