State High Court Rejects Appeal for Killer of Three : Ruling: Ronald Lee Deere, who says he deserves to die, could be the first executed since state restored the death penalty.

The state Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal filed by a defense lawyer on behalf of a condemned triple slayer from Riverside County who has said he deserves to die for his crimes.

Although the capital appeals process is fraught with uncertainty, the action appeared to significantly increase the possibility that Ronald Lee Deere, 38, could be the first person executed in California since the death penalty was restored 14 years ago.

Until now, it had been widely agreed that the murderer most likely to be sent to the gas chamber first would be Robert Alton Harris, whose 13-year-old case now is before a federal appeals court.

But if an impending appeal on behalf of Deere fails before the U. S. Supreme Court--and he then successfully resists further appeals--the process could be sharply accelerated, and Deere could become the first on the list, attorneys said. Meanwhile, a state attorney said prosecutors would oppose the filing of any appeals without Deere’s consent.

Deere’s court-appointed lawyer, Robert R. Bryan of San Francisco, had sought a hearing before the state high court on claims that Deere’s constitutional rights had been violated. The attorney said Deere was “suicidal” and was mentally incompetent when he pleaded guilty to the charges and repeatedly opposed attempts to spare his life.

State Deputy Atty. Gen. Frederick R. Millar had urged the court to deny the hearing, saying Bryan had no right to file such an appeal without Deere’s consent. Millar presented a letter Deere wrote to the prosecutor in January, 1990, acknowledging his guilt and reaffirming that death was the appropriate penalty.

Thursday’s action, issued in a brief order without dissent, was attacked as “totally outrageous” by Bryan. “For the court to be so callous and reject this petition without a hearing is almost unparalleled,” the lawyer said. Bryan acknowledged that Deere could be executed before Harris, but vowed to continue his effort to spare the man’s life.

Millar welcomed the court’s action--and said the state would seek to prevent the filing of additional appeals without Deere’s approval. The prosecutor agreed that, with the decision, Deere could be sent to death before Harris. “There is that potential,” he said. “But there are a lot of variables involved--what happens next in Mr. Harris’ case and the next series of steps in Mr. Deere’s case.”

Last May, the high court upheld Deere’s sentence in a separate, automatic appeal mandated under state law--one for which consent by the condemned is not required. A petition for rehearing on that decision is pending before the justices--but such rehearings are only rarely granted.

Bryan said Thursday that if the rehearing is denied, he would seek review before the U. S. Supreme Court--an action that he said does not require Deere’s consent. If that fails, Bryan said, a subsequent constitutional challenge could be filed in federal court. Under Supreme Court rulings, however, the right to any such challenge--presented in habeas corpus petitions--may be waived by inmates, so long as they are mentally competent.

Deere, a Sioux and Choctaw Indian who also uses the name “Running Deere,” pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder in the killing of Donald Davis and second-degree murder in the killings of Davis’ daughters, Michelle and Melissa, in Blythe in 1982. His plea of guilty was accepted after a court-appointed psychiatrist found him mentally competent.

Deere also waived the right to a jury at the penalty phase of the case and told the judge he was remorseful about the crimes and deserved to die. He was sentenced to death, but in 1985 the state Supreme Court overturned the sentence because Deere’s court-appointed attorney, at Deere’s request, refused to present character evidence in support of a sentence of life in prison instead of death.

At his second penalty trial, Deere’s lawyer again refused to present character evidence, but this time the judge appointed another attorney to investigate and present such evidence. Deere again received a death sentence, which then was upheld unanimously by the high court May 2 in an opinion by Justice Armand Arabian.

In a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, Bryan, Deere’s lawyer on appeal, argued that the trial proceedings were a “farce, sham and a mockery of justice” and that Deere was denied his rights to effective legal and psychiatric assistance. There was evidence--never adequately presented at trial--that Deere suffered from a variety of impairments, including mental retardation, paranoia, organic brain damage, drug addiction and alcoholism, Bryan said.

In reply, state prosecutor Millar urged rejection of the petition and presented the unsolicited letter from Deere, in which the condemned inmate expressed remorse for killing the two girls. “I’ve done all I can too (sic) try to be put to death for the lives I took,” Deere said in the letter.

The inmate also disagreed with his lawyer’s contention that he was suicidal. “I’ve never in my life ever thought of wanting to take my own life,” Deere wrote. “I don’t believe (in) anyone taking there (sic) own life.”

In a brief to the court, Millar said it was time to resolve the 9-year-old case. “The public can only wonder why it takes so long to execute a triple murderer who admits his guilt, believes he should die for what he did, and who opposes efforts of his counsel to file (appeals) in an effort to interminably delay justice,” the prosecutor said. “It is evident that (Deere) himself wonders the same thing.”