Governor Says He’ll Be Fair on Harris’ Fate

SACRAMENTO —  Gov. George Deukmejian said Wednesday that in order to “keep faith with not only the law, but with myself” he will carefully consider the clemency request of condemned murderer Robert Alton Harris “in a fair and objective manner.”

“I’m not just going through motions,” the governor said in answer to a reporter’s question. “I’m carrying out my responsibility.”

Deukmejian said he decided to personally preside over Harris’ scheduled clemency hearing at San Quentin prison on March 27 because only the governor can spare a condemned person from the gas chamber.

“It just seems to me that it would be better for everyone concerned for me to personally listen to what is offered (as) reason for granting clemency,” the governor said. “I would have a much better grasp of the situation and the issues by being there myself and listening to it personally than simply reading a report prepared by some other person.”

Harris, scheduled to die on April 3 for the 1978 murder of two San Diego teen-agers, had asked the governor not to preside at his hearing. He asserted that as a longtime supporter of capital punishment Deukmejian is “committed to my execution.”

“I’m going to review whatever is presented at this clemency hearing in a fair and objective manner,” the governor said. “I have to do that if I’m going to keep faith with not only the law but myself.

“I look upon my responsibility at this point in the process much the same as I’m sure each juror who sat in that case looked upon their responsibility when they . . . made a recommendation that the death penalty be imposed. . . . I’m also in a similar position as the judge who thereafter imposed the sentence, or all of these (appellate) justices who have looked at this case.”

The governor noted that many people feel Harris’ appeals process “has gone on for an unreasonable period of time.” And he indicated that he agreed. Without referring specifically to Harris, Deukmejian said that after an accused person has “their fair day in court, if they’re found guilty, then after the appeal process has taken place and the case has been decided by the highest court, then the sentences ought to go forward.”