A L S O +T O D A Y Beware of the black CON-servative By C.D. Ellison An African-American Republican talks back to David Horowitz Target: Saddam By Jeff Stein The goal is to bring him down this time, says David Kay, who led the first U.N. inspection team in Iraq Paula Jones lawsuit settled Salon Staff Report Clinton coughs up $850,000, but no apologies   T A B L E+T A L K Newt resigns! Mull over the soon-to-be-former speaker's decision in the Headlines area of Table Talk   R E C E N T L Y He can't go home again By Marc Cooper No matter what the House of Lords decides, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is finally being held resonsible for the death of President Salvador Allende -- and Chilean democracy (11/12/98) The costs of Mitch By Mary Jo McConahay Can a hurricane threaten the fragile new democracies of Central America? (11/12/98) A day to remember? By Jeff Stein Police and federal agents brace for violence as anti-abortion forces observe a new "holiday" (11/11/98) Can we talk? By Rebecca Bryant Gay rights groups should rethink their drive for affirmation at the ballot box after Tuesday's drubbing (11/10/98) Newtron Bomb By Bruce Shapiro Will Gingrich's self-purge save the Republican Party? (11/06/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.
		------No mercy CALIFORNIA GOV. PETE WILSON IS UNLIKELY TO GRANT CLEMENCY TO A THAI NATIONAL ON DEATH ROW, DESPITE APPEALS FROM JURORS, LAWYERS AND THE WARDEN OF SAN QUENTIN. BY MARC HERMAN California Gov. Pete Wilson is considering the clemency request of death row inmate Jaturun "Jay" Siripongs, scheduled to die by lethal injection Nov. 17. Wilson has rejected the five previous clemency requests he's faced in his eight years as governor. But Siripongs, a Thai national on California's death row for murdering two people since 1982, may test his resolve. Siripongs' case, with an unknown accomplice still at large, appears to be the most compelling appeal for clemency in Wilson's tenure. In the past several days, two of the jurors who convicted him have reversed themselves, saying they do not think he acted alone, and that an accomplice actually committed the murders. Additionally, the former warden of San Quentin prison, Daniel Vasquez, has asked Wilson to spare Siripongs after calling him a model prisoner. But Wilson is said to be thinking about a 2000 presidential bid, and a 6-0 record on executions may be important to him. A likely Republican front-runner for the nomination, Texas Gov. George Bush Jr., recently refused to grant clemency to Carla Faye Tucker in a case in which even many death penalty advocates suggested clemency. Wilson can't afford to look weak on capital punishment if he wants to take on Bush. "It's political. The Thai government has offered to take Jay, and Wilson won't let them do that," said Laura Magnani, a spokeswoman for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that opposes capital punishment. "With people who've committed crimes here, he's asked for federal assistance to deport them. But when you get an actual case here he doesn't do that." Wilson spokesman Ron Lowe called the charge "sad" and said politics would have no bearing on the governor's decision. Living in the United States two years at the time, Siripongs took part in a robbery of the Panthai market in the Los Angeles suburb of Garden Grove on Dec. 15, 1981. During that robbery, Packovan "Pat" Wattaporn and Quach Nguyen, of Thai and Vietnamese background, respectively, were murdered, their bodies left where they fell and discovered several hours later. Caught trying to use Wattaporn's credit card the next day, Siripongs was the only person arrested in the crime. But the case against Siripongs has become complicated. The head of the Orange County public defender's office, Carl Holmes, said in a letter to the governor last week that he believes his office provided an inadequate defense. And two jurors have signed statements attesting to doubts about Siripongs' guilt and about the quality of defense he received. "All of the jurors thought Mr. Siripongs could not have acted alone," wrote juror Sylvia Twomey in a statement this week, adding she "had grave doubts that Mr. Siripongs was the killer." Twomey, who now lives in Oregon, wrote that she had expected his sentence to be reduced to life in prison, and learned of Siripongs' planned execution only when she was contacted by reporters. Twomey said she was convinced to vote for death in part because her boss at California Polytechnic College in Pomona, where she worked, was concerned about paying her during her absence for the long trial. She also claimed that anti-immigrant bias in the jury room clouded the case. "One male juror argued that we should not sentence Mr. Siripongs to prison because California's citizens would then be required to pay to house him," wrote Twomey. "The juror complained that Mr. Siripongs was an immigrant wrongfully taxing the American system. I told this juror that we could not sentence a man to die simply because he was an immigrant, but I do not think my words made an impact." N E X T+P A G E+| Deputy district attorney not convinced