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. But the endless crisis of American criminal justice is a social and political problem, requiring a collective response. 1 Along with many other challenges to the conviction and sentence, In these cases we think it just that we suffer reasonable consequences and then be allowed to earn another chance. Later, the father would load his gun and tell Robbie to run. Id say you have a right as a victim or loved one of a victim to get resolution, he says. A lot of misery would have been averted if the Nazi war criminals had been shot before they ever got power. I looked at him and I saw just another human being, Clark told Times reporter Alan Abrahamson. [15] Seconds before execution, Ninth Circuit Judge Harry Pregerson stayed the execution for the fourth time, explaining that Harris should be allowed to begin a new lawsuit in state court. Particularly in America, we seem bent on encouraging the endless cycle of violence feeding upon itself. Magris recalls, I had a gun, and I gave it to one of the other three guys to do a service station. They met in a small conference room and were monitored Federal Circuits, 9th Cir. Robert Alton Harris (1953-1992) - Find a Grave Memorial [4] In 1967, Evelyn abandoned Robert, then 14, in Sacramento and left him to fend for himself. A woman in the area where the families of Harris victims were sitting cried out: Oh God!. Mankins said the two looked to each other for strength, waiting on the night of the murders at the Mayeski house for news of their sons and waiting these years for Harris's execution. It was almost as if Robert Harris knew this time that he was going to die, said San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Lorie Hearn, one of 18 media witnesses to the execution. San Quentin closure: From The Sacramento Bee archives, Sam Just being here, it gives me hope, Oceanside Police Department launches website showing what calls officers are handling, crime statistics, San Diego paying $3.3M to settle injury lawsuits, including $3M to Carlsbad man thrown off bicycle in Bay Ho, San Diego releases water from Lake Hodges to fix crumbling dam, In Tanzania, Ethiopia begins talks with violent Oromo rebels, Padres notes: Yu Darvish recovers with hard stuff; Austin Nola uses new lumber; Nelson Cruz borrows a triple, Column: Padres confidence-swelling sweep of Giants in Mexico City could signal true momentum, College baseball weekend: Point Loma Nazarene earns second straight PacWest title. I doubt we have the collective imagination to implement anything so radical. In an order signed by Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas, the court said it had carefully read and considered legal arguments from both sides. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? They stole guns from a neighbor and returned to San Diego to shoot at targets for practice. The request for a stay was quickly denied by the state Supreme Court. 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 flurry of legal maneuvers was set off by Gov. I can't help but think, 'Gosh, would we have grandchildren? He showed no change in expression, Hearn said. For if you did, it would be gone.. BEING SYMPATHETIC TO BAD-HISTORY This process eventually will feel shattering to the ego and ones sense of reality because real forgiveness will actually undo the world as we see it. Robert Alton Harris was born at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the fifth of nine children of Kenneth and Evelyn Harris. In asking for a stay of Tuesdays 12:01 a.m. execution, the defense charged that prosecutors withheld evidence about Daniel that may have helped save Robert Harris from a death sentence at the 1979 trial. Harris had been held since Thursday in a cell on death row. Or is the most humane action for them and for the citizens who pay for their trials, attorneys, medical care, food, and clothes to kill them as quickly as possible after their conviction and cease this argument that a Chikatilo is somehow like us? I saw a lot of changes in other prisoners ability to forgive, he says. Among the arresting officers was Steve Baker, 49, now a detective with the San Diego Police Department. . The other warriors captured him and gave the dead mans wife the choice of what to do with his killer. When Robbie was 1 1/2 years old, Harris pummeled him with a bamboo cane. Killing has gone on and will always go on. Thats all the effect I can have. Other members of the victims families clutched one another, Hearn said, as they watched Harris die. Robert and his brother Daniel, then eighteen, decided to rob a bank themselves. When murderers torture and slay the vulnerable bodies of their victims, we are reminded of our own tenuous physicality, and we react with a fearful rage. What are the obligations of each? WebRobert Alton HARRIS, and his brother, Daniel Marcus Harris, abducted two teenage boys from a fast food restaurant, forcing them to drive to an isolated area. After crossing the chasm that forever separated them from the social contract, they found some kind of freedom outside the realm of conscience, outside the realm of society. His execution was the first in the state of California since 1967.[1]. . Son of Executed Killer Faces Trial : Crime: It was a shock for Robert "We just felt like we were totally deserted. His lack of comprehension that deaths are different must come from a lack of exposure to actual death. Somehow justice has to be swift while being fair.. They gave him $50 pocket money and a bus ticket to Chula Vista, where his father lived. [3] Robert was especially targeted for abuse by his father, who believed that Robert was conceived in an affair. Like Lewis K. Elbinger, I, too, hope the time will come when humanity attains the state of spiritual realization in which capital punishment is unnecessary. I am not so arrogant as to presume that I understand the ancient hard wiring of human nature. Alton was born on March 13, 1937 in Ranger to John Marion Harris and Audie (Gailey) Harris. On July 5, Robert and Daniel Harris kidnapped John Mayeski and Michael Baker, both sixteen, in order to use their car for the getaway. Thus, forgiveness is an inherently paradoxical spiritual path. