But it doesnt work so nicely. The metal-walled 8-by-10-foot cell contains only a mattress, toilet and recessed lights, with bars on one side, Crittendon said. Sharron Mankins, Baker and Herring plan to attend the execution as official witnesses and have expressed a need to know firsthand that Harris has been punished. Our tax dollars can help care for neglected children and rehabilitate criminals, but we should not forget that the government cannot do it alone; it requires the commitment and responsibility of the people involved. The defendant brutally murdered the boys, and then stole their car. WebRobert Alton Harris: Birthdate: May 18, 1909: Death: June 01, 1990 (81) Haskell County, Texas, United States Immediate Family: Son of Fletcher Harris and Holland Harris Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Miller assumes that suppressing criminals is about vengeance. His words are based on the 1991 film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey as "You might be a king or a little street sweeper but sooner or later you dance with the reaper.". Kenneth Harris was jailed in 1963 for 18 months and again for a longer period of time in 1964, both times for sexually abusing his daughters. It did nothing to change him and made me into a sacrificial lamb. I am glad that Robert Alton Harris was executed because, as the perpetrator of a heinous crime, he deserved to be. On July 5, 1978, Harris and his younger brother commandeered a car occupied by two 16-year-old boys, John Mayeski and Michael Baker, ordered them to drive to a remote area, then killed them. His execution was the first in the state of California since 1967. After sixty days in jail, Magris was free briefly before being brought up on burglary charges, for which he received a suspended sentence. They spent the next two days purchasing ammunition and practicing the robbery in a rural area near Miramar Lake. Robert Alton Harris - San Diego Murders - LiquiSearch A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? [14], Harris was scheduled to die on April 21, 1992. But you do yourself an injustice when you feel that your victimization justifies somebodys execution or degradation in prison. In 1968, after his brother tried to stop him from sniffing glue, Robert ran off, stole a car, and was arrested in Florida. An appeal for clemency to California governor Pete Wilson who was mayor of San Diego at the time of the killings was rejected in a live television news conference, where Wilson read a statement acknowledging Harris' abusive childhood but ended with a clear rejection of the clemency request, saying, "As great as is my compassion for Robert Harris the child, I cannot excuse or forgive the choice made by Robert Harris the man. WebOn July 5, 1978, Robert and his brother Daniel attempted to hotwire a car they intended to use in a bank robbery. As the old saying goes, life itself is a fatal disease. Robert Alton Harris I dont know what the answer is, but its not forgiveness, and its not letting prisoners out. In their reply, state lawyers said the claims were patently without merit and noted that Harris has already filed more than a dozen appeals in piecemeal fashion in an attempt to delay his execution ad infinitum. He made his way to Oklahoma, where sister Barbara and brother Randy lived. WebTwo suspects, Robert Alton Harris and his brother, Daniel Harris, were arrested a short time later and questioned by police. Staff writers David Hasemyer, Jim OConnell, Dana Wilkie and Dori Meinert of Copley News Service contributed to this story. Daniel Harris claims that when he told authorities this, they threatened him with the death penalty if he made such statements at his brothers trial. Some said he suffered from shellshock. It was very sobering and somber, stark and real, eye-opening., For three years of his incarceration Magris served as an institutional photographer, called to duty every time there was an incident between prisoners or contraband was found. The fifth of nine children, he was born two months premature in a Fort Bragg, North Carolina, army hospital after his drunken father kicked his alcoholic mother in the stomach. But even as the Supreme Court was considering that appeal and just two hours before Harris scheduled 12:01 a.m. execution, 10 judges on the federal appeals court issued a second stay of Harris execution based on a defense claim that the use of cyanide gas was an unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. All rights reserved. I invite responses at 103 N. Hwy 101, #1022, Encinitas, CA 92024. [2][3][5] After making his way to Oklahoma to live with his brother and sister, he stole a car and was subsequently arrested in Florida. He knew vaguely that his biological father was a bad person--his mother had told him so. After a series of appeals and stays of execution, he was executed in San Quentin's gas chamber on April 21, 1992. When we think about it, most of us know that vengeance isnt justice, because justice is what we want for ourselves and vengeance is what we wish on people we think dont deserve justice: criminals, homosexuals, the homeless, people of other races, people who have AIDS. These responses embody the