Death Penalty Reinstated for Murderer-Rapist

In the latest twist in Orange County’s longest-running death penalty appeal, the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals on Thursday reinstated the death sentence given a man who raped and murdered a Garden Grove woman in 1980.

The appeals court rejected a federal judge’s decision to give William Charles Payton a new death penalty hearing. Payton, now 47, was convicted in 1981 of using a butcher’s knife to fatally stab a 21-year-old woman and attempting to kill another woman and a 10-year-old boy.

In 1999, U.S. District Judge Manuel Real ruled that a prosecutor unfairly told the jury not to consider Payton’s jailhouse conversion to Christianity while deciding whether he should receive the death penalty.

In its ruling, the 9th Circuit found the prosecutor’s statement was inappropriate but it did not deprive Payton of a fair penalty trial.

“We cannot conclude that the penalty phase of Payton’s trial was infected with such unfairness as to render his sentence a denial of due process,” Judge Pamela Ann Rymer wrote.

Had the appeals court upheld Real’s ruling, prosecutors could have been forced to ask a new jury to decide Payton’s penalty.

The decision is expected to be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Payton’s victim was Pamela Martin, the 21-year-old wife of a military man overseas. She was living at a Garden Grove boarding house where Payton had once lived. The attack came when Payton returned to visit his former landlady.

Since 1992, 12 convicted killers have been executed on San Quentin’s death row, including three from Orange County. Payton is one of 46 death row inmates from Orange County.