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ To prosecutors and the families of his victims, Robert Alton Harris is a vicious murderer who laughed about killing two teen-agers and told one to ''quit crying and die like a man.'' San Quentin state prison Warden Daniel Vasquez said Harris told him that his final statement was, You can be a king or a street-sweeper, but everybody dances with the Grim Reaper.. Robert spent four months in juvenile hall at age 13 for stealing a car. 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. He wanted to rob a bank. ), How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, At Willie Nelson 90, country, rock and rap stars pay tribute, but Willie and Trigger steal the show, Plaschke: Lakers live up to their legacy with a close-out win for the ages, Concertgoer lets out a loud full body orgasm while L.A. Phil plays Tchaikovskys 5th, L.A. Affairs: I had my reasons for not dating white men. The problem is that we think there are lots of people who dont deserve the chance to create a meaningful life for themselves. In a letter earlier this month, he wrote: Robert has looked to me for the strength to seek the Lords forgiveness and face his own death.. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Harris appeals of his conviction went up and down the legal system, including seven trips to the U.S. Supreme Court. Does that timidity make us sane? Pete Wilsons televised rejection Thursday of a clemency petition by Harris. [15] On April 22, the Ninth Circuit issued an emergency writ of mandate vacating the restraining order, in which Judge Arthur Alarcn was joined by Judge Melvin T. Brunetti, over the dissent of Judge Noonan. 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. He said it was too soon to know whether witnessing Harris death closed a horrible chapter in his life. This appeal failed, and Harris went to his death because the justice system determined that he was sane that is, capable of understanding his actions and their consequences, and therefore responsible for his choices. Just before 6 a.m., the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the final stay of execution, which had been issued by Judge Pregerson and also focused on the method of execution. Needing a car, the Harris brothers spotted Baker and Mayeski and kidnapped them, planning to use the teenagers car for their robbery. Human murderers dont get off the hook because we can punish them. [2] Both parents were alcoholics, and Robert reportedly was born two months premature as a result of Kenneth kicking Evelyn in the abdomen;[2] Robert is also reported to have suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome. He and his older brother Kenneth decided to show a neighbor, James Wheeler, how to fight. Where is the criminals accountability in all of this? Miller draws from a set of doctrinal preconceptions (A Course in Miracles) to lay a massive guilt trip, not on criminals, who elicit his forgiveness and understanding, but on the innocent people they rape, rob, and mutilate. The equation is simple and so blatantly clear in human history and in the daily news that one has to wonder why our modern society has not yet grasped it. He also discovered an artistic means of self-expression early in life, so he knew there existed a better channel for his energies than the repetition of the punishments doled out to him. Gen. Louis Hanoian said no evidence was withheld and the claim that Daniel Harris was hypnotized was an outrageous lie.. He spoke with a lisp and sat by himself talking to imaginary friends and fantasizing about visits from mystical Indians and flying saucers. Prosecutors attacked the appeal Friday as a meritless tactic designed merely to delay the execution. Randy Harris said he once spoke to his father about the life and crimes that led little Robbie to the gas chamber. What does this metaphysical perspective have to do with the politics of capital punishment and our vengeful incarceration of criminals? But Harris was a force of our nature, human nature, which can perhaps be changed by looking deeply at how our beliefs create our behavior. At 4:01 a.m., guards entered the chamber and unstrapped Harris from the chair. All it does is alienate us further from our own humanity. 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. In Los Angeles on Friday, a lawyer for Harris held a news conference to urge Wilson to reconsider his decision. [6][8], The San Diego County District Attorney's Office filed felony charges of auto theft, kidnapping, murder and burglary against Robert Harris, while the U.S. Attorney's Office filed bank robbery charges against him. [2][6] He spent the next three years in the Florida juvenile detention system, but when he turned 19, the system could no longer keep him, and he was sent to Chula Vista, California. Within twenty minutes Harris was dead, his asphyxiation videotaped to help authorities determine whether execution by gas constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.. It is completely savage and completely insane. Nothing about this identity should be forgiven; it should die. We seem studiously to avoid many other choices: to forgive without condoning or committing further violence ourselves; to lay down our arms; to turn the other cheek or even to try to love our perceived enemies. After a series of appeals and stays of execution, he was executed in San Quentin's gas chamber on April 21, 1992. To imagine that Robert Alton Harris dispensed an incomprehensible mercy to his young victims would seem to us the height of lunacy; yet the death he dealt was surely no worse than that suffered by a child with a terminal wasting disease. One reason that we are fascinated by stories of murders is that most of us can identify with the varieties of vengeance motivating them: jealousy, greed, revenge, momentary blind furies over trifling insults. A Course in Miracles defines the ego as that part of our awareness usually the