A California death row inmate who gained national attention after Oprah Winfrey selected his autobiography for her influential 2022 book club has vowed to keep fighting for his freedom after his latest claims of innocence were rejected in federal court.
“I was hopeful, but I had also emotionally prepared myself for another legal hurdle on the road to 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 gun used in the 1985 murder of San Quentin State Prison corrections sergeant Hal Burchfield.
Prosecutors used prison notes describing the killing in Masters' handwriting to prove his involvement in making the gun, although he claimed he was forced to copy the notes by his superiors in the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang.
Masters, who has maintained his innocence and became a devout Buddhist while incarcerated, exhausted all legal avenues to challenge his conviction and sentence in state courts, including the California Supreme Court. He filed his federal lawsuit for relief in November 2020, arguing that state courts had violated his civil rights in the process of wrongfully convicting him.
Masters said witnesses who accused him of making the weapon had recanted and that other inmates had admitted to sharpening a piece of metal bed frame and attaching it to a rolled-up newspaper to form a makeshift spear. Masters also alleged that other evidence had not been properly considered in the state's proceedings.
His supporters have denounced a disparity they see in the fact that while Masters was sentenced to death for making the gun, the man convicted of committing the murder received a life sentence.
U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. rejected all of Masters’ arguments in June, ruling in a detailed ruling that state courts had already considered and rejected those arguments using sound and justifiable legal reasoning. Gilliam dismissed the suit in its entirety on Sept. 3.
On Monday, Masters' attorneys reaffirmed his innocence and said they would appeal Gilliam's ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“We knew this battle to exonerate Jarvis from death row would not be easy, but we remain confident in the strength of our evidence and legal arguments,” said attorney Michael F. Williams.
The slain San Quentin officer, Burchfield, was 37 and the father of five. Today, his children are divided over Masters' role in the crime and his claims of innocence. They were equally divided over Gilliam's decision.
Marjorie Burchfield, who was 14 when her father was killed and later became a corrections officer, called it “good news” and said she would work personally to ensure Masters' appeal fails and he never leaves prison.
“That's not going to happen,” he said.
Jeremiah Burchfield, who was 2 when his father was killed, said he had studied the case and believed Masters was innocent. He said he was “frustrated” by Masters and would try to help him move on.
“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 recently transferred to the Sierra Conservation Center in Tuolumne County. He still faces a death sentence, though Gov. Gavin Newsom has imposed 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 chronicles Masters’ traumatic childhood, life in prison and discovery of Buddhism, was chosen by Winfrey for her 2022 book club.
In an interview with the Times, Winfrey said she “absolutely” believed Masters was innocent. She could not be reached for comment Monday.
