The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 12

i i "i A-12 Tuetday, FeUaiy 9, 1999 SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER Heckling, fistfights erupt at death penalty vigil Charlotte Batchelor of Great Britain demonstrates against the execution of Jaturun Siripongs outside San Quentin Prison in a wind-driven downpour. the I DEATH I pENALrrvJ I Bm.3: 1 EXAMMERMARK C08TANTM AfVMCH PEORONCELU Above, an unidentified man faces rivals late Monday night outside San Quentin Prison with a sign hailing the impending execution of convicted killer Jaturun Siripongs. Below, Ken Knudsen of Oakland and Else Bougie of The Netherlands protest the execution early Tuesday. SIRIPONGS from A-l Double killer put to death execution in torrential rains and driving winds. "When the evening is done, well all get into our cars and go to our warm homes," said protester Linda Fox.

"Jay Siripongs will be cold and dead." Somewhat eerily, the rain briefly stopped at almost the 12:01 a.m. execution time. Siripongs last hours were spent quietly while a flurry of activity was occurring outside the prison in a vain attempt to save his life. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected two appeals for a stay of execution and a review of his case during the evening Monday.

Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said the court rejected one appeal at 8:10 p.m. and the second 19 minutes later. Earlier, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had turned down his appeal, as had a three-judge panel of the appeals court Siripongs last week lost an appeal in the California Supreme Court and a clemency bid to Gov. Davis.

Pope John Paul II, who last month persuaded Missouri's governor to cancel an execution, appealed for clemency. In a letter to Davis on the pope's behalf Monday, Gabriel Montalvo, the Vatican's ambassador to the United States, urged the governor to make "a gesture of mercy that would certainly contribute to the promotion of nonviolence in today's society." Earlier appeals to spare Siripongs came from Thailand's ambassador to the United States, two of his jurors, the widower of one of his victims and even former San Quentin Warden Daniel Vasquez, an ardent death penalty supporter. State Corrections Department spokesman Tip Kindel said Siripongs spent his last hours with his spiritual advisors in a holding cell only a few steps from the death chamber. His last meal was spare: canned iced tea and canned peaches. As he lay on the gurney behind a thick glass window, Siripongs' slender arms and chest were bound with leather straps and tape.

Witnesses said his body twitched several times as the poisons worked through his body. At one point, his chest heaved and he seemed to gasp for air. His few more breaths were increasingly shallow until they stopped and he lay still. In the corner of the small witness room, his sister held hands with two of his attorneys, all three expressionless. One of the victim's sons, Vitoon Harusadangkul, also was a witness, along with several newspersons.

Siripongs was born in poverty in Thailand, according to his attorneys, and his first brush with trouble came at age 20 when he was shot in the head while robbing a department store. He was released for good behavior after a short stay in prison. Afterward, like most Thai men, he trained as a monk in a Buddhist monastery for a short time. He later got a job as a cook on a cargo ship. There, according to his supporters, he aided U.S.

drug authorities "Put (Siripongs) to death!" yelled Robert Hemny of Fremont. "You're bastards! You're hypocrites! You're going to spend your life in the electric chair! You guys are the murderers! "This (execution) is gonna be a walk in the park compared to what he's about to face!" About 50 anti-death penalty protesters locked arms and drove Hemny and one other man about 100 yards backward, chanting: "Two-four-six-eight no more murder by the state!" But eventually the men fought their way back, and the verbal confrontation boiled over. The opponents clashed in a melee on the wet pavement but were quickly separated. Undaunted, the death penalty supporters regrouped and pushed forward. The screaming match resumed, this time louder and more passionate on both sides, and again punches were thrown by both sides.

The Marin County Sheriffs Department cited one person in connection with the incident The crowd drew people from a variety of economic, racial and religious backgrounds. Most people joined in chants like, "Gray Davis, you can't hide. We charge you with homicide!" or sang hymns. Others, including the 40 or so who knelt at the front of the throng, prayed Foes of capital punishment battle bullhorn-wielding proponents By Mackenzie Warren OF THE EXAMMER STAFF SAN QUENTIN Protesters on both sides of the death penalty debate skirmished late Monday outside the gates of the prison where Jaturun Siripongs was executed, but in the end there were only tears and silence. A crowd that swelled to about 300 stood vigil for more than six hours to protest the lethal injection of the Thai-bom convicted double-murderer.

Only a handful of people showed up to support the execution. A brief reprieve from the driving winds and bleak rain hovered over the penitentiary grounds at midnight only momenta before Siripongs was pronounced dead at 12:19 a.m. Tuesday. "It's appropriately miserable," said Dorothy Ehrlich, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Northern California chapter, "given the deed they are about to perform inside that prison." The storm, which forced authorities to close the nearby Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to trucks, did little to deter protesters. "I don't think there's too much that could stop me from being here," said Rosalind Guillory, 42, of San Leandro.

