Attorney Has Case of a Lifetime

The attorney for convicted double murderer Jaturun “Jay” Siripongs, who last month came within hours of being executed, will go before a federal judge today seeking a new clemency hearing for the onetime Buddhist monk.

The hearing marks the latest twist in the decade-old case for attorney Linda Schilling, a top civil litigator who mostly handles real estate deals for the Irvine Co.

For the last decade, Schilling has engaged in a legal battle that regularly takes her from Orange County corporate boardrooms to Siripongs’ home on San Quentin’s death row.

She took the case on a pro bono basis as a young attorney in 1989, juggling the duties of her flourishing civil law career and the demands of motherhood.

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

Then on Nov. 16--less than six hours before Siripongs was to be killed--a federal judge granted Schilling’s 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.

At today’s hearing, 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 on whether to execute Siripongs probably would fall to Gov.-elect Gray Davis.

Schilling plans to argue that Wilson gave misleading instructions on the clemency proceeding, violating Siripongs’ right to due process. The governor ultimately denied her request to commute the death sentence to life in prison.

A new hearing is necessary, Schilling said, so she can address what she considers flawed court rulings on issues raised during the original trial and the subsequent appeals.

Schilling is unlike the activist lawyers who usually take on capital punishment cases. She is a civil litigator, not a criminal defense attorney. Surprisingly, she does not have strong opinions on the death penalty.

Schilling is, however, zealous about people getting what she calls a “fair shake” from the judicial system. It is her responsibility, she said, to see that Siripongs is treated justly.

“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, saying Siripongs is a coldblooded killer who has not expressed any remorse. They say he deserves death for the murders of a Garden Grove store manager and her clerk during a 1981 robbery.

Defenseless on Death Row

As California prepares to escalate the execution of prisoners, experts said, the courts will need more attorneys like Schilling to defend death row inmates.

California provides legal assistance to condemned prisoners, but the pay is relatively low. More than 170 of the 518 inmates on death row do not have representation, said 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 because they are expensive, can drag on for years, and are often accompanied by bad publicity.

“You have to be very committed if you’re going to defend somebody who is convicted of multiple murders, and may not be 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 Siripongs’ case because she wanted to do her part to reduce the number of capital punishment cases jamming the criminal justice system. She knew it would require a great amount of time but didn’t imagine it would stretch nearly 10 years.

She remembers her first prison visit. Six armed guards stood watch as her new client appeared. She recalled her first impression of him as a small and humble man, weighing about 115 pounds.

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

“I thought, ‘You’re accused of doing what?’ ” she recalled.

Schilling estimates that she has spent 10,000 hours on the case, producing mountains of court files. She sent investigators to Thailand to document Siripongs’ troubled childhood. The state, she said, has reimbursed only a small portion of her expenses.

A World Apart

Schilling lives in Newport Beach with her husband, Willie Rosoff, a restaurateur who owns the Back Bay Rowing and Running Club in Costa Mesa. Life has provided her “many blessings,” she said, including a 5-year-old daughter and 18-month-old son.

Despite the heavy time commitment of the Siripongs case, she has managed to climb the ranks at her law firm, Latham & Watkins.

Attorneys who have opposed Schilling in court say she is a diligent, persistent and determined opponent. Her biggest victory came defending her primary client, the Irvine Co. She persuaded a judge to throw out a jury verdict ordering the firm to pay $42 million.

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 Garden Grove store. Packovan Wattanaporn had been strangled with a nylon cord. Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant, had been stabbed several times.

Two days later, Siripongs was arrested while trying to buy a TV with Wattanaporn’s credit card.

During his 1983 trial, 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 a 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 “overwhelming” evidence that suggested that Siripongs had an accomplice.

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

Prosecutors said there is no credible evidence that anyone helped Siripongs. Every state and federal court that reviewed the case agreed.

Mustering Support

Despite the setbacks, Schilling has managed to gain unlikely allies. She persuaded a former San Quentin prison warden and a death row prison guard to ask Wilson to spare Siripongs’ life because of his exemplary prison record.

The husband of the slain store manager and two jurors who recommended Siripongs be given the death sentence also asked that Siripongs’ sentence to commuted.

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 rekindled her interest in culture and religion.

She said he asks regularly about her family and career. An accomplished artist, Siripongs also gives her paintings and artwork. An origami mobile Siripongs designed hangs in Schilling’s office--a gentle contrast to the tract maps of Orange County developments that cover the walls.

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 said she has gained much as well.

“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 taught me great strength and courage that I didn’t know I had.”