Murderer Ready to Die but Says It’s Senseless
Condemned killer Robert Alton Harris said he is prepared to be executed but should not be put to death because it would be senseless to kill someone who has changed in prison into a “very caring human being.”
Harris, 37, convicted of the 1978 murders of two teen-age San Diego boys, also said his “spirits are up” as he watches his appeals run out. But he said he tries not to think about San Quentin’s gas chamber.
“I don’t harp on it, I don’t really think about it,” he said. “I live a day at a time.” In an interview this week with San Diego radio station KFMB, Harris said the two killings are not “something I have relished over.”
Harris, whose case has progressed farther through the court system than any of the 272 other prisoners on California’s Death Row, was convicted of the murders of Michael Baker, son of a San Diego police officer, and Michael’s friend, John Mayeski. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a broad challenge to Harris’ death sentence, moving him a step closer to becoming the first person executed in California in 23 years.
A San Diego Superior Court judge is expected at a hearing Monday to set Harris’ execution date, sometime in March or April.
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