Brian Clendennen, a 21-year-old male, was tragically killed on February 3, 1985, in Fort Worth, Texas. His death was the result of a botched robbery at a convenience store, during which he was shot twice. The perpetrators of this crime were James Allridge III, then 21 years old, and his 23-year-old brother, Ronald Allridge. The brothers were on a crime spree in the area, committing a series of robberies. James Allridge was found guilty of Brian Clendennen's murder in 1987.
During the trial, Tarrant County prosecutors argued that the crime was deliberate and that James Allridge posed a continuing threat to society. The jury ultimately sentenced him to death. James Allridge had no prior criminal record, but the jurors were not instructed to consider his past or his troubled relationship with his brother Ronald. Instead, their decision was based solely on their answers to two special questions asked of Texas' capital-case jurors prior to 1990: whether the crime was deliberate and whether there was a probability that Allridge would commit additional acts of violence in the future. The jury answered 'yes' to both questions, leading to Allridge's death sentence. In 1993, James Allridge also pled guilty to four counts of aggravated robbery stemming from the 1985 crimes and received a life sentence. Seventeen years later, James Allridge and his supporters, including four of the original jurors, his family, attorneys, two former death row prison guards, a retired prison system administrator, a Fort Worth city councilman, one of Allridge's former employers, and others, joined forces to ask the state Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Rick Perry to commute Allridge's death sentence to life behind bars. Despite these efforts, James Allridge was executed on August 26, 2004, by lethal injection. He was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m. Ronald Allridge, who was implicated in a string of area robberies, was sentenced to death in 1986 for the murder of Carla McMillian, killed during the robbery of a Whataburger a month after Brian Clendennen's death. Ronald Allridge