The State - News from March 31, 1989

A San Francisco Superior Court jury recommended that Robert Massie be put to death for the 1979 murder of a liquor store clerk. The case attracted attention because Massie was sentenced to death once before for a 1965 murder in the Los Angeles area. His first death sentence was commuted in 1972 when the state Supreme Court deemed capital punishment unconstitutional. He was on parole when he murdered again in 1979. The high court reversed his conviction for that crime and ordered the retrial that resulted in his latest death sentence. His lawyer said he will ask that Judge Edward Stern sentence Massie to life without parole.