This week in 1992

“You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone
dances with the Grim Reaper.”

— Robert Alton Harris, convicted of murder, gas chamber, California.
Executed April 21, 1992

Harris was the first person to receive the death penalty after the state of California reinstated it in 1976. He went to the gas chamber for two 1978 murders: he and his brother abducted two sixteen-year old boys from a fast food establishment, drove them to a remote location, and shot and killed them. Harris’s brother testified against him, received a six- year sentence, and was discharged in 1983.

Harris’s last words are paraphrased from the comedic portrayal of the character Death in the 1991 film Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.