Prosecutors Say Harris Has Made Mockery of Appeal Right

State prosecutors urged a federal appellate court to reject the latest appeal of condemned double murderer Robert Alton Harris, comparing his legal maneuvers to the wartime tactics of Saddam Hussein.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Louis Hanoian said in a brief filed Wednesday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Harris’ claim is based on lies, and that he will “stop at nothing to forestall the setting of a new execution date and execution of the judgment he so richly deserves.”

In opposing the latest in a series of appeals by Harris, prosecutors urged the court to impose unspecified monetary sanctions against defense attorneys for filing what the government contends is a frivolous appeal.

Harris’ lawyers must file legal briefs with the court next week.

Hanoian’s brief rejected the defense contention that jailhouse informant Joey Abshire violated Harris’ constitutional rights by acting as a government agent and lying on the witness stand at Harris’ 1978 trial.

Prosecutors say Abshire, a career criminal, lied when he recanted that testimony in a court hearing two months ago, not when he testified at trial that Harris admitted to him in jail that he had killed 16-year-olds Michael Baker and John Mayeski of San Diego.

The question of whether Harris received a fair hearing on allegations of government misconduct involving Abshire remains under review, U.S. Atty. William Braniff said.

Harris was convicted of abducting the boys, killing them and then using their car in a bank robbery. His case has advanced further through the appeals’ process than that of any of the more than 300 inmates on California’s Death Row.

Noting that Friday is the 13th anniversary of the slayings, Hanoian wrote that Harris should no longer be allowed to make a mockery of the appeal process.

He reminded the court of the oil slick created in the Persian Gulf and “noxious smoke” from burning Kuwaiti oil fields that Iraqi troops set ablaze before fleeing Kuwait.

“In an equally greasy and smoky attempt to divert this court’s attention from the lies he presented to this court, Robert Harris engages in judge-bashing, attorney-bashing and sleight of hand,” Hanoian wrote.