Killer Harris Drops Bid to Appear in S.D.

Lawyers for condemned double-murderer Robert Alton Harris withdrew their request that he be allowed to attend a court hearing about his latest appeal next month in San Diego.

In court papers filed Monday, defense attorneys backed down from an earlier request that Harris be escorted from San Quentin Prison to the hearing. At issue is whether Harris’ rights were violated by a jailhouse informant who allegedly lied at his trial.

The documents said Harris was worried about “personal safety personal hardship and administrative segregation” entailed in his transfer from Death Row. The defense team maintained that Harris has a right to attend the hearing, however, and indicated that the request may be renewed.

Prosecutors from the state attorney general’s office also filed documents in federal court Monday in preparation for a May 7 hearing regarding events that occurred during Harris’ trial in 1978.

A jury convicted Harris of first-degree murder in the July 1978 kidnap and murder of two 16-year-old San Diego boys and using their car for a bank robbery.

Harris is further through the appeals process than any of the 304 inmates on California’s Death Row.

But defense attorneys could win their client a new trial if they can prove that informant Joey Abshire was a government agent who perjured himself in testifying against Harris.

The scheduled May 7 hearing was ordered by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month.

In other motions filed Monday, defense lawyers renewed a previously unsuccessful argument that U.S. District Judge William B. Enright remove himself from hearing next month’s appeal.

Defense documents recited Enright’s comments from past rulings, in which he has denied Harris’ petitions repeatedly, and contended he cannot fairly decide the informant issue.

Enright already has stated his opinions--good and bad--about people who may testify at the hearing and has commented about lack of enforcement of the death penalty, the motion said.

Responses filed by Deputy Atty. Gen. Frederick R. Millar Jr. opposed defense requests to let Harris attend the hearing and for Enright to remove himself from the hearing.

Millar contended that Harris has no right to attend the hearing and rejected defense arguments that Enright has prejudged the informant issue.