No Word From Governor on Harris Request

Gov. George Deukmejian’s office withheld comment Wednesday on condemned killer Robert Alton Harris’ request that the governor withdraw from Harris’ March 27 clemency hearing.

However, as Harris’ execution date of April 3 drew another day closer, his San Diego attorneys issued a short statement reiterating their concern that Harris does not think he can get a fair hearing from Deukmejian, a longtime proponent of capital punishment.

Meanwhile Wednesday, the state parole board said it will review Harris’ request for clemency, a procedural formality required by law, at a closed session March 16.

Harris, 37, convicted of the 1978 killings of two teen-age San Diego boys, is in line to become the first person executed in California in 23 years. His case has progressed further through the court system than any of the more than 270 prisoners on Death Row.

In a letter dated Monday, Harris asked Deukmejian to withdraw from presiding at the clemency hearing because he did not think the governor could make a “fair and impartial” evaluation of his request. The hearing is set to be held at San Quentin, the location of California’s Death Row and gas chamber.

Deukmejian received the letter late Tuesday, press secretary Bob Gore said, but added, “There’s no response at this time.”

Gore said it was not possible to predict if or when Deukmejian will reply to the request.

Harris’ San Diego attorneys, Charles M. Sevilla and Michael McCabe, released a statement Wednesday urging Deukmejian to step aside. “All (Harris) is asking,” the lawyers said, is the “chance to make his case for mercy before someone who is impartial and has not prejudged his case.”

Harris contends the governor should withdraw because Deukmejian wrote the 1977 law reinstating the state’s death penalty. In addition, Harris claims that Deukmejian, who served as attorney general before being elected governor, has a conflict of interest in presuming to judge Harris since he prosecuted the early rounds of Harris’ appeals.

Dick Iglehart, California’s chief assistant attorney general, said Wednesday by telephone from his San Francisco office that there is no reason to believe Deukmejian will honor Harris’ request.

“In every single California case involving this issue of a clemency hearing, there is no authority in any case to make such a request, much less to honor such a request,” Iglehart said. “Now, obviously, that doesn’t keep one from making the request.”

Meanwhile, the California Board of Prison Terms has scheduled a closed hearing on Harris’ case for March 16 in Sacramento, parole board spokeswoman Phyllis Scott said.

The closed hearing is a regular practice for clemency requests, Scott said. State law requires the panel’s nine commissioners to review Harris’ request and pass a written recommendation to Deukmejian before the March 27 hearing.