Slain Boy’s Mom Urges Killer’s Execution

The mother of a boy murdered in Anaheim appealed Friday for the case to end, calling for the execution of the convicted killer.

Kay Brenneman said that more than 18 years after the death of her 12-year-old son, Benjamin, the man convicted of the crime sits on death row with 30 appeals pending before a federal court.

“He took my child from the heart of my being,” she said at a news conference.

Robert Jackson Thompson was convicted two years after the boy’s death on Aug. 25, 1981. He confessed to the crime but later recanted. He now says police pressured him to confess by arresting his girlfriend, who was pregnant at the time, said Thompson’s attorney, Paul Gabbert.

Benjamin was kidnapped while delivering newspapers along his Anaheim route by a man who said he was interested in subscribing. The child was sodomized and his body found in the trunk of a car.

Gabbert said that when police arrested Thompson they forced him to cooperate by telling him his girlfriend was having a miscarriage and saying they would let her go if he confessed.

“They manipulated him,” he said. “They supplied him with what they wanted him to say. They used a variety of factors to increase his stress and distress.”

Police have denied the allegation.

Both Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) and Orange County Dist. Atty. Anthony J. Rackauckas joined Brenneman’s plea to finish the appeals.

“The continuances are just absolutely ridiculous,” Royce said. “The law has not been enforced in this case. She’s asking for enforcement.”

Rackauckas told reporters that part of the problem is judges are overburdened.

Of the 35 to 40 people who appeal their death sentences every year, the state Supreme Court hears only about 15 cases, he said.

“We need to think of ways of opening up the bottleneck so death penalty cases can be heard,” Rackauckas said.