spiritual values presumably endorsed by a nation with a Christian majority, yet we do not endorse them. Think of Martin Luther King, Jr. In a vengeful and violent society, theres a great temptation simply to eliminate the worst byproducts of our cultural mind-set. It is a choice they would prefer never to have to make. Deep within us seethes a venomous logic that says someone must pay for death. Im not saying I know what that point is, but common sense tells me that people like Charles Manson, Jeffrey Daumer, and Chikatilo reached it. To his lawyers and closest friend, he is the product of a violently abusive childhood who, during a decade on death row, has grown into a Harris wanted to use their car in a bank robbery he had been planning. Kroll said a television has been removed from Harris cell, but that he has books. Harris approached the car and pointed a Luger at Mayeskis head. [15] That evening, a group of Ninth Circuit judges ordered the execution stayed while the circuit considered granting en banc consideration of his lawsuit. A similar challenge to the constitutionality of the use of gas, raised in a case from Mississippi, was turned down by a federal appeals court in 1983. An hour later, the Harris brothers robbed the local bank of $2000 but were arrested shortly after. What made David Magris different from Robert Alton Harris and other career criminals? Yet what is poignantly missing and systematically suppressed in our society is the voice of our conscience when we face the choice of killing or not killing. It helps us to understand what forgiveness really is: not the self-sacrificing acceptance of wrongs that have been done to us, but rather the willingness to recover a long-abandoned world of peace by questioning both the sanity and reality of the world we have built on vengeance. Federal Circuits, 9th Cir. It was then that Mr. Baker learned that the robbery . If we must go down as the victims of senseless violence, we intend to go down with guns blazing. He then calmly finished off the burgers hed stolen off them. Barbara enrolled him in the eighth grade but, after a day, the school kicked him out. It is ironic indeed that the murderer quoted by Miller was convicted of a murder he didnt commit but acquitted of the murder he committed. Under terms of a plea bargain--in which he received three years for kidnaping for his role in the crime--Daniel Harris testified during his brothers trial that Robert had shot both victims. I owe this to Michael.". I asked Magris if anything helpful happened to him in prison. There has to be a limit on the appeals. We continue to hype and glorify violence: as entertainment; as proof of our strength as individuals, as tribes, and as a nation; and finally, as the best or final answer to violence itself. Back in the late 1970s, Harris and his teenage brother, Daniel, stole hamburgers from their young victims' bodies after shooting them in a car robbery. Right now, I cant actually say it has.. This course, says the introduction, can therefore be summed up very simply in this way: Nothing real can be threatened. Most of us love life enough not to wreak death indiscriminately upon others every time we are ourselves faced with our mortality (or deprivation or suffering, which are often experienced as equally threatening). She never had anything good to say for Robbie, sister Brenda Harris said. Miller seems to have it backward: if we eliminate capital punishment, he argues, suddenly we will have educated, responsible citizens. If legislators can shorten the time between conviction and execution "so victims don't go through torture for 13 years, even if they can shorten it for 10 years, at least that's something," she said. He was raised by his maternal grandparents and was not told who his real parents were. (Barry Fitzsimmons/San Diego Union-Tribune). Steve Baker said in an interview that he has to contend with loss and regret. On March 6, 1979, Robert Harris was convicted in the San Diego County Superior Court of two counts of murder in the first degree with special circumstances as well as two counts of kidnapping, and was sentenced to death. I dont think so. They forced Michael Baker and John Mayeski to drive into a nearby canyon. Kroll said Harris was not surprised by Wilsons denial of clemency, but continued to talk about the future, as if he held out hope that a court would grant an Easter weekend reprieve. Executed Inmate Summary - Robert Alton Harris - Capital As a spiritual training, it insists on a complete reversal of ordinary perception, urging acceptance of spirit as reality and the physical world as illusion. We cannot even raise these questions as long as we feel vengeful. They stole guns from a neighbor, returned to San Diego, and took target practice. [7] Harris was paroled in January 1978. Any concept of punishment involves the projection of blame, and reinforces the idea that blame is justified. His mother abandoned him at age 14 and he was soon after placed into juvenile detention after stealing another car. After thinking about his creation, the old man demanded to know: How could that bastard do that?, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information.