Stay of Execution Denied in Laguna Beach Murder Case

A U.S. District Court judge on Friday rejected a plea by attorneys for convicted murderer Thomas M. Thompson to block his scheduled Aug. 5 execution.

Judge Dickran M. Tevrizian Jr. dashed efforts by Thompson’s attorneys to prove he didn’t rape and might not have murdered 20-year-old Ginger Fleischli in 1981.

The rape in a Laguna Beach apartment was the special circumstance that, combined with murder, put Thompson on death row. He is scheduled to become the fifth man executed in California since the state reinstated capital punishment.

Citing a legal technicality, Tevrizian said Thompson had to seek approval from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Thompson’s lawyers say that during his 1983 trial prosecutors suppressed evidence that a co-defendant, David Leitch, walked in on Thompson and Fleischli engaged in what appeared to be consensual sex.

Andrew Love, one of Thompson’s attorneys, said they simply want a court to listen to their pleas.

“You hear about defendants getting off on technicalities all the time,” he said. “Here they’re on the verge of executing a man because they’re letting technicalities get in the way.”

Prosecutors say they are confident they can keep Thompson on course for execution.

They say Leitch, convicted of second-degree murder in the case, never voiced such a story to investigators in Orange County. And prosecutors have cast doubt on his statements, noting that he has told several other versions of what happened that night. Even if true, Leitch’s story conflicts with key details of Thompson’s own testimony during trial, they say.

The decision comes as death penalty foes continue to whip up support for Thompson. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles, this week joined the chorus by urging Gov. Pete Wilson to grant clemency for Thompson.

In a letter sent to Wilson on Wednesday, Mahony said he shares concerns about evidence that raises “serious doubts about the circumstances which made this case eligible for the death penalty and other substantial questions regarding his role in the crime for which he was convicted.”

Mahony, whose diocese is the nation’s largest, said his appeal for clemency was in line with the position taken by U.S. Catholic bishops against capital punishment.

The position “in no way seeks to minimize the tremendous pain and loss suffered by the victims of violent crime and by their family and friends,” he said.