Posted on 07/15/2004 3:34:44 AM PDT by weegee
LIVINGSTON - With a brisk walk, actress Susan Sarandon made an unannounced trip Wednesday to Texas to visit her pen pal — a convicted murderer on death row.
She had corresponded with the inmate, James Vernon Allridge III, for several years after buying some of the detailed drawings of flowers and animals he creates with colored pencils.
Prison officials said she had only recently been put on his visitation list, and she would not tip her hand as to why she had come to see Allridge, who is scheduled for execution Aug. 26.
"I'm trying to be as low-profile as possible. It fits the strategy at this time," Sarandon said, declining to comment further. She wore tennis shoes and a loose pants outfit without a belt to avoid setting off the metal detector.
"Susan is just here for a visit. It's just communication between two friends," said David Atwood, founder of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, after escorting Sarandon to the prison near Livingston. "She just told him to stay strong, that she would pray for him and was thinking of him."
He said they had discussed the possibility of her doing something on Allridge's behalf but "that will be left up to his attorneys."
Sarandon became more acutely aware of the death penalty when she portrayed a nun who was a spiritual adviser to a death row inmate in Dead Man Walking, for which she earned a best actress Oscar in 1996.
After the movie was released, she told the Houston Chronicle, "I've always thought intellectually that (the death penalty) didn't make sense. It's expensive; it's arbitrary and capricious; it's not a deterrent."
She said the role crystallized her feelings to the point that she realized: "It's not important who is to die, but who is to kill and what it means to recognize the humanity in everyone. I feel more clearly now that there is no reason to kill."
Wednesday, she did not want to publicly discuss her views.
Allridge, who speaks to visitors by telephone through a Plexiglas barrier, had initially agreed to be interviewed by the Chronicle after Sarandon left. He later declined on the advice of his attorney.
The 41-year-old inmate has spent the past 17 years on death row — much longer than the average inmate, including his older brother, Ronald, who was executed in 1995.
James Allridge was sentenced to death for fatally shooting Fort Worth convenience store clerk Brian Clendennen while robbing the store of $300 in 1985.
The same year, during another robbery, his brother fatally shot a 19-year-old diner at a fast-food restaurant. He shot her because she was "penniless," news accounts at the time said.
Ronald had spent 3 1/2 years in prison in the late 1970s for killing a high school student and had been accused of killing the store manager of a pizza-delivery business where he worked, authorities said.
"In 1985, the two brothers had gone on a spree of robberies and killings. Each was driving the getaway cars for the other when their capital murders happened," said Mike Parrish, the Tarrant County prosecutor in James Allridge's case.
James Allridge knew his victim would recognize him because they had attended a management training school together, Parrish said.
"He came out of the store and thought about it, but then went back inside to rob the place and shoot him," he said.
Parrish said other robbery cases, including one in which Allridge allegedly pointed a gun at a 4-year-old, were dropped after the murder conviction.
About Sarandon's visit, Parrish said, "Nothing surprises me anymore. Like all those people from Europe who send (Allridge) money. It's surreal."
On a Web site where Allridge sells his art, he writes about his past and does not deny killing the clerk.
"I'm not making excuses," he said. "But there was a lot of pressure from my older brother ... who was a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic."
He also expresses regret that anyone had to "lose their life for me to become the person I am today." He writes he has been rehabilitated and is no longer a danger to society.
He, along with Atwood and Sarandon, wants his sentence commuted to life.
"Susan has written to him for a number of years and sees him as a person who has changed and developed. She is impressed by his accomplishments like his art and intelligence," Atwood said.
"I've never met any death row inmate that is more rehabilitated," he said.
She probably wished it was a conjugal visit. I wonder if the fact that these are cold-blooded killers actually add to the allure that these damn liberals have for these people. SICK!!!!
"I'm not making excuses," he said. "But...
Never believe a sentence that starts out like that.
My father doesn't believe in capital punishment either. His belief, like Sarandon's, is that it is more expensive to execute someone (due to court appeals, etc) than for the criminal to spend his life in prison. My reply to him is, "assuming that you are correct, what we need to do then is wait until there are 6 or 7 inmates with the same execution date and have "group therapy"...put them all in connecting chairs and pull the handle once..."
We have heated arguments over this because I don't understand how someone can be against capital punishment but also be pro choice. I don't know what happened to my Dad...when he was younger he was against capital punishment, but at least he was a conservative on all other issues...now at 80, he's still against capital punishment but votes democrat almost every election....it is driving me crazy!....
She's smuggling in a hacksaw blade?
"...she would not tip her hand as to why she had come to see Allridge,.."
"Why" ?? Try 'free publicity for an old hag actress'.
Pretty pictures????
First of all, it looks like wallpaper.
Secondly, let me see if I get this right...you can avoid the death penalty if you are an 'artist'. ???
I love these "celebrities" and others who want to kill the innocent (unborn babies) and save killers. What a bunch of milarky. I wonder what the clerk could have become if he was still alive today. Probably not living off the State of Texas.
What an idiot.
Proving once again....Liberalism is a mental illness..
Our "actors" in Hollywood are ill prepared to live in the real world.......
Semper Fi
I'm suprised she does not have his baby.
Say bye to him for me, Susan.
If there was a shred of dignity in Sarandon, she would be pen pal-ing with the families of the many, many victims of this monster and his equally monstrous brother.
I don't expect her to throw the switch or empty the syringe into his arm, but I don't understand any lobbying for him in any way. Unlike his victims, this guy deserves what's going to happen to him.
It's expensive because parasite lawyers need full employment and this is just bread and butter hourly billing charged to the state..... ad infinitum.
It's arbitrary cause it's really hard to hide the fact that dead people are lying around dead and accidental misplacement of evidence or testimony for appeals is random....
capricious.......that's a real big word and I don't know what it means...but.... it's the synonym for arbitrary and means that Susan is redundant and repeats herself and says the same thing over and over.
as far as deterrent.. well if Susan Sarandon's best pen pal had stayed in prison after the first murder of the high school student and been executed... i think the other murders could have been prevented..... unless he's Lazarus.
His website.
http://www.deathrow.at/allridge/art.html
As if. Suzie's hoping to exploit it into a movie deal.
it's not a deterrent
Really? TX learned it's lesson back in the early 70's when it did away with the death penalty and released a few death roll inmates who promptly went on killing sprees.
On a side note - Because we're LE, someone ordered a doll made at the women's unit for me (I wasn't trilled, but whatever). We were watching the news back in Feb. '98 as TDCJ was taking Karla Fay Tucker in the van to death row and the phone rang. It was the prison saying the doll would be delivered the next day.... (scary music)... They had cleared out her cell and apparently she'd just finished the doll. It's the cutest thing ever and has no bad vibes, but it's not in my house.
Liberals have no concept of evil. To them you can talk any any serial killer out of murdering just by talking to them. They don't understand that folks like these often do things like this for the thrill and once into it often cannot stop themselves.
Amen....my thoughts exactly...
Cold-Hearted Executioner Ping! :)
"Actress visits (Texas) death row inmate (Susan) Sarandon meets pen pal,"
oh gawd, poor lonely Sarandon, she's turned into one of those prison inmate female psychophant stalkers. Guess Tim Robbins doesn't trip her light fantastic any longer.
It seems right to me. One would have to be cofined and facing execution to be interested in talking to her.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.