
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 3, 1990                   TAG: 9004030332
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO                                LENGTH: Short

HIGH COURT BLOCKS HARRIS EXECUTION

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to allow California to carry out its first execution in 23 years, letting stand an order blocking Robert Alton Harris' trip to the state gas chamber.

Harris, 37, who in 1978 kidnapped and murdered two San Diego teen-agers to use their car in a $3,000 bank robbery, had been scheduled to die in the gas chamber at 3 a.m. PDT Tuesday.

However, a federal appeals court judge imposed the stay Friday, and the nation's highest court voted 6-3 Monday to reject an emergency request from prosecutors who wanted to execute Harris on schedule.

The request went to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who referred it to the full court. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy voted to set aside the stay of execution and let Harris die. Voting in the majority were Justices O'Connor, Thurgood Marshall, William Brennan, John Paul Stevens, Byron White and Harry Blackmun.

- Associated Press

by CNB