The Countdown Begins for Bonin

William G. Bonin, the serial killer set to die just after midnight, ordered his last meal Wednesday.

The menu: two medium pizzas with sausage and pepperoni, three pints of coffee ice cream and a six-pack of Coke. The condemned man will get to eat after 6 p.m., about six hours before he is scheduled to receive a lethal injection.

“It will be done--he will get his last meal,” San Quentin spokeswoman Joy Macfarlane said.

Bonin prepared for his execution as his lawyers mounted a last, desperate attempt to keep their client alive. On Wednesday defense attorneys asked the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to block Bonin’s execution. The judges will hear arguments at 10 a.m. today in San Francisco.

Bonin’s lawyers contend that their client did not get a fair trial because Bonin’s original lawyer, William Charvet, was addicted to painkillers during his trials and was negotiating a book deal based on the Bonin murders. The lawyers say that crucial evidence regarding Bonin’s mental illness and troubled childhood should have been introduced as evidence. And they contend that the prosecution case against Bonin was tainted because of testimony from a jailhouse informant and because prosecutors called a witness whose memory had been refreshed with hypnosis.

Earlier this week, two federal judges rejected those claims and refused to stay the execution. And Gov. Pete Wilson refused Bonin’s request that his death sentence be commuted.

State Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren said in Los Angeles on Wednesday that he is prepared to counter any last-minute legal maneuvers by Bonin.

“We are prepared to respond to any action,” Lungren said. “We’re confident we’ll prevail in the 9th Circuit. . . . We expect the execution to go forward Friday at 12:01 a.m.”

Lungren said he is employing a legal strategy of filing “anticipatory briefs,” the same strategy he used in 1992 for Robert Alton Harris, the first California prisoner executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

“We develop the briefs fully and lodge them in the relevant courts,” Lungren said. “In response to any legal challenge, we tell the court to activate the brief.”

It has been more than 13 years since Bonin was sentenced to death for 14 murders in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

“The wait for the families has been unimaginable and in some ways unexplainable,” Lungren said. “If you do believe there is evil in the world, it’s hard to deny it was involved in this case. The families of the victims deserve better from the judicial system.”

Lungren plans to attend Bonin’s execution at San Quentin Prison.

“His job is to be there and to certify to the warden that there is no legal reason why the execution should not go forward,” said Steve Telliano, Lungren’s press secretary.