Judge Grants Kirkpatrick 2-Month Stay of Execution

Less than a week before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection, convicted killer William Kirkpatrick on Friday won a two-month stay of execution after claiming in a last-minute federal appeal that he was innocent of a 1983 double murder.

U.S. District Court Judge William Keller delayed the execution--scheduled for 12:01 a.m. next Friday--until at least March 28 so that Kirkpatrick could confer with new lawyers and prepare his case. Keller appointed the federal public defender’s office to represent Kirkpatrick, who claimed his present attorneys were inadequate.

Kirkpatrick requested the stay Thursday after a series of meetings with lawyers from the California Appellate Project, a nonprofit organization that represents death row inmates. Prior to Thursday’s petition, Kirkpatrick had written in a defiant, profanity-filled letter to the U.S. Supreme Court that he was as “guilty as s---” and wanted to die.

A temporary reprieve, Friday’s ruling was neither unexpected nor an outright victory for Kirkpatrick. Keller’s ruling was largely procedural, giving Kirkpatrick enough time to find the new lawyers he will need to fight his case in federal court.

As in the past, Kirkpatrick requested in his petition to represent himself--and to use outside attorneys only to advise him--but Keller delegated that decision to the federal public defender’s office, which has until March 14 to determine how it will proceed.

The state attorney general’s office did not oppose the stay and had no comment on Keller’s ruling. On Thursday, state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren said Kirkpatrick “has every right under the current law to further appeal his conviction and death sentence, until all legal avenues have been exhausted.”

Lungren, however, questioned whether Kirkpatrick, who has historically rebelled against his attorneys, was coerced into filing the appeal by lawyers from the California Appellate Project who gave him personal items such as candy, tennis shoes and a watch.

Lungren’s statement drew an angry response from the Appellate Project, which called the remarks “insulting” and “inaccurate.” Nonetheless, Keller on Friday ordered the public defender’s office to determine whether Kirkpatrick truly wants to pursue an appeal.

“I have read articles that say he historically has taken a different position from the one currently being expressed,” Keller said. Lawyers for Kirkpatrick have explained their client’s outbursts as the result of frustration.

Kirkpatrick himself said in the declaration accompanying Thursday’s petition that he was frustrated by what he considered the incompetence of his attorneys.

“Although I started out politely requesting help from the courts in getting these attorneys off my case, I was repeatedly ignored,” he wrote. “As a result, I have grown increasingly frustrated over the years and have been left with no choice but to lash out verbally in order to gain the court’s attention to my plight.”

That frustration also took the shape of physical attacks. Kirkpatrick once stabbed one of his lawyers 17 times with a sharpened toothbrush and refused to open mail from other attorneys trying to win him an appeal.

During the penalty phase of his 1984 trial in Pasadena Superior Court, Kirkpatrick insisted on representing himself and “sent himself to the gas chamber,” said Judge Coleman Swart, who recalled Kirkpatrick as ruthless and intelligent.

Kirkpatrick was convicted of killing two young men during the 1983 robbery of a Burbank Taco Bell where he once worked. Kirkpatrick stole about $625 from the cash register and safe before shooting employees Wayne Hunter and Jim Falconio in the head with a stolen handgun.

Hunter’s body was found by customers. Falconio died from his injuries 11 days later.

Even as Kirkpatrick’s execution was delayed, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge Friday set a Feb. 23 execution date for “freeway killer” William George Bonin, convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering 14 boys in 1979 and 1980 in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

A hearing is scheduled Monday in Orange County Superior Court to set an execution date for Bonin’s crimes there, but the judge is expected to confirm Feb. 23, said a spokeswoman for Lungren.

Times staff writer Jack Cheevers contributed to this article.