LOS ANGELES -- Death by execution is the only just penalty for convicted Freeway Killer William Bonin, the prosecutor argued today, citing the viciousness of the homosexual murders of 10 youths and Bonin's criminal past.
'My God, it would be an injustice to give this man anything less than the penalty of death,' Deputy District Attorney Sterling Norris said in closing arguments in the penalty phase of the case.
Norris outlined a series of criminal convictions dating to 1969 and said Bonin had had many opportunities for rehabilitation.
'We have given him more than ample opportunity. And what did he do with it?' Norris asked. 'He threw it back in the face of society and went out and started executing his victims.
'He doesn't want help, he wants those young males.'
The defense was to argue for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for Bonin later in the day.
During testimony Monday, Bonin's mother testified she frequently argued with her son about his homosexuality and that he once even married because of her insistence that he lead a normal sex life.
Alice Benton also told the jury Monday in the penalty phase of her son's trial that her husband, now deceased, was a heavy drinker who beat her, Bonin and his two brothers.
When he was 10, she said, Bonin got into trouble and was sent to a detention home, where a man sexually molested him.
Robert Bonin, three years older than the convicted killer, also testified that his brother had been sexually molested at the detention home. He also said his brother had 'changed' after serving in Vietnam, but did not elaborate.
The same jury that convicted the 35-year-old truck driver of the 10 homosexual-torture slayings is now hearing testimony to determine if he should die in the gas chamber or be sentenced to life inprison without parole.
Mrs. Benton, whose testimony was mostly limited to 'yes, sir' and 'no, sir,' testified there was a conflict between her and her son over his homosexuality.
A 1977 psychiatric evaluation of Bonin, also introduced as evidence, said his sexual involvement with boys related to his being dominated by his mother.
At one point, Bonin married because of his mother's insistence that he lead a normal heterosexual life. The marriage did not work.
Mrs. Benton said Bonin sometimes brought young boys home with him, but she never knew him to abuse them.
Paul Bonin, three years younger than the killer, also said he had often seen his brother with young males but never saw him harm them.
Earlier Monday, a reporter testifying over the objection of defense attorney William Charvet, said Bonin had admitted killing four teenage boys in suburban Orange County.
Lopez, a reporter for television station KNXT, testified during the regular trial that Bonin confessed a total of 21 slayings during a jailhouse conversation in January 1981.
