page_title: Robert Lee Burns
section_title: Arrest
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Lee Burns / 2001 extradition dispute / Arrest
caption_attribution_description: English: Lane County Jail 2 (Eugene, Oregon)
context_page_description: Robert Lee Burns 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 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.
context_section_description: He was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on January 4, 2001, and was held in the Lane County jail in Eugene until March 23, when a lawyer paid his $10,000 bail. During his incarceration, he was hospitalized three times due to his failing health. He remained in Oregon, appealing the process through a public defender. His lawyer advanced several arguments against his extradition, including the argument that Burns, having been brought to Oregon as prisoner, had not left California voluntarily in the first place. Phillips later argued that returning Burns to California would effectively be "a death sentence" because of his health concerns. Phillips suggested that Burns would not be eligible for immediate compassionate release, and it would be at least six months before a parole hearing would be held, during which he was likely to die. Burns said that he did not expect to live past those six months, and would prefer to die with his family. He expressed remorse for the murder, stating "What happened on that highway was a tragedy. That poor officer lost his life, and a lot of other lives were devastated too. I think about it every day. And I've apologized in every way I know how."
  In March 2001, Oregon governor John Kitzhaber wrote a letter to California governor Gray Davis, asking Davis to drop the matter, although Kitzhaber did acknowledge that the law favored California's position. Davis responded by saying that Burns was still considered a fugitive, and that it would be inappropriate for his office to intervene while he remained "at large" in Oregon. 
  In April 2001, Lane County circuit judge Bryan Hodges denied Burns's motion for a stay of extradition. He commended Burns for his upstanding life and clean record, but found that the law showed no alternative to extradition. Officers from the California Department of Corrections (CDC) took custody of Burns and loaded him into a prison van to transport him south towards the California border. In the meantime, Burns's lawyer won an emergency stay of extradition "pending a review of Mr. Burns's case by the Oregon Court of Appeals". 
  The CDC van was pulled over by Oregon State Police officers just outside of Medford, Oregon, about 21 miles (34 km) from the California border. Burns was returned to Medford, but officials in Jackson County refused to lodge him in their jail, citing his extreme medical issues. State Police then transported Burns back to Lane County jail, and he was eventually released with an electronic ankle monitor.
caption: Lane County jail in Eugene, where Burns was held pending bail.
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