HOUSTON, Texas, Aug 27 (AFP) - A convicted murderer whose supporters included actress Susan Sarandon and death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean was executed by authorities in Texas.
James Allridge, whose flair for art attracted international attention, was put to death by lethal injection late Thursday at a state facility in Huntsville, Texas, according to a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Although the 41-year-old acknowledged his guilt in the 1985 killing of a Fort Worth, Texas, convenience store clerk, Allridge's case drew considerable attention in recent months.
Not only did Sarandon champion his cause in the weeks prior to his death, but three of the jurors involved in his trial, and several correctional officers who came to know him during his 17 years on death row, appealed for clemency on his behalf.
Sarandon appealed for Allridge's sentence to be commuted to life in prison on the grounds that he had rehabilitated his life in a video prepared by Allridge's lawyers that was shown to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles this week.
All of Allridge's appeals, including a petition to the US Supreme Court for a stay of execution, were denied in the final 48 hours of his life.
The actress, who won the Best Actress Oscar in 1996 for her portrayal of anti-death-penalty crusader Prejean in the movie "Dead Man Walking," visited Allridge on death row July 14.
She had exchanged letters with him for several years, and bought some of his art.
Allridge, 41, was the 12th Texas inmate executed this year. His death brings to 927 the number of prisoners executed since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.