Santa Ana : Murderer’s Wife Can Be His Clerk, Judge Rules

A Superior Court judge Wednesday granted the wife of a convicted murderer the right to act as his law clerk, attorneys said.

Gail Harrington, an ACLU law clerk who secretly wed Willie Wisely last year, had been prohibited from acting as his clerk since she was charged in August with suspicion of smuggling drugs into Orange County Jail.

Judge Robert Polis upheld a preliminary injunction sought by the county barring Harrington from contact with any other prisoner in the jail, but ruled that the 25-year-old law student can see her husband to help prepare his appeal, said Harrington’s attorney, Todd McWhorter.

“The judge felt the denial of Miss Harrington . . . would seriously impair his ability to defend himself and put on his motion for a new trial,” McWhorter said.

County Counsel Edward Duran said Polis’ ruling allows Harrington to see her husband only in the attorneys’ room or public visiting areas of the jail and precluded them from passing items back and forth and physical contact.

Wisely, 34, was convicted of murdering his stepfather in 1982. He is to be sentenced Oct. 12.