Orange County Killer Asks Davis for Clemency

The killer of a Garden Grove store owner and a clerk asked Gov. Gray Davis for clemency Tuesday.

Lawyers for Jaturan “Jay” Siripongs filed a 46-page document with the governor’s office, and prosecutors will submit their response in the coming days, Davis spokesman Michael Bustamante said.

The state Board of Prison Terms will review both sets of documents at its next meeting--Feb. 2, one week before the scheduled execution of Siripongs.

The board will submit a confidential report to the governor’s legal affairs team, and Davis will decide after that whether Siripongs should be put to death, Bustamante said.

Siripongs, a native of Thailand, was convicted of strangling the manager of a food store where he once worked and fatally stabbing a clerk during a December 1981 robbery.

Siripongs contends that he was only a bystander during the killings. He has refused to identify the alleged killer.

Siripongs, 43, was scheduled for execution Nov. 16 until U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney issued a temporary restraining order that day. Chesney later denied a preliminary injunction that would have continued the stay.