"The rain is my tears," added Susan O'Connor, 50, a surveyor and registered nurse from Bodega Bay. Few in the series of anti-death penalty speakers were hopeful that Siripongs' scheduled execution would be halted a second time in three months. Resigned to having lost this battle, they used the rally to promote ideology rebutting capital punishment. About 10:45 p.m., four pro-execution advocates grabbed a red megaphone with the word "GOD" painted on the side and began a speech of their own. WEATHER from A-l Bay Area gets chance to dry out Pacifica was the area most inconvenienced by the storm; 10,000 customers lost power when a tree crashed into the city's main transmission line, and residents were still using candlelights, flashlights and auxiliary generators long past dawn.

Lack of power forced the closure of three elementary schools, Ortega Middle School, and Terra Nova and Oceana high schools. Power was restored in Pacifica at 9:45 a.m. Seven Marin County schools five in the San Anselmo-Fairfax area, and one each in San Rafael and Sausalito were also closed because of power failures. By noon, reported that power had been restored to all but 10,800 customers, from a high of 52,600. The greatest concentration of sustained outages was in Sausalito, where about 4,300 customers remained without electricity as a result of uprooted trees on Brid-geway falling across power lines.

Although the Napa, Petaluma and Russian rivers all rose to their banks and lapped over some roads and Btreets, there was no significant flooding, according to the Napa and Sonoma counties offices of emergency services. The Napa River hit 13.2 feet flood stage at St. "15 feet is the worry level," said county spokeswoman Mary Jean McLaughlin. Downstream, some in Napa were feeling a bit apprehensive because the water level at Conn Dam, the city's principal reservoir, was just 1 foot from the top, McLaughlin said. Downtown San Francisco received .97 of an inch during the storm, boosting The City's rainfall total for the season to 13.23 inches, which is just slightly below the long-term averap for this date.

On Feb. 9, 1998 an El Nino year -the rain gauge stood at 33.01 inches en route to a season total of 47.22 second-highest in San Francisco history. Three homes were crushed in stats 1 Jr. EXAMMESMARK COSTAWHM for clemency, said the execution was an internal American matter. "The Foreign Ministry extends our sympathy to Jaturun's family," ministry spokesman Kitti Wasi-nond said in we would like to point out that this is an internal affair of the United States' legal system." Thailand has the death penalty and carries out executions by machine gun.

Siripongs was scheduled to die at San Quentin in November but was spared hours before execution by the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld a federal district judge's order granting a new clemency hearing. During his long stay on death row, Siripongs was described as a model prisoner, guards described him as unfailingly polite and cooperative. His supporters said Siripongs became an accomplished artist in prison, even putting on a show of his work in Oakland. "People don't very often get to see the human side of people on death row," said Laura Magnani of the American Friends Service Committee, which sponsored the show.

"We don't think that they're the sum total of their worst act any more than (his art) is the sum total." Siripongs believed he would be reincarnated. He wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered at sea. appearances, yawning. His diaphragm continued to heave intermittently until near the end. The final drug 50cc of potassium chloride causes cardiac arrest Silent witnesses None of the witnesses which included prison representatives and others whose identities were not revealed spoke during Siripongs' final 15 minutes of life.

Yet the room was far from quiet A hellish rattling of metal and pipes, accompanied by industrial moans and rumbles, echoed through the antechamber. Prison officials attributed these unnerving noises to the storm that raged outside, buffeting the building with rain and high winds. Inmate No. C65500 was declared dead at 12:19 a.m., his demise announced to witnesses by the same guard who had read the execution order. The curtain was not closed.

Siripongs' body lay on display under an eerie phosphorescent green light barely less animated than before, while witnesses were escorted from the room. Harusadangkul looked up as the the reporters passed him toward the exit His face appeared contorted by a potent emotion. It was impossible to tell which one. Protesters said if there was ever a death row sentence to be commuted, it was Siripongs'. Imprisoned for the 1981 strangling of an Orange County shopkeeper and the repeated stabbing of a shop employee, Siripongs has been called a model prisoner by the former warden at San Quentin.

Some questioned the facts of the case, saying there remains doubt as to whether it was Siripongs or Netnata Vecharungsri, the 17-year-old friend of Siriponp' girlfriend, who slew the two victims. She was a key prosecution witness and, since returning to Thailand, couldn't be found. Ehrlich, the ACLU chief, said Davis gave himself no option to spare Siripongs when he campaigned so staunchly in favor of the death penalty. But she said he should have swallowed his pride in Siriponp' case, given the convict's exemplary prison behavior and the doubts about the facts of the case. "I don't accept that Gray Davis can do nothing different" she said.

"He's shirking his responsibility." After word of the execution reached protesters, a silence passed over the group. None seemed surprised at the outcome. "I'm feeling mourning, frustration, helplessness and despair," said Christopher DeCharms of Mill Valley. "But I'm glad to see so many did not let it go unnoticed." northern Coast Range, Monday snow stacked itself on top of 4 to 5 feet that fell on Sunday in the mountains and the weather service said still more would fall throughout Tuesday as the big new storm blew eastward. Chains were required on Highways 50 and 80, and Highway 80 was closed intermittently at the summit.

