California IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Coffin Parade Set as Execution Protest

Death penalty opponents say they’ll carry 121 black-draped cardboard coffins across the Golden Gate Bridge next Saturday, three days before the pending execution of Robert Alton Harris. Claudia King of Humanitas International says the march will be from San Francisco to Marin County along the east sidewalk of the span at 10 a.m. so as not to unduly disrupt weekend traffic. Every fifth coffin, she said, will carry a sign, “Not in California,” to protest the resumption of executions in the state after a 23-year hiatus. The 121 coffins represent the number of people executed in the United States since 1977. Harris, 37, killer of two teen-age boys in San Diego, is scheduled to die in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison at 3 a.m. April 3. A coalition of groups sponsored by Death Penalty Focus is holding a 24-hour vigil outside the prison’s main gate, where a massive rally is scheduled to take place on the evening of April 2 to protest the execution.