From Death Row To Freedom Confined 13 Years, ‘Every Day Is A Blessing’

Benjamin Harris III’s first taste of freedom was a bus ride from Steilacoom to Tacoma to visit family.

“It felt great,” he said. “I’m serious. You don’t know what it’s like to be locked up for that long and then get out and just be able to see things.”

“That long” was 13 years, much of it on Washington’s death row.

Harris, 50, is the first death row inmate in Washington released from prison since the state reinstituted the death penalty in 1981.

He had been sentenced to die for the 1984 shooting of Tacoma auto mechanic Jimmy Lee Turner. But a federal judge overturned his conviction and sentence in 1994, saying his trial lawyer had been incompetent.

After Pierce County prosecutors said too much time had passed to successfully re-try him, state officials tried to keep him confined at Western State Hospital, saying he was dangerously mentally ill.

But last month, a jury ruled Harris should be treated in a less restrictive program. Three weeks ago, he was placed in a program to help him regain living skills.

It’s the little things - seeing a movie, or stopping for a burger and fries - that he’s enjoying most.

“Every day is a blessing, and I’m starting to appreciate them a lot more now,” Harris told The Seattle Times in an interview reported Monday in a copyright story.

Harris said he plans to register to vote, apply for a driver’s license and buy a car.

“I wouldn’t mind spending some time up at Mount Rainier, going to movies, playing some chess,” he said.

He currently works 20 hours a week at the Western State Hospital laundry, but hopes to get a job as a warehouseman.

He said he’s getting assistance from family members in the area, but thinks it would be better to move out of the area for a fresh start.

During his years on death row, Harris grew to know the other death row inmates, including Westley Allan Dodd and Charles Campbell - the only two inmates executed in Washington in recent years.

Dodd, who killed three young boys in Vancouver, “was a pretty unique guy,” Harris said. “He knew he was wrong, and he wanted to die. That’s what he told me, and I have to respect him for knowing that he was wrong.”

Campbell, however, “was a very sick person,” Harris said of the notorious killer, who slaughtered two women and a girl in Snohomish County. “He didn’t have any remorse.”

He also recalled the quiet and tension on death row the night in January 1993 when Dodd became the first person executed in Washington since 1963.

“That made everybody sit up and take notice, believe me,” Harris said. “Each person knew that it could be them next.”