The snow was whipped by 80 mph winds in some places and closed Interstate 80 for two hours at the Nevada-California border late Monday afternoon. The Sierra snowpack, already well above normal, was about as tall as it was at this time a year ago, which was supposed to be an unusually heavy snow year because of the weather-altering El Nino phenomenon. Winter storm warnings were posted for most of the Sierra Nevada. The new storm was much more powerful than expected. It sat for much of the day Monday off the coast, building and deepening.

As it started to lumber in, it pushed strong winds and heavy rains ahead of it Along with flood warnings, the weather service warned that rock and mud slides are possible in slide-prone areas. A slide closed Coastal Highway 1 at Steep Ravine west of Mill Valley during the night Ilk XV 1h A. in a sting operation that got him enough money to buy passage to the United States. He reportedly was a paid informant for the government. On Dec.

15, 1981, prosecutors say, he strangled shopkeeper Pac-kovan Wattanapom and stabbed clerk Quach Nguyen at an Asian marker where he sometimes worked. He was arrested and tried after he was caught trying to use Mrs. Wattanaporn's credit card. Though claiming he didn't do the killing, he expressed remorse for them. His lawyers said he offered daily penance "for his deeds, for the shame he has brought his family and ancestors and for the.

suffering he has brought to others." Although Mrs. Wattanaporn's husband, a Buddhist who said he did not believe in revenge, wrote a letter supporting clemency, others were less forgiving. Her son, Vitoon Harusadangkul, pressed for execution, testifying at the clemency hearing, saying, "What he did, he should pay for." Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Jim Tanizaki also opposed clemency, saying of the long time span between the murders and Siripongs' execution: "These are 16 years that Quach Nguyen and Pat Wattanapom, and their respective families, have been denied." The Thai government, which had appealed to President Clinton with armrests extended outward. A small black belt ran beneath Siripongs' armpits and over his chest. Thicker belts restrained him at the stomach, knees and ankles.

Brown straps held his arms. His hands were taped down. A needle had been inserted into the vein of his right arm, with tubes that stretched into the next room. No sedative Siripongs' eyes were closed and he did not move. Prison officials said Siripongs had declined to take a sedative, an option offered to all condemned inmates in the moments before they die.

At 12:04 a.m. an unidentified guard read Siripongs' death warrant. Seconds later a doctor behind a door pushed a plunger and propelled 5 grams of sodium pentothal into Siripongs' body. While that dosage is lethal, its immediate effect was to put Siripongs to sleep presumably. Since he exhibited no signs of consciousness prior to the procedure, it was impossible to tell when he succumbed to dark slumber.

Next came 50cc of pancuronium bromide, more commonly called curare, intended to bring Siripongs' breathing to a halt Once, Siripongs' head tilted back and he opened his mouth widely, gasping for air and, to all EXAMNERCRAK3 LEE Scaffolding on Noe Street near Nth Street succumbed to gusty overnight winds in San Francisco, and fell onto parked cars. the northern Napa Valley town of Calistoga, when strong winds combined with saturated ground to topple a huge oak tree near the Napa River, said fire Capt. Raymond Edds. The homes were unoccupied. In San Mateo County, about 200 people living along Pilarcitos Creek east of Montara were warned that the creek could go over its banks, but there were no mandatory evacuations, said Office of Emergency Services spokesman Tom Maruyama.

The American Red Cross set up a shelter at Half Moon Bay High School to house residents along the creek who decided to evacuate. Ten people stayed in the shelter on Monday night Heavy rain also made Bay Area driving hazardous. The California Highway Patrol reported 116 accidents between midnight and 7 a.m. Tuesday, compared to an average of 50 during comparable hours in noninclement weather. Gusting winds forced the closure of two of the four runways at San Francisco International Airport, with the usual attendant delays.

SFO spokesman Ron Wilson said that delays of about an hour for departing and arriving flights began at 9 a.m. and were expected to stretch to an hour and a half by noon. In the Sierra Nevada and in the EYEWITNESS from A-l The final minutes before eternity old son of Packovan Wattanapom, the Orange County grocery store owner whom Siripongs was convicted of strangling to death during a 1981 robbery. He was also blamed for the stabbing death of Quach Nguyen, a clerk at the store. Harusadangkul blankly stared at Siriponp throughout the execution process.

He sat rigidly upright, his hands together, fingers tightly interlaced, between his legs. Next to Harusadangkul sat Jim Tanizaki, an Orange County prosecutor. Tanizaki reached over once and touched Harusadangkul on his right leg in a gesture of reassurance. Laurence, Schilling and Siripongs' sister held hands as they watched death overtake the man they loved. Their faces registered no emotion.

The last of the witnesses 15 media representatives were led into an anteroom off the death chamber at three minutes before midnight. Moments later a curtain was drawn back by two correctional officers one of them a pregnant woman to reveal Siriponp recumbent on a reclining chair.