Thai Wins Reprieve From Execution

* Re “Judge Halts Execution of Ex-Buddhist Monk,” Nov. 17:

The irony is in the juxtaposition of this situation--in which the Thai government made a strong plea for the murderer, Jaturun Siripongs, to be returned to Thailand to serve out a life sentence--to that of my nephew, Steve Roye, who has languished in a Thai prison for four years, with no end in sight. There has been little or no response from the Thais at any time to ongoing efforts on the part of myself, other family members, friends, interested parties or political figures to right the injustice.

The Thai authorities, so deaf to our pleas, apparently see no contradiction between their response in our case and the strong request they have made on behalf of sparing a citizen of their country. A Times story on Nov. 7 (Orange County) quotes the condemned man’s attorney as saying that it would be better for Americans in Thailand if the Thai request were granted. A veiled threat?

MIRIAM W. MOORMAN

Los Angeles

*

How ironic that, only hours after a national death penalty group held a weekend conference assailing the swiftness with which the death penalty is carried out (“Death Penalty Foes Focus Effort on the Innocent,” Nov. 16), convicted double murderer Siripongs receives a last-minute reprieve 18 years after his killings. Siripongs, who strangled the life from a woman and then hacked to death a man who desperately fought for his life, wins this reprieve on the absurd claim his civil rights were violated when Gov. Pete Wilson refused to consider the facts of the crime in his clemency decision.

Wilson denies this claim, but assuming for the sake of argument it were true, is there any rational adult in this state (other than a federal court judge) who believes that Wilson’s knowledge of the facts of the crime would have led to a different clemency decision?

DOUGLAS ROSE

San Diego

*

“Polls consistently show that three-quarters of Americans support the death penalty,” says your article. I may be only a recent immigrant from a state where the last execution was in 1846, but I’ve found that though the support for state-sanctioned murder is a mile broad, it is also less than a millimeter deep. When dozens of us--citizen lobbyists, not paid ones--gathered to testify before the Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee against restoration of the death penalty, not a single person was there to speak on the other side.

We abolitionists need to get the facts before the public in a more effective way, for the truth is that there is no rational excuse nor justification for this abomination.

JONATHAN LUBIN

Pasadena