Still hope for death row pen pal, says Shropshire man

Jan Arriens, of Bishop's Castle, has been writing to convicted murderer Mike Lambrix in America for 25 years, and is currently visiting him in the US after Lambrix was given a stay of execution.

Mr Arriens, 72, expected to be saying goodbye to Lambrix, 55, who has been on death row for most of his life after being found guilty of murdering a couple he invited to his trailer for dinner in Florida in 1984.

But Lambrix, who maintains he is only guilty of manslaughter, has now had an eleventh hour stay of execution, pending further order from the Florida Supreme Court.

Lawyers are continuing to pursue appeals appeals on Lambrix's behalf that his execution should be stopped altogether and his death sentence quashed.

Mr Arriens, a Quaker who founded the humanitarian group LifeLines, which now has 1,400 members all over the world who correspond with prisoners condemned to death, had said he would still be travelling out to see Lambrix and it will be the first time the two have met in 12 years.

Before the trip he said: "I'm looking forward to the trip now, whereas before it was really a bit of an ordeal and very trying. Now I can go in a totally different frame of mind, be much more positive and share things with him that in a way that wouldn't have been possible otherwise.

"Anything is possible at this stage. The likelihood of execution has decreased, but it's still very real."

Lambrix was accused of attacking Clarence Moore Jr when the two were outside the trailer, then calling Clarence's partner Aleisha Bryant outside, where she was kicked in the head and strangled. But Mr Arriens said Lambrix maintained he hit Mr Moore in self-defence after finding Ms Bryant strangled.

Mr Arriens said Lambrix, who writes a blog called Death Row Journals about his experiences living a life behind bars facing execution, was now a very different person to the young man who was locked up more than 30 years ago.