Execution date set for Bobby
Lee Harris
December 4, 2000
RALEIGH -- Correction
Secretary Theodis Beck has set Jan. 19 as the execution date for Death
Row inmate Bobby Lee Harris. The execution is tentatively scheduled for
2 a.m. at Central Prison.
Harris, 34, was convicted July
29, 1992 in Onslow County Superior Court. He received the death sentence
for the Aug. 20, 1991 murder of John Redd.
In addition to receiving the
death sentence, Harris received a 40-year sentence for robbery with a
dangerous weapon, a 40-year sentence for second degree burglary, a 10-year
sentence for larceny of firearms and a 10-year sentence for auto larceny.
Bobby Lee Harris
Execution stayed 1/18/01
Harris' execution was stayed pending a February 20
court hearing. The following is the original alert on the case.
The state plans to execute Bobby Lee Harris at 2
a.m. on January 19, 2001, despite calls from North Carolina citizens and
legislators for a moratorium on executions. In December, a study
commission in the state legislature recommended a 2-year moratorium on
executions, as well as a bill to ban the execution of mentally retarded
defendants. Just a few days after Harris's scheduled execution, these
recommendations will be presented before the full legislature, and
hearings will be held.
The Case of Bobby Lee Harris
Harris and a co-worker, Joe Simpson, were arrested
for the murder of their boss, John Redd, in 1991. As a result of a plea
bargain, Simpson's murder charge was dropped and, according to
Department of Corrections records, his projected release date is August
2006. Harris was sentenced to death.
The case was so troubling that two justices of the
N.C. Supreme Court wrote a dissent arguing that Harris should be
sentenced to life imprisonment. Justices Exum and Frye wrote that
Harris's death sentence was unfair and disproportionate, given Harris's
conduct and the compelling mitigating circumstances found by the jury.
The dissent emphasized the slight evidence of planning and noted that
North Carolina juries "have consistently returned life sentences under
similar circumstances."
Weighing against a death sentence in this case is the fact that the
fatal stabbing was not planned in advance but took place on the spur of
the moment. In addition, the evidence showed that, after the stabbing
occurred, Harris took measures to try to save the victim's life. The
victim was found alive and lived for almost 24 hours after he was
stabbed. He died on the operating table under questionable
circumstances. Harris voluntarily surrendered himself, gave a full
confession, and expressed remorse for the crime.
Harris's background also shows him to be worthy of
mercy. He grew up in a violent and dysfunctional home environment.
Physical and emotional abuse were common during Harris's childhood and
led to alcohol and drug abuse at an early age.
While jurors heard some mitigating evidence, the
debilitating illness of one of Harris's lawyers prevented the jury from
learning more reasons to spare Harris's life. After the jury had
convicted Harris of murder, lead counsel Timothy Merritt was removed
from the case because he was suffering from multiple myeloma, a severe
form of bone cancer and was too ill to continue. Second counsel,
Charles K. Medlin, Jr., had graduated from law school only three years
earlier. A new attorney, Charles H. Henry, was appointed to replace
Merritt, but was given only six weeks to prepare for the penalty phase
of the trial.
Counsel did
not have enough time to prepare for sentencing and, consequently, the
jury did not learn that Harris's I.Q. is just 73, a mere three points
above being mentally retarded. In addition, records showed that Harris
adapted well to prison life and did not present a danger in prison;
however, those records were never presented to the jury.
Nor did the jury learn that, as
an adolsecent stationed with his family in Germany, Harris overdosed and
was hospitalized and placed in detox. Harris's substance abuse problems
continued when he returned to North Carolina. A few months prior to the
crime, Harris's sister-in-law had him involuntarily committed because
his drug abuse was so out of control. Harris was sent to Walter B.
Jones Hospital for 45 days and then placed on court-ordered outpatient
treatment. At the time of the offense, neither county medical health
officials nor court personnel had followed up despite Harris's continued
residence in Onslow County.
Little of this evidence was before the jury. In
fact, some of the records documenting these facts arrived at the defense
counsel's office a month after the jury had returned its punishment
verdict. No court has ever held a hearing on the question of whether
Harris's trial was unfair because his attorneys failed to show the jury
all of the compelling facts about his mental health and background.
In addition, some observers believe that the trial
judge showed a pro-death penalty bias during the sentencing phase. The
judge, Joe Freeman Britt, was the former district attorney for Robeson
County, where he earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as
"the world's deadliest prosecutor." Britt had put more than 40 people
on death row prior to becoming a Superior Court Judge.
