A federal judge Friday indefinitely stayed the execution of convicted killer Robert Alton Harris to give lawyers time to challenge the competence of defense psychiatrists who testified in Harris' 1978 trial.
Harris had been scheduled to die Tuesday in the San Quentin state prison gas chamber in what would have been the first execution in California in 23 years.Judge John Noonan of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said defense lawyers Friday made a "substantial showing" Harris is entitled to an evidentiary hearing before a three-judge appeals panel.
That court would decide whether to send the case back to U.S. District Judge William Enright in San Diego, who would review a defense demand for a new jury penalty hearing.
Noonan, a staunchly conservative Reagan appointee, roundly chastised state prosecutors for repeatedly referring to the fact it has taken 12 years of litigation to bring the case to this point saying, "The state has no interest in putting people to death unconstitutionally."
Harris, 37, was sentenced to die for the July 5, 1978, murders of two teenage boys in San Diego.
Noonan's decision came on a tumultuous day in the case. Earlier, state Attorney General John van de Kamp said prison guards had found marijuana in Harris' cell.