STATE : Lawyers Seek to Halt Execution
Lawyers for condemned killer Robert Alton Harris filed an emergency request today asking a federal appeals court to halt his April 3 execution at San Quentin--the first in California in 23 years.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals scheduled an afternoon session to hear oral arguments on the appeal. The 9th Circuit is one step away from a final appeal by Harris to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Harris’ lawyers, Charles Sevilla and Michael McCabe, renewed their argument that jurors in Harris’ 1978 trial were “fundamentally misled” about his mental state and would not have sentenced him to die if they had the information.
Sevilla said evidence of his brain damage, organic personality disorder, fetal alcohol effects and post-traumatic stress disorder was not given to the jury because psychiatrists failed to investigate properly.
Harris, 37, received the death sentence for the July 5, 1978, murder of Michael Baker and John Mayeski, both 16, in the parking lot of a San Diego fast-food restaurant.
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