Married to Murder: The Bizarre and True Accounts of People Who Married Murderers by William Webb Page A

John Redd, and stabbed him to death in August 1991. Redd was the owner of the shrimp fishing boat where Harris was working at the time of the murder. Harris reportedly stabbed Redd in the back and threw him overboard.
     

A Benetton Ad Brought Them Together
    Dagmar Polzin, a 32-year-old waitress, first became aware of Harris from a bizarre advertisement for the Italian fashion company, Benetton. The advertisement on a Hamburg bus stop featured images of seven death row inmates in North Carolina, including Harris. The advertisements were placed around German cities in 1999 in an effort to grab attention.
    The American death penalty is highly controversial in Europe and attracts a lot of media attention on the continent. Generally, Europeans criticize the death penalty as barbaric even though polls indicate a majority of the population in several European countries, such as Poland, like the idea of the death penalty. Other countries that regularly mete out the death sentence, such as China, Japan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, are rarely criticized by Europeans. The advertisement was so controversial that it caused an American retailer to stop selling Benetton’s clothes.
     

Love at First Sight
    Polzin was so moved by Harris that she travelled to North Carolina and visited him on death row in September 2000. By October 2000 she had moved to North Carolina full time to be near him. She later told ABC News that she fell in love with Harris at first sight.
    Polzin delayed her marriage to Harris because he was scheduled for execution in January 2001. The execution was eventually delayed because of appeals for clemency and the controversial nature of the case.
    Harris’s case was controversial because of his low IQ and the possibility that he was framed by a partner in crime. A co-worker named Joe Simpson helped Harris plan and carry out the murder. Simpson was initially charged with the murder, but charges were dropped when Harris confessed. Simpson testified against Harris at the trial. Simpson served less than 20 years in prison for his part in the murder.
     

She’ll Never Be with the Man She Travelled 4,000 Miles to Be Near
    Dagmar Polzin gave up her life and country and travelled 4,000 miles to be near a man whom she will never be with. Bobby Lee Harris was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole after his death sentence was commuted in 2003.
    When Polzin first travelled to North Carolina, she was apparently resigned to the idea of Bobby Lee Harris’s execution. She had planned to go back to Germany and speak out against the death penalty. Instead, she ended up staying to be near her man.
    Polzin did seek publicity by going on television and hiring an attorney to represent her. Her behavior may have been partially motivated by European newspapers, which regularly pay for good stories.
    It isn’t known whether Polzin was simply seeking publicity and attention or love. Harris’s aunt, Carolyn Parker, told the Associated Press that she thought Polzin was up to no good and trying to cash in on her nephew.
     

Low IQ and Strange Circumstances
    Harris’s low IQ and the circumstances of his case eventually caused North Carolina courts to resentence him. Part of the reason for the new sentence was that other murderers, including some serial killers, had not been sentenced to death in North Carolina. Harris’s crime was a simple robbery gone bad rather than a murder spree.
    Harris himself did admit to the crime and accept guilt. He also said he was consigned to spending the rest of his life in prison for doing something wrong. The judges apparently believed the claims of Harris’s defense attorney, Chris Edwards, who said his client was genuinely remorseful.
    Polzin herself told the media that she thought Harris had been a victim of injustice. Like others, she demanded clemency, which the courts eventually granted.
    Bobbie Lee Harris remains in prison in North Carolina. Dagmar Polzin apparently remains in the state to