ruling part that believes in the reality of the body and its death. Justice in there is swift and sure and very clear. The month that Robert turned 10, his father was deemed a sex offender and sent to Atascadero State Hospital for a year and a half. FOR VICTIM'S MOTHER, KILLER HAS LIVED TOO LONG I asked Magris what he would say to crime victims who assert that they have a right to see the criminals who hurt them punished. Cases of murder and rape are so serious that it may be entirely appropriate to kill the perpetrators, not to get revenge on them or to deter anyone else, but simply to eliminate them. For every monk who devoted his life to God, there were a hundred barbarians whose idea of a good time was to burn his books and throw him down a well. Nor does the birth of an unwanted, soon-to-be-abused baby. He made his way to Oklahoma to live with his sister Barbara and brother Randy and was expelled from the eighth grade after his first day at school. It is not a choice an entire society can make. This process usually feels like ego death, which is precisely what our so-called correctional system should be about suppressing criminal behavior and changing ways of thinking until criminals, whose egos are often saturated with the belief in vengeance, are liberated from that belief. A probation officers report noted that his parents whereabouts were unknown. Chikatilo, the Russian criminal who is estimated to have tortured, killed, and eaten more than fifty people, loved to mutilate their genitals. WebHarris was paroled in January 1978. He recalled his son's budding interest in police work, a profession he said Michael might have chosen, and he spoke with more pain about a relationship with his son that never developed. "In hindsight, you look back and really kick yourself in the tail," Baker said. [5] Mayeski and Baker were best friends who had planned to spend the day fishing to celebrate Mayeski's newly acquired driver's license. Perhaps we were simply too cowardly to take up a gun or a knife. In recent years, the assignation of guilt in capital murder cases has often hinged on the linked definitions of sanity and responsibility. 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. Roberts mother called for police. The defendant brutally murdered the boys, and then stole their car. 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According to the Los Angeles Times, Clark had had a vivid dream a few weeks before the execution, in which Harriss death unleashed a cloud of black gremlins that shrieked and flew in circles around his head before descending, tornado like, into hell. The visitors were not allowed to bring anything to Harris, but they shared sodas and sandwiches supplied by the prison. Further, challenging the death penalty by invoking a belief that denies the reality of death is a stretch. The abrupt command ended a grueling all-night marathon that court employees said was unlike anything in recent memory. The ego and body were created, says the Course, when we decided to separate from God or, rather, when we mistakenly decided to believe we had separated from God, which the Course asserts is impossible. The state attorney generals office immediately took the second matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned it, as it did the last stay by Pregerson. Letting the victim sentence the criminal, within guidelines of course, would personalize the concept of justice, empower the victim, and (if he werent executed) allow the offender to make amends by producing wealth instead of draining it. When I got my gun back, we still didnt have enough money, so we went to do another robbery, where I wound up shooting a fellow named Dennis Tapp, who survived, thank God.. Robert Harris spent the next four years as a ward of federal reformatories. To change human nature religions and belief systems and psychology never tire of this rhetoric. Along the way, Robert had run-ins with police--glue-sniffing in Modesto at 12, four months in Juvenile Hall in Santa Rosa for stealing a car at 13. No doubt some people find it easier to oppose capital punishment publicly than to confront their own self-condemnation privately; they may believe that if murderers can be saved, they may be worth saving, too. Death is not merciful either way. The only true way to get clean and clear, to be of good conscience and right with God, is to deal with the issues as they really are: loss and an incredible amount of pain. But by denying them justice, we affect our own access to it. Kolender, who was appointed director of the California Youth Authority last year, said he hoped Harris death would bring peace to the families of his victims. Friedman, in a letter to Wilson, also asked the governor to authorize a 10-day reprieve to allow defense lawyers to refute factual errors, misstatements and omissions contained in Wilsons statement rejecting clemency. He had orgasms while doing so. Deep within us seethes a venomous logic that says someone must pay for death. Crossing the state line into Nevada, he was arrested and removed from his home to juvenile hall, then placed in foster care with a cousin. Robert Alton Harris They admitted that managing a house full of teenagers has been a challenge but describe it as a happy experience. On July 2, Daniel stole . He had been scheduled to be put to death at 12:01 a.m. today. He said; "You can be a king or a street sweeper but everybody dances with the Grim Reaper". But it does not prevent our society from producing murderers. He knew vaguely that his biological father was a bad person--his mother had told him so. Arguing against the death penalty and in favor of forgiveness and compassion are sensible, humane positions. It isnt always so clear. The only clean way through is first to forgive yourself for all the pain youve gone through and all the things you may not have had the opportunity to say to someone you loved. 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. Miller also assumes there is something inherently wrong with anger and vengeance.
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