California death row inmate who received Oprah support loses effort to overturn conviction
A California death row inmate who gained national attention after Oprah Winfrey selected his autobiography for her influential book club in 2022 has vowed to continue fighting for his freedom after his latest claims of innocence were rejected in federal court.
“I was hopeful, but I had also prepared myself emotionally for yet another legal hurdle in securing my freedom,” Jarvis Jay Masters said in a statement to The Times.
Masters, 62, was sentenced to death more than three decades ago for making the weapon used in the 1985 murder of San Quentin State Prison correctional Sgt. Hal Burchfield.
Prosecutors used prison notes describing the murder in Masters’ handwriting to prove his involvement in making the weapon, though he has claimed he was forced to copy those notes by superiors in the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang.
Masters, who has maintained his innocence and became a devout Buddhist while incarcerated, exhausted every legal pathway to challenge his conviction and sentence in state courts, including the California Supreme Court. He filed his federal claim for relief in November 2020, arguing that the state courts had violated his civil rights in the process of wrongfully convicting him.
Masters noted that witnesses who accused him of making the weapon had since recanted, and that other inmates have since admitted to sharpening a piece of metal bedframe and attaching it to tightly rolled newspaper to form a makeshift spear. Masters also alleged that other evidence was not properly considered in the state proceedings.
His supporters have denounced a disparity they see in the fact that, although Masters got a death sentence for making the weapon, the man convicted of committing the murder received a life sentence.
A San Quentin State Prison guard’s 1985 murder still ripples through time in the lives of an inmate sentenced to death and the guard’s children.
U.S. District Court Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. rejected all of Masters’ arguments in June, when he found in a detailed ruling that the state courts already had considered and rejected those arguments using sound and justifiable legal reasoning. Gilliam dismissed the claim entirely Sept. 3.
On Monday, Masters’ attorneys reasserted his innocence and said they would appeal Gilliam’s ruling to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“We knew this battle for Jarvis’ exoneration from death row would not be easy, but we remain confident in the strength of our evidence and legal arguments,” attorney Michael F. Williams said.
The murdered San Quentin officer, Burchfield, was a 37-year-old father of five. Today, his children are divided on Masters’ role in the crime and his claims of innocence. They were equally divided on Gilliam’s ruling.
Marjorie Burchfield, who was 14 when her father was killed and went on to become a correctional officer herself, called it “good news” and said she would personally work to ensure Masters’ appeal fails and he never gets out of prison.
“It’s not going to happen,” she said.
Jeremiah Burchfield, who was 2 when his father was killed, said he has studied the case and believes Masters is innocent. He said he was “frustrated” for Masters and would try to help him moving forward.
“I feel sad for him,” he said. “I’m very upset with the system.”
Masters had spent much of his life on death row at San Quentin, before being transferred recently to Sierra Conservation Center in Tuolumne County. He still faces a death sentence, though Gov. Gavin Newsom has placed a moratorium on executions.
Masters’ book “That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row” — which was first published in 2009 and recounts Masters’ traumatic childhood, his life in prison and his discovery of Buddhism — was chosen by Winfrey for her book club in 2022.
In an interview then with The Times, Winfrey said she “absolutely” believed Masters is innocent. She could not be reached for comment Monday.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
