Larson

BACKGROUND

Larson was convicted in Oregon state court in 1992 for two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of his father, Lewis Larson, Sr., and his stepbrother, Darin Larson. Both victims 1344 LARSON v. PALMATEER were last seen alive in January 1990. Bloody items from their house were found in a nearby canyon several days after they disappeared; their bodies, wrapped in plastic and a blanket, were ultimately discovered 10 months later by a hunter. Both victims appeared to have been killed by blunt force trauma to the head. The state argued that Larson’s motive for the crime was that he was angry at his father and stepbrother because he believed they had turned him in to the police a month ear- lier on account of a parole violation. The state presented evi- dence that Larson had acted suspiciously in the days following his relatives’ disappearance, including that he sold some of the victims’ belongings and told the police several variations on a story that his father and stepbrother had sud- denly gone to Reno to collect an inheritance from a recently deceased relative.

Larson represented himself, with the assistance of a court- appointed legal advisor,…