Mitigating Circumstances

Under Texas law in capital cases prior to 1990, jurors considering a convicted defendant's sentence were asked whether the crime was deliberate and whether the defendant would pose a future threat to society – a subjective question that critics say tips the scales of justice in favor of the state. In June 1989, ruling in a case brought by mentally retarded death row inmate John Paul Penry, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed. The court ruled that in capital cases the courts must instruct jurors on how to weigh so-called "mitigating factors," such as childhood abuse or, in Penry's case, a history of mental retardation.

Had James Allridge's jurors been instructed to consider whether there were any mitigating circumstances in the murder of Brian Clendennen, they would've been able to take into account that Allridge had no prior criminal record – and everything else that led up to that fatal night. According to friends and family, Allridge lived a quiet life until shortly before Clendennen's murder, when his older brother Ronald returned to Fort Worth after serving most of a 10-year prison sentence for killing a classmate in 1975.

James idolized Ronald, his family and friends recall, and always had. Growing up, Ronald was Allridge's best – and nearly only – friend, they say, primarily because the Allridge family were devout Jehovah's Witnesses, a faith that forbids its followers to associate with anyone who does not adhere to their religion.

Unfortunately, Ronald was not a good role model: He was aggressive, unpredictable, and often violent – when James was 5, Ronald set his brother's clothes on fire while burning trash in a back-yard incinerator. James suffered third-degree burns that took a year to heal. "If Ronnie said to do something then James did it," recalled younger brother Darren. "James was always the tagalong. Ronnie was the one who came up with the ideas, and plotted out whatever little mischief they were getting into." In the mid-Seventies, Ronald came up with a plan to burglarize a Montgomery Ward, and tried to talk James into coming along. James didn't go, but Ronald did it anyway and when he got home he showed James his loot, including a .357 Magnum. Pointing the gun at James, Ronald threatened to kill his brother if he ever told anyone about the burglary. Several weeks later, Ronald brandished that gun at school and killed a classmate. He was certified to stand trial as an adult, diagnosed with mental illness and sociopathic tendencies by a state doctor, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Burdened with guilt for not preventing the shooting, James was anxious for Ronald's homecoming, and was desperate to rebuild their relationship. "The false joy and hope that James had in seeing his brother released from jail was more than he could understand," said Steve Barker, Allridge's friend and former employer. James "wasn't acknowledging who his brother really was, and that allowed him to be caught up in the series of events that resulted in his committing a serious crime." Shortly after Ronald was released, the robberies began. Then James lost his job at Barker's woodworking shop and began drinking. Just over one year later, Clendennen was murdered.

Jurors at James Allridge's trial had no duty to consider his past when deciding whether he should be sentenced to life or death. In a sworn affidavit filed with Allridge's petition for a commutation, juror Gloria Lizak said that the panel did not consider Allridge's troubled relationship when deliberating the question of whether he posed a future threat to society. "[A]ll we did was answer the two questions," she said, "so there was no way for us to take this into account."