We seem studiously to avoid many other choices: to forgive without condoning or committing further violence ourselves; to lay down our arms; to turn the other cheek or even to try to love our perceived enemies. My point is that there are times when murder is warranted, and it is the conscience with which the murder is committed that makes the long-term difference for human society. But as long as society is unwilling to liberate itself from that same belief, it will continue to have a chaotic correctional system that does little more than warehouse and further degrade societys most dangerous members. In the life history of Robert Alton Harris, two facts stand out: The murders that put him on Death Row were heartless, and he seemed destined to die strapped down in an execution chamber somewhere. Robert Alton Harris San Quentin, California On July 5, 1978, Robert and his brother Daniel found John Mayeski and Michael Baker, both 16, eating hamburgers in Mayeski's car celebrating his new driver's license. I dont buy this. In May, 1967, Evelyn Harris and six of her children moved into a small apartment in Sacramento, living on welfare. It created a very positive effect on day-to-day living in a place where racial and territorial tensions were still prevalent.. When I got my gun back, we still didnt have enough money, so we went to do another robbery, where I wound up shooting a fellow named Dennis Tapp, who survived, thank God.. Robert told the boys to "Quit crying, and die like men", then shot both boys multiple times. The previous essays in this series are Back to the Real World [Issue 153], Climbing the Stone Face of Fear [Issue 164], and Homeless [Issue 166]. WebRobert Alton Harris, Petitioner, v. R. Pulley, Warden of the California State Prison At San Quentin, Respondent. He claimed that hed only watched others do it. "I wish things could have been different. His victims were not responsible for his unhappy childhood and should not have paid with their lives for the irresponsibility of his parents. But true forgiveness accepts wrongdoing and anger and strives to heal, correct, or redirect them. Nor does not executing a convicted murderer. The eldest daughter, Barbara, was arrested for theft. Even the most pacifist among us may be disquieted to realize how deeply the belief in vengeance is rooted. . We could, however, create more community service programs, so that criminals at least have a civilized alternative. It would, however, be a powerful symbol that violence will not be met with death. WebMurderer Robert Alton Harris is executed in the California gas chamber. It is a dangerous world because it is a world of death. Harris pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bank robbery and received a 25-year sentence.[9]. Robert Alton Harris - Wikipedia D. Patrick Millers essay A Brutal Sadness [August 1993], for all its insight and tender heart, disturbs and angers me in exactly the same way. "The politicians are making a name for themselves off my loss. So lets leave the spiritual growth of forgiveness to the individuals private conscience, and lets come together as a society that has to find practical and ethical solutions to crime and punishment. At the political level, teaching peace means opposing the death penalty and promoting the sort of resocialization programs that David Magris suggests for our prisons: these would decrease human suffering, save money, and provide a truly sensible route to the lessening of crime and violence in our society. [15] Two hours later, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated that stay, explicitly ordering "No further stays of Robert Alton Harris' execution shall be entered by the federal courts except upon order of this Court. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Robert Alton He would beat him with a bamboo cane and taunt him with a loaded gun, telling him to run. [2] During his time at the juvenile detention centre, Harris was repeatedly raped. The brothers ordered the teens to drive to a lake, then forced them to kneel. The Course is a one-year, self-study curriculum that guides its students toward an instinctive, utilitarian spirituality by restoring their contact with what it calls the Internal Teacher. Published in 1976, the Course was written down over a period of seven years by Columbia University research psychologist Helen Schucman, who claimed to hear a soundless voice giving her a compelling inner dictation. Schucman, who died in 1981, never claimed authorship of the Course. There, in the parking lot, they were kidnapped at gunpoint by two men later identified as Robert In a recent interview at their home, Mankins and her husband of 17 years, Sam, 56, said the pain of Michael's death has been compounded by the decade of litigation that has kept Harris alive. BEING SYMPATHETIC TO BAD-HISTORY To have forgiven him would have been to say, We will no longer teach vengeance to you or your victims. Steve Baker said in an interview that he has to contend with loss and regret. Because we recognize the horror of death, we believe that someone should be punished for it whenever possible, failing to recognize that this very belief in vengeance is what drives us to kill, whether as armies or individuals. Magris claims, The irony is that I was the trigger man on the attempted murder I was acquitted of, and not the trigger man on the murder I was found guilty of. Sent to San Quentins death row for the murder, Magris was also given a life-without-parole sentence for the kidnapping. WebThe defendant, Robert Alton Harris, and his brother, co-defendant Daniel Marcus Harris, abducted two teenage boys. [International Phenomenological Society, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Wiley]: 12942. infamous last words from criminals People like Miller can teach and write only so long as the state has the power to crush thugs. "I haven't had a postcard even acknowledging, 'Yes, Mrs. Mankins, we're taking your feelings into consideration.' Her ruling was overturned, but the videotape is to be used as evidence in the class-action case. His younger brother, Daniel, 18, was willing to help. He was arrested less than an hour after the robbery and charged with murder, auto theft, kidnapping, burglary, and bank robbery. Harris' Final Appeals Stress Brother's Role - Los Angeles Times WebRobert Alton Harris - San Diego Murders San Diego Murders Sometime in May or June 1978, Robert, then aged 25, asked his brother Daniel, 18, for help in planning a bank Youve been hurt or no longer have someone you loved, so you feel robbed, cheated, and abandoned, and that makes you angry and afraid. Like Lewis K. Elbinger, I, too, hope the time will come when humanity attains the state of spiritual realization in which capital punishment is unnecessary. The Supreme Court of the United States reimposed Harris' death sentence in Pulley v. Harris (1984), reversing the Ninth Circuit by a vote of 72. Howard I. Friedman criticized Wilson for ignoring scientific evidence that Harris suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome. The only true way to get clean and clear, to be of good conscience and right with God, is to deal with the issues as they really are: loss and an incredible amount of pain. Magris recalls, I had a gun, and I gave it to one of the other three guys to do a service station. [15] On April 22, the Ninth Circuit issued an emergency writ of mandate vacating the restraining order, in which Judge Arthur Alarcn was joined by Judge Melvin T. Brunetti, over the dissent of Judge Noonan. To change human nature religions and belief systems and psychology never tire of this rhetoric. He knew vaguely that his biological father was a bad person--his mother had told him so. I hope it will, he said. What would he be doing? People who idealistically face violence with nonviolence have often been mowed down. Fear will run rampant in your mind if you allow it, and when it does, it becomes bigger than life. Kevin Leary, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter who witnessed Harris execution and said he has also witnessed a lethal-injection execution, said he prefers that method. Perhaps the most unexpected development in the legal drama was the re-emergence of Daniel Harris in court papers filed Friday on behalf of his condemned brother. It is not a choice an entire society can make. Two years ago, Harris came within hours of being executed. WebRobert Alton HARRIS, and his brother, Daniel Marcus Harris, abducted two teenage boys from a fast food restaurant, forcing them to drive to an isolated area. We could be giving people back their dignity, respect, self-esteem, and confidence., Magris suggests our scattered and minimal efforts toward such resocialization of prisoners stem from political reinforcement of ignorance about the realities of our criminal justice system. Absolutely not. Then, on July 5, 1978, five months and 26 days after his release from prison, Robert kidnaped John Mayeski and Michael Baker, both 16. No further stays of Robert Alton Harris execution shall be entered by the federal courts except upon order of this court, OConnor declared. Robert Alton Harris was born at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the fifth of nine children of Kenneth and Evelyn Harris. "[18] It was the subject of a 1995 Dutch documentary film, Procedure 769, witness to an execution. On March 6, 1979, Robert Harris was convicted in the San Diego County Superior Court of two counts of murder in the first degree with special circumstances as well as two counts of kidnapping, and was sentenced to death. Harris reserved special abuse for him. ), How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, At Willie Nelson 90, country, rock and rap stars pay tribute, but Willie and Trigger steal the show, Plaschke: Lakers live up to their legacy with a close-out win for the ages, Concertgoer lets out a loud full body orgasm while L.A. Phil plays Tchaikovskys 5th, L.A. Affairs: I had my reasons for not dating white men. There is no glee here, Lungren said at a press conference following Harris execution. These are the people we must worry about most, of course those who have decided that they can kill to avenge murder, end their suffering, or solve a particular problem, whether their victim is guilty of anything or not. The flurry of legal maneuvers was set off by Gov. There's something wrong with a system where we pay a federal judge or any judge hundreds of thousands of dollars a year not to make a decision. He had run-ins with police as early as age 10, and was first placed into juvenile detention at age 13 for stealing a car. He especially liked to boil and eat uteruses, though he ate men as well as women. FOR VICTIM'S MOTHER, KILLER HAS LIVED TOO LONG Daniel Harris was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to six years in state prison; he was released in 1983. "We just felt like we were totally deserted. D. Patrick Miller too often sounds like a true believer when he applies A Course in Miracles to the body politic. Born prematurely at Fort Bragg, South Carolina, the fifth child of nine. Nothing about this identity should be forgiven; it should die. [2] The Harris family moved to Visalia, California in 1962 following Kenneth Harris' discharge from the Army. Harris came within 12 hours of being executed in April 1990.1 But it doesnt work so nicely. To die at the hands of someone who hates you is worlds apart from a death (at any age) preceded by an acceptance of your own circumstances of ill health, surrounded by family and friends. Convinced that Robert was conceived in an affair, Sgt. Stories from the Past - April 3, 2020: Bandsmen protest the "forced Im also for abortion rights, while acknowledging that abortion is murder. Miller draws from a set of doctrinal preconceptions (A Course in Miracles) to lay a massive guilt trip, not on criminals, who elicit his forgiveness and understanding, but on the innocent people they rape, rob, and mutilate. in such a helpless, depressed state," Sam Mankins said of Michael's death. That life began at an Army hospital in Ft. Bragg, N. C., on Jan. 15, 1953, the day a drunken soldier named Kenneth Harris kicked his alcoholic wife in the gut, sending her into labor two months early. Harris, 39, who already had been strapped into the gas-chamber chair once and then removed exactly two hours earlier, was led to the chamber a second time at 6:01 a.m., after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a one-day stay granted by 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Harry Pregerson. Do not underestimate the intensity of the egos drive for vengeance on the past. Shall we keep people with such damaged consciences alive and try to reform them? This course, says the introduction, can therefore be summed up very simply in this way: Nothing real can be threatened. He was serious, much more somber than he had been two hours earlier. The choice for nonviolence is inherently personal and private. After taking the boys to a deserted wash near the Miramar Reservoir, Harris shot the two boys four times each. Even then I knew her advice was bad. Why? Baker pleaded for his life, but Harris shot him in the back and the abdomen, killing him too. Harris nodded, winking at one officer who stood outside waiting to witness his death. Nor does the execution of a convicted murderer. There, in the parking lot, they were kidnapped at gunpoint by two men later identified as Robert Alton Harris, then 25, a paroled murderer, and his brother, Daniel, then 18. One gets off ones idealistic cloud of spirituality and finds a way to make common-sense choices that will benefit the people who are truly innocent. From the archives: Time runs out for killer of 2 youths here Miller also assumes there is something inherently wrong with anger and vengeance. Five years after Michael's murder, tragedy struck the family again when Tammy Baker, Steve and Sharron's daughter, was thrown from the back of a motorcycle and killed the night before her 18th birthday. The request for a stay was quickly denied by the state Supreme Court. In an age of media conglomerates, were something of an oddity: an ad-free, independent, reader-supported magazine. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. His lack of comprehension that deaths are different must come from a lack of exposure to actual death. David Magris is the son of an Italian father and Puerto Rican mother who were unmarried at the time of his birth in 1948 in Vallejo, California. The tragic saga began 14 years ago, on July 5, 1978, when Harris and his brother kidnapped the two 16-year-old Mira Mesa boys, best friends who lived down the street from each other, at gunpoint as they were sitting in the parking lot of a Jack In The Box restaurant in Mira Mesa. [5], On July 5, the Harris brothers happened upon John Mayeski and Michael Baker, both 16, sitting in a green Ford LTD eating cheeseburgers in a supermarket parking lot in Mira Mesa. That policy would surely stop all the killing, wouldnt it? He wanted to rob a bank. Robert's first Just before 6 a.m., the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the final stay of execution, which had been issued by Judge Pregerson and also focused on the method of execution. "[10][11] Wilson then left without waiting for reporters' questions. And then we take two steps back.". From Birth to Death Row, Violence Surrounded Harris : History: As a teen-ager, she was picking cotton to pay for her booze. Merely crushing them is no answer either; a state that has only force is just as precarious as one that lacks the will to use it. Along the way, Robert had run-ins with police--glue-sniffing in Modesto at 12, four months in Juvenile Hall in Santa Rosa for stealing a car at 13. A probation officers report noted that his parents whereabouts were unknown. [6] In June 1973 Harris married, and the couple had a son, Robert, Jr., born in October 1974. Human beings presently believe in punishment and vengeance as necessary and inescapable strategies for survival, social order, and personal advancement. Movies. steve-baker At 6:01a.m., Harris was escorted into the gas chamber. A hearing was scheduled in that case before U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel at 6 p.m. today. After some joking and laughter, and a promise no harm would come to them, he told them to start walking. It can ease the pain these families have been experiencing. It's an awful, terrible feeling.". Former San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender, who watched Harris die, said the execution sent a message that killers will face justice. Could things be different? He was convicted of the kidnap, robbery and murder of two teenage boys in July 1978 and was sentenced to death on 6 March 1979. I used to be against the death penalty, but Im not anymore. WebALARCON, Circuit Judge: Robert Alton Harris (hereinafter Harris) appeals from the denial of his petitions for a writ of habeas corpus challenging the constitutionality of his I'm not a saint, and I'm not a politician. Through the windows of the soundproof chamber, many of the forty-eight witnesses to the execution saw Harris mouth the words, Im sorry. Baker nodded his head sharply in acceptance of the apology. A Course in Miracles suggests a reason that capital punishment is morbidly alluring to so many: The death penalty is the egos ultimate goal, for it fully believes that you are a criminal, as deserving of death as God knows you are deserving of life.. Executed Inmate Summary - Robert Alton Harris - Capital To get past that, you have to confront your fear., Without a death penalty, I asked Magris, wont many people conclude that murderers can get away with it? Gen. Louis Hanoian said no evidence was withheld and the claim that Daniel Harris was hypnotized was an outrageous lie.. What are the reasonable consequences of a crime for criminals, for victims, for society? The cold logic of economic analysis produces this intriguing option. There still are no pictures of tall, blue-eyed Michael Baker on the walls of the Mankins's home.