Deukmejian Gets Harris’ Request, Cancels Killer’s Clemency Hearing

Gov. George Deukmejian announced Wednesday that he has canceled next week’s clemency hearing for condemned killer Robert Alton Harris, saying he was merely carrying out the convicted murderer’s wishes.

Meanwhile, the celebrated champion of the poor and dying, Mother Teresa, jumped into the fight to save Harris’ life. Working through a Jesuit seminarian from Berkeley, the Nobel laureate, based in India, got Deukmejian to agree to talk to her by telephone early next week, possibly Monday, so she can personally plead for Harris’ life.

In a brief statement, Deukmejian noted he had received a letter from Harris on Tuesday in which the murderer, scheduled to be executed April 3, withdrew his request for executive clemency.

“Since there is now no request for clemency before me, the hearing which was scheduled for March 27 is hereby canceled,” Deukmejian said.

Robert Gore, Deukmejian’s press secretary, noted that Harris’ avenues for a reprieve from the death penalty now lie entirely with the courts. “The governor has the authority to grant a temporary reprieve, but right now there is no reason to do so because there are still judicial proceedings pending and one has not been requested,” Gore said.

Harris, in his letter to the governor, said he was withdrawing his request for clemency because he did not believe he would get a fair hearing from Deukmejian, a leading advocate of the death penalty.

Harris, 37, was convicted of the 1978 murders of two teen-agers in San Diego. He is in line to be the first person executed in California in 23 years.

Charles M. Sevilla, one of Harris’ attorneys, declined to comment on Deukmejian’s action Wednesday.

Gore confirmed that Deukmejian has agreed to speak with Mother Teresa early next week, but he said the exact day had not been set. The Roman Catholic nun would speak to the governor from Calcutta, India, where she works among the poor and those who are near death. “We are working with her representatives. It is just a matter of coordinating their two schedules,” Gore said.

The press secretary said Deukmejian is not worried about being put on the spot by the woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and is considered a living saint by her followers because of her work among the people she calls “the poorest of the poor.”

“He is a public figure and he is prepared to talk about his views,” Gore said.

In the past, pleas for mercy on behalf of convicted murderers by leaders of the Roman Catholic Church have gone unheeded.

Mother Teresa, along with Jimmy Carter and other international figures, in 1986 appealed unsuccessfully for clemency in the case of James Terry Roach, a South Carolina man who was put to death for the murder of two teen-agers. Pope John Paul II was turned down by two Florida governors when he pleaded for the lives of murderers who were put to death in 1983 and 1987.

In the Harris case, the intermediary for Mother Teresa is John Dear, a seminarian at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley. Dear said he and others are also asking Pope John Paul II to intercede on Harris’ behalf.

“It would put the governor in a very tough spot. These are two of the most respected people in the world. If he goes ahead with this (Harris’ execution), in the eyes of the world (Deukmejian) will be siding with the executioners and not with the saints of history, like Mother Teresa,” Dear said.