Witnesses to Harris Execution Tell of Varying Psychological Fallout

It was an experience that, immediately afterward, was described as surreal, stressful, eerie and tense.

But what about the longterm impact on those who watched Robert Alton Harris die in the San Quentin gas chamber on April 21?

Two professors of psychiatry at the Stanford Medical School are now interviewing the 18 media witnesses to determine the psychological impact of watching a man be put to death. So far, no conclusions.

Wade Douglas, reporter for KSDO radio, said he answered ‘no’ to nearly all the professors’ questions, which asked about nightmares, headaches, flashbacks, life-changing epiphanies, etc.

“To me, it was an assignment,” he said. “Am I cold-fish or are they (the professors) expecting more sensitivity than a reporter’s capable of?”

Steve Fiorina, reporter for KGTV-Channel 10, said that, for several weeks after the execution, he saw Harris’s smirking face at odd moments:

“I’d be talking to someone about baseball, or typing on my computer, or driving my car, and I’d see Harris’s face. I’d see him sitting in the chair.”

Michael Tuck, anchorman for KCBS in Los Angeles and previously an anchorman for KFMB-Channel 8 and KGTV in San Diego, talked to a psychiatrist before the execution. He thinks that helped.

Still, he has occasional waking “snapshots”: the luminescent green light, the stone face of San Diego cop Steve Baker, the joy of a female relative of one of Harris’s victims (“like a kid on Christmas morning”).

“Occasionally, ‘I’ll think of the contortion and grimaces as he (Harris) sat there breathing poison gas.”

Tuck says the experience has made him into a death-penalty opponent. Fiorina says the experience confirmed his belief in the death penalty.

Los Angeles Times reporter Dan Morain said he endured “weird dreams” (in which Harris talked to him) after Harris got a last-minute stay in 1990.

But he’s had no such dreams since witnessing the execution, only “intrusive” waking images.

Recently when he was reporting an environmental story about dead and dying birds, the image of Harris in the gas chamber came to his mind’s eye.

“It’s something you don’t forget,” Morain said.

Life in the Constituent Gallery

Your government (and media) at work.

Susan Farrell, reporter-anchor for KNSD-Channel 39 in San Diego, goes to Washington for some work and some touristing. She gets a pass to watch the House of Representatives from the public gallery.

She’s waiting for the House to come to order (and debate a resolution proclaiming National Soap Box Derby day). She’s reading a small brochure, “Know Your Government” or something like that.

She hears an authoritarian voice behind her.

“No reading in the House gallery.”

She turns and finds a Capitol cop. She thinks he’s joking. He’s not.

The Capitol cop fetches the House Doorkeeper, who reads Farrell the rules about no reading/no eating/no smoking/no writing/no picture taking. There is talk of dire consequences if she persists.

Farrell complies but only after a final salvo, about being willing to sit in the gallery and do nothing useful “so I have more in common with our legislators.”

As a final act of defiance, Farrell pops a Tic-Tac in her mouth, the no-eating rule be damned.

Now safely back in San Diego, Farrell asks: “What do you do when you’re dealing with a civil servant who wears a bad polyester coat and doesn’t make the rules?”

Before leaving D.C., Farrell reported the incident to Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham (R-Chula Vista).

Cunningham has now officially inquired of the House Speaker as to whether the world’s oldest republic would be imperiled if the House cops lightened up a bit.

Refrigeration, Politics, Finances, TV

More things.

* Yes, San Diego Refrigeration has the slogan on its trucks: “Iceman Cometh.”

* Jenny Dean, who earned top marks as campaign press secretary for Peter Navarro, is leaving the Navarro camp to be press secretary for Lynn Schenk’s congressional bid.

* Councilman Ron Roberts is confident that developer Ron Hahn’s financial problems won’t hurt the drive for a downtown sports arena.

* Inside Edition is sniffing a story on “Border Patrol Out of Control.”