Robert Lee Burns
Robert Lee Burns | |
|---|---|
Robert Lee Burns in 2001 outside a court hearing about his extradition | |
| Born | c. 1930 or 1931 Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Died | January 22, 2002 (aged 70–71) Springfield, Oregon, U.S. |
| Occupation | House painter |
| Known for | Subject of an interstate extradition dispute between Oregon and California |
| Criminal status | Convicted |
| Children | 7 |
| Criminal charge | Murder (under felony murder rule), Attempted robbery |
| Penalty | Life in prison (California) Twenty-year sentence (Oregon) |
Capture status | Arrested, later released on bail, died before extradition was settled |
Wanted by | California |
| Accomplices |
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| Wanted since | 1975 (by California officials) |
Time at large | ~26 years (from California's perspective) |
| Details | |
| Victims | Glenn W. Carlson (California Highway Patrol officer, shot by accomplice) |
Date apprehended | 2001-01-04 (by FBI) |
Robert Lee Burns (1930/31 – January 22, 2002) was an American ex-convict and retired house painter from Eugene, Oregon, who in 2001 became the subject of an interstate dispute with respect to whether or not he should be extradited from Oregon to California to serve a prison sentence originally ordered in the 1960s.
The dispute stemmed from the 1963 murder of a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer following a bank robbery committed by Burns and two other men. Burns was on parole out of Oregon for attempted robbery at the time. When the CHP officer pulled over the group's getaway car, one of the other men shot and killed him. Although he did not harm the officer personally, under the felony murder rule, Burns was charged with murder. He pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison in California.
After five years in prison in California, Burns was transferred to Oregon to finish his sentence for the attempted robbery charge, with the expectation that he would be returned to California when that sentence was finished. While imprisoned in Oregon, he rehabilitated himself to such a degree that at the end of his sentence, then-governor Robert W. Straub refused to return him to California. Burn settled in Eugene under his own name and lived without further incident until California officials began to make efforts to extradite him to California in 2001. He contested the extradition and died at home at the age of 71 before the matter was settled.