(Tx) State is asked to spare artist inmate

[Dover]

State is asked to spare artist inmate
Advocates want a commutation for a man they say is 'rehabilitated'


AUSTIN - Advocates for an inmate who killed a young convenience store clerk 19 years ago and has since blossomed as an artist and model prisoner on death row asked state officials Wednesday to spare him from a scheduled Aug. 26 execution.

Attorneys for James Allridge, supported by four former members of his jury, asked the Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Rick Perry to commute his sentence to life in prison on the basis that he has been rehabilitated.

..snip..

Lisa R. Fine of Washington, one of Allridge's lawyers, acknowledged that her client was guilty of a "senseless murder," the fatal shooting of Brian Clendennen, a 21-year-old Fort Worth convenience store clerk, during a robbery in 1985 that netted $300. Allridge was 22.

"James accepts full responsibility for his actions and is deeply remorseful," Fine said, but he is seeking mercy.

"James is deserving of a commutation. James is completely rehabilitated."

The victim's brother, Shane Clendennen, a Fort Worth machinist, recently disputed that opinion.

"If (Allridge) was born again, I could maybe forgive him. But I still think he should die for what he did," Clendennen said last month.

..snip..

From his cell, Allridge has been selling colored-pencil drawings of flowers and animals. Marketed on a Web site, a large print sells for $465 and a box of greeting cards for $10.

One of his customers, actress Susan Sarandon, an anti-death-penalty activist, visited Allridge on death row last month.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2731283

[Dover]

1. Teenager to die for murdering two neighbors

Teenager to die for murdering two neighbors
Jury not swayed by mom's plea for mercy in killing of Baytown couple

By ANDREW TILGHMAN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Unmoved by his mother's description of him as "a kind and gentle soul," a Harris County jury decided Wednesday that 18-year-old Robert Acuna should die for murdering two elderly neighbors in a quiet Baytown subdivision.

Prosecutors offered little explanation for why the Sterling High School junior, who worked part time at a fast-food restaurant, shot James Carroll, 75, and his wife, Joyce, 74, last fall.

"He has evil in his heart," Assistant District Attorney Renee Magee told jurors as she urged them to return a death sentence.

Acuna was 17 at the time of the murders. The U.S. Supreme Court plans to consider later this year whether it is constitutional to execute killers who were younger than 18 when they committed their crimes.

If such executions are declared unconstitutional, Acuna's sentence would be reduced to life in prison and he would be ineligible for parole for at least 40 years.....cont'd

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2731580

[DEMonstate]

2. Maybe he can paint a nice picture of the dead man for his mother.

Then she can hang it on her wall and tell everyone how that nice rehabilitated man painted it for her. She can also talk about how well he is doing. <sarcasm>

Is the money he is making going to the victims family?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. "If (Allridge) was born again, I could maybe forgive him...." WWJD maybe

these poor fools have scales not only on their eyes ...sigh

they make me glad i'm only a born-oncer!

[Voltaire99]

5. Hate the sin...execute the sinner!

Ah, fundamentalist Christians: our exterminating angels.

Just pray that these backward medievalist fuckwads never get nukes or a man in the White House, or they'll--

Oh dear.

[Jack The Tab]

4. why not just commute his sentence to life?

If this guy is rehabilitated and an asset to the prison, why not just commute his sentence to life. He will never be a free man, so the family gets satisfaction and he gets to keep his rehabed life.