With Federal Ruling Awaited, California Prisoner’s Autobiography Selected for Oprah’s Book Club

With a fed­er­al court rul­ing on his inno­cence claims con­sid­ered immi­nent, Oprah Winfrey has des­ig­nat­ed the auto­bi­og­ra­phy of California death-row pris­on­er Jarvis Jay Masters, That Bird Has Wings, as the September 2022 selec­tion for the Oprah Winfrey Book Club. Masters, who has con­vert­ed to Buddhism and become a tal­ent­ed author and pod­cast host in the years since his con­tro­ver­sial con­vic­tion and death sen­tence for the 1985 mur­der of cor­rec­tions offi­cer Sergeant Hal Burchfield, filed his habeas cor­pus peti­tion in fed­er­al dis­trict court in November 2020. His state court chal­lenge had lan­guished for years in California’s delay-plagued state court system. 

In June 1985, Sergeant Hal Burchfield was fatal­ly stabbed while mak­ing rounds at San Quentin State Prison. Three pris­on­ers were cap­i­tal­ly tried in the mur­der, the pris­on­er who stabbed the cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer, the leader of the Black Guerilla Family gang (BGF) who ordered the killing, and Masters, who alleged­ly had carved the mur­der weapon. The gang leader was sen­tenced to life. Marin County Superior Court Judge Beverly Savitt reject­ed the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion of a death sen­tence for the killer, but sen­tenced Masters to death. In remarks from the bench, she acknowl­edged the extreme abuse Masters had expe­ri­enced as a child and in fos­ter homes, say­ing that he had been ​“born into hell.” ​“If peo­ple don’t want chil­dren, they shouldn’t have them,” Savitt said, find­ing it ​“almost impos­si­ble” to under­stand why Masters was born in the first place. 

Masters, who was a low-rank­ing mem­ber prison gang (BGF), has con­sis­tent­ly assert­ed that he had no involve­ment in the mur­der, but said he had been ordered by Rufus Willis, anoth­er leader of BGF, to copy notes that detailed the crime. One of the notes, known as ​“kites” because they were passed between cells on a string, described the mur­der weapon as so sharp that it could ​“chop a T‑bone.” The ​“kites” became a key piece of evi­dence against him in the tri­al that last­ed until 1990. The jury con­vict­ed Masters of mur­der and con­spir­a­cy to com­mit mur­der for his alleged role in mak­ing the spear’s met­al tip. Willis, the state’s key wit­ness at the tri­al, was grant­ed immu­ni­ty from prosecution. 

In the near­ly 40 years since Burchfield was killed, the two men who tes­ti­fied against Masters have recant­ed their tes­ti­mo­ny. Defense lin­guis­tics experts lat­er deter­mined that the ​“kites,” which admit­ted­ly had been in Masters’ hand­writ­ing, had been authored by some­one else, even if Masters had copied that per­son­’s words. Masters alleged that Willis false­ly iden­ti­fied him as being involved and that an inves­ti­ga­tor with the Marin County dis­trict attorney’s office had urged Willis to col­lect more evi­dence against him. 

Willis has since recant­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny that Masters was involved. Bobby Evans, a well-known prison infor­mant, who tes­ti­fied that Masters had con­fessed to being involved in the mur­der, has also recant­ed. Harold Richardson, a pris­on­er who met con­fi­den­tial­ly with a pro­gram admin­is­tra­tor at San Quentin to dis­cuss his desire to get out of the gang, had con­fessed that oth­ers had pre­pared the weapon and that he, not Masters, had sharp­ened the metal’s tip. Richardson’s con­fes­sion was avail­able at the time of Masters’ tri­al but was not admit­ted as evi­dence. The judge who heard his state appeal ruled the con­fes­sion to be unreliable hearsay. 

In 2008, the California Supreme Court stat­ed that a spe­cial judge should be appoint­ed to con­duct a fresh review of the facts because there were enough legit­i­mate legal ques­tions sur­round­ing Masters’ con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. In 2011, for­mer Marin County Superior Court Judge Lynn Duryee pro­duced the report and stat­ed that there was ​“no agree­ment” between the pris­on­ers on ​“fun­da­men­tal facts.” Duryee con­clud­ed that although Masters had been con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death based on tes­ti­mo­ny by Willis and Evans, their word ​“means noth­ing” and could not be used to exon­er­ate him. The California Supreme Court relied on Duryee’s con­clu­sions in deny­ing Masters’ subsequent appeals. 

Masters’ case returned to promi­nence in September 2022 when Oprah Winfrey select­ed his auto­bi­og­ra­phy for her book club. She called his book, ​“a deft, wise, page-turn­ing account of child­hood trau­ma, his expe­ri­ences in fos­ter care, his jour­ney through the American jus­tice sys­tem, and his spir­i­tu­al enlight­en­ment while on death row.” She has also expressed her belief in his inno­cence. ​“I just feel that any rea­son­able per­son, read­ing the facts of this case, would want to at least have the case reopened so that you could at least know that you made the great­est effort for jus­tice to be served,” Winfrey said. 

Prior to his con­vic­tion for the 1985 mur­der of Sergeant Hal Burchfield, Masters was incar­cer­at­ed in San Quentin for armed rob­bery at the age of 19. Masters’ auto­bi­og­ra­phy vivid­ly depicts the trau­ma he expe­ri­enced as a child result­ing from parental neglect and severe abuse by his fos­ter par­ents. Citing his trau­mat­ic child­hood, Michael Satris, Masters’ tri­al lawyer argued that his life should be spared. ​“There must be a place in our jurispru­dence that allows for com­pas­sion,” Satris said. 

The con­tro­ver­sy over Masters inno­cence has divid­ed the victim’s fam­i­ly. Marjorie Burchfield, the old­est child, said that the mur­der destroyed her child­hood. She endured home­less­ness and was addict­ed to drugs for years before enlist­ing in the U.S. Army and lat­er becom­ing a cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer like her father. She con­tin­ues to believe Masters is guilty and that he should be exe­cut­ed. Her broth­ers, J.D. and Jeremiah Burchfield, on the oth­er hand, believe Masters is inno­cent. J.D. now oppos­es the death penal­ty, say­ing that it ​“robs peo­ple of a shot at redemp­tion.” Jeremiah said, ​“A man being cheat­ed of his free­dom and being incar­cer­at­ed with­out rea­son isn’t doing my father jus­tice. It’s just ignorance.”

Masters said that he was wound­ed by Marin County Superior Court Judge Beverly Savitt’s remarks in sen­tenc­ing him to death. ​“When the judge said that I should not have been born before she sen­tenced me to death, it said some­thing more to her rea­sons why she gave me the death sen­tence and no one else,” Masters said. ​“I’m glad my moth­er gave me a chance to live.”

“The only way you can put some­body on death row is you got to dehu­man­ize them. They can­not be a human being,” he said.

Seven wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed California death-row pris­on­ers have lat­er been exon­er­at­ed, includ­ing Shujaa Graham and Eugene Allen, who, like Masters, were mem­bers of the Black Guerilla Family gang and were con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing a white correctional officer.