Perske Photos – Robert Perske

Fighting For Another’s Vindication: Robert Perske is an author who befriended Richard Lapointe, the Manchester man with a congenital brain malformation who was convicted of raping and murdering his wife’s grandmother. Perske, of Darien, contends that Lapointe could not have committed the crime. (The Hartford Courant)

On May 6, 2003, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Atkins v. Virginia, Robert Perske testifies on behalf of death row prisoner Herbert Welcome who sits quietly before the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Paroles. The board voted 4 to 0 for clemency. (Angolite photo by Kerry Myers).

Robert Alton Harris was the first man to be executed in California after the U.S. Supreme Court cranked up death penalties again in 1976. Mr. Harris had all the effects of a terrible disability now known as fetal alcohol syndrome. No mention was made of his disabilities during his earlier trials and appeals. I don’t know when this photo was taken. It was dark and I was standing outside of San Quentin after his execution on April 21, 1992. When it appeared on the cover of this magazine, a colleague recognized me, bought a copy and sent it to me. (See pre-execution pages on Mr. Harris in Unequal Justice, pp. 97-99.