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--> --> Policeman's son will wait for resolution EUGENE (AP) - The son of a California highway patrolman killed after a 1963 bank robbery says his family just wants Robert Lee Burns to face up to his crime, no matter whether he is paroled, pardoned or imprisoned. "After all these years, it's not personal; it's not about revenge," said Eric Carlson. The Oregon Court of Appeals this week agreed to review whether Burns, free for 27 years after Oregon's governor gave him sanctuary, must go back to California to finish a life sentence for his role in the murder of Carlson's father, California Highway Patrol Officer Glenn Carlson. Burns, 70, suffers from prostate cancer and heart disease. His family hopes he can remain at home with them in Springfield until his death, but the Oregon Court of Appeals is reviewing his case to decide whether to he must return to California. "I have remorse for his family," said Eric Carlson, who operates a trucking company in Truckee, Calif. "But it's Robert Burns who did this to himself. Everybody is going to lose. Both families are going to lose." Eric Carlson was one day shy of his fourth birthday when his father was killed less than a mile from their home in California. Burns and two other men robbed a bank in Sacramento and were driving over the Sierras in a stolen Cadillac when Carlson's father stopped them for going too fast on the snowy road. At first he wrote a ticket and let them go. After learning the car was stolen, he chased them down and was shot by one of Burns' accomplices. All three were arrested the next day. The killer was paroled in 1981, and the third robber also was paroled but has since died. Burns served 4{ years of a life term in California before being transferred to serve five years in Oregon for violating parole on an earlier robbery. While in prison, his hard work earned the trust of then-Gov. Robert Straub, who declared Burns reformed and refused to return him to California for further punishment. Last January, the FBI arrested Burns on a fugitive warrant from California. He had lived crime-free, raised five children and run several businesses since his release. Eric Carlson said his family believes Burns should serve the sentence. "Why would anybody put his life on the line if nobody is going to pay?" Eric Carlson said. He said that he, his older sister and his mother attended the annual California Highway Patrol Memorial Service a few weeks ago in Sacramento, where they spoke to the widow and two young children of a highway patrolman killed last December by a drunken driver. "We went up and talked to the lady and said we went through this long ago," Carlson said. "We knew right then that all she can think about is day-to-day. That really bothered my mom." Glenn Carlson's death was a turning point in the California Highway Patrol's attitude, training and strength. Within four years of the slaying, the staff had doubled and new policies and defensive training were added, said retired officer Jack Wood, one of the 500 hired in the aftermath of the killing. To this day, two officers are assigned to patrol cars at night, Wood said. Officers are trained to always plan ahead for places to take cover as they move toward suspects. Winter parkas have the "Carlson slit," a vertical seam that fits behind the holster to keep the sidearm on the outside within easier reach. "These are small, but very significant areas of training," Wood said. "After Carlson's death, it was always taught there is no such thing as a routine stop." Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing