The Outsider on Siripongs’ Side

In Orange County legal circles, Linda Schilling is known as a top civil litigator who handles complex real estate deals for the Irvine Co. from her plush, 20th-floor office overlooking South Coast Plaza.

But for the last decade, Schilling has also waged a different kind of legal battle. It regularly takes her from Costa Mesa’s corporate boardrooms to San Quentin’s death row, where she represents convicted double murderer Jaturun “Jay” Siripongs.

She took the case on a pro-bono basis as a young attorney in 1989 and has stood by Siripongs while juggling the duties of her flourishing civil-law career and the demands of motherhood.

The fight to spare Siripongs’ life has proved frustrating for the 38-year-old Newport Beach woman, whose appeals and pleas for leniency were rejected by various courts as well as by Gov. Pete Wilson.

That all changed Nov. 16--less than six hours before the one-time Buddhist monk was set to be put to death--when a federal judge granted Schilling’s last-minute motion to halt the execution.

“It renewed my faith that we have the best judicial system in the world,” Schilling said of U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney’s unexpected ruling. “I am so grateful that it worked.”

Today, Schilling will urge Chesney to order another clemency hearing, arguing that the original hearing conducted by Wilson was unfair. If the judge agrees, the decision whether to execute Siripongs would likely fall to Gov.-elect Gray Davis.

Schilling is unlike the many activist lawyers who often take on capital punishment cases. She is a civil litigator, not a criminal defense attorney. And she does not have strong opinions on the death penalty--pro or con.

If Schilling is zealous about anything, it is that everyone deserves a “fair shake” from the judicial system. She puts the burden on herself to ensure that it works for Siripongs. If it doesn’t, she feels she is partly to blame.

“I don’t think Jay is the type of person the system was designed to execute,” she said. “Somewhere along the line, the system would have broken down.”

Prosecutors disagree, portraying Siripongs as a cold-blooded killer who has not expressed remorse for his crimes. They said he deserves the harshest punishment for the “savage” murders of a Garden Grove store manager and her clerk during a 1981 robbery.

As California prepares to execute more prisoners in short order than ever before, the courts will need more attorneys like Schilling who are willing to defend death row inmates, experts said.

California provides legal assistance to condemned prisoners, but the pay scales are relatively low. More than 170 of the 518 inmates on death row do not have representation, according to Elizabeth Semel, director of the American Bar Assn.’s Death Penalty Representation Project.

Execution opponents said law firms are often unwilling to take on death penalty cases, finding that the long commitments of time and money, as well as the possible negative publicity, aren’t worth the effort.

“You have to be very committed if you’re going to defend somebody who is convicted of multiple murders, and maybe not innocent,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “You’re going to be accused of slowing down the system. And then at the end, in all likelihood, your client gets executed. It’s hard to win.”

Schilling said she took on the Siripongs case because she wanted to do her part to alleviate the number of capital punishment cases jamming the system. She knew it would require a great commitment of time but didn’t know it would end up being a “career.”

She remembers vividly her first prison visit. Six armed guards stood watch as her new client appeared. Before her stood a “scrawny” and “humble” man, weighing about 115 pounds.

He had been convicted by an Orange County jury in 1983 of strangling to death Packovan Wattanaporn, the store manager, and fatally stabbing her clerk, Quach Nguyen.

Schilling couldn’t believe it.

“I thought, ‘You’re accused of doing what?’ ” she recalled thinking. “The physics of it didn’t make any sense.”

Schilling estimates she has spent 10,000 hours on the case, producing mountains of court documents. Costly expenses have also been incurred in order to send investigators to Thailand to document Siripongs’ troubled childhood. The state reimburses only a small portion of her expenses, she said.

Schilling Argued 1st Lawyer Fell Short

A tall, intense woman, Schilling’s steely demeanor melts away when talk turns to her children: a 5-year-old daughter and 18-month-old son. She lives in Newport Beach with her husband, Willie Rosoff, a restaurateur who owns the Back Bay Rowing and Running Club at South Coast Plaza. Life has provided her “many blessings” she said, and despite the large commitment of time on the Siripongs case, she has managed to climb the ranks at Latham and Watkins.

Attorneys who have tangled with Schilling in court say she is a diligent, persistent and determined opponent. Her biggest victory came when a judge threw out a jury verdict ordering her primary client, the Irvine Co., to pay $42 million to a former tenant, Harry Shuster, the founder of the defunct Lion Country Safari animal park.

But civil litigation is a world apart from the complexities posed by death penalty cases, especially for someone with little experience in criminal law.

The case began in 1981 when Surachai Wattanaporn found his wife, Packovan, and Nguyen lying face down in a pool of blood in the storage room of his store in Garden Grove. Packovan Wattanaporn had been strangled to death with a nylon cord. Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant, had been stabbed several times in the head and neck.

Two days later Siripongs was arrested while trying to purchase a television set with Wattanaporn’s credit card.

During the trial in 1983, prosecutors portrayed Siripongs as a greedy killer who betrayed the trust of his former employer, a fellow Thai immigrant. A jury returned a guilty verdict within one day.

In the series of appeals that followed, Schilling argued that Siripongs was not adequately represented by his original trial lawyer, James Spellman, a former Orange County public defender. Schilling said Spellman and investigators failed to probe an “overwhelming” amount of evidence that pointed to the involvement of an accomplice.

Schilling said Siripongs has always refused to name the supposed accomplice because he fears retaliation against his family.

But prosecutors said no credible evidence of an accomplice existed. Every state and federal court that reviewed the matter agreed.

Defense Tactic: Cite Good Prison Record

Despite the setbacks, Schilling has managed to gain unlikely allies in her effort to get the death sentence commuted to life in prison. She has done so mainly by emphasizing his exemplary prison record. Among those who have asked Wilson to spare Siripongs’ life are a former San Quentin warden, a death row guard, the husband of the slain store manager, and two jurors who originally recommended Siripongs be given the death sentence.

The case has forged a strong friendship between Schilling and the 43-year-old Siripongs. An anthropology major when she was an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley, Schilling said Siripongs has cultivated her natural interest in culture and religion.

She said he asks regularly about her growing family and burgeoning career. An accomplished artist, Siripongs also gives her paintings and artwork. An origami mobile that Siripongs designed hangs in Schilling’s office, where the walls are lined with tract maps of Orange County developments.

Schilling said she will miss Siripongs if he is executed. The effort to save his life has taken a heavy financial and emotional toll, but she has gained immeasurably from the experience.

“Watching how Jay has handled his own mortality, I have learned a lesson in strength and fortitude in the face of great adversity,” she said. “He has [also] taught me great strength and courage that I didn’t know I had.”

Profile: Linda Schilling

Age: 38

Hometown: Philadelphia

Residence: Newport Beach

Family: Husband and two children, 5-year-old daughter and 18-month-old son

Education: Law degree from UC Davis

Admitted to bar: 1988

Background: Clerked for federal judge on 9th Circuit Court of Appeal, 1987-88; private practice, 1988 to present

What she has gained from the experience: “Watching how Jay [Siripongs] has handled his own mortality, I have learned a lesson in strength and fortitude in the face of great adversity. He has [also] taught me great strength and courage that I didn’t know I had.”

Source: Linda Schilling

Researched by RICHARD MAROSI / Los Angeles Times