State Prison Board Considers Bonin’s Appeal for Clemency

The state Board of Prison Terms gathered behind closed doors Wednesday to weigh a clemency appeal from William G. Bonin, the convicted Freeway Killer who faces a Feb. 23 execution by lethal injection for a series of murders in Southern California that ended in 1980.

The board met in private to consider its recommendation and issue a confidential written report to Gov. Pete Wilson, who is expected to announce a decision on Bonin’s fate next week.

“The governor will be spending a great deal of time during the coming days reviewing material from all parties,” said Sean Walsh, Wilson’s spokesman. Walsh declined to reveal the board’s recommendation, and panel members--who in recent weeks reviewed reams of written material provided by Bonin’s attorneys, prosecutors and the families of victims--also refused to say what their decision was.

Wilson has the power to reduce the death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Bonin has also filed emergency appeals in court in the hope of blocking or delaying the execution.

Bonin was convicted of sexually assaulting, robbing and strangling 14 boys and young men and dumping their bodies along freeways and deserted roads in Los Angeles and Orange counties in 1979 and 1980.

Before going behind closed doors to consider the case, the board heard the reading of an emotional letter from Sandra Miller, whose 15-year-old son was murdered by Bonin. She said that her once tightknit family became “totally dysfunctional” after the boy’s slaying and that she turned to alcohol, overate and became suicidal.

“Bonin [has] lived 16 years longer than Rusty got to live his life,” Miller wrote. “Bonin has destroyed more lives than ours. . . . We’ve tried so desperately to rebuild our lives, now please put him to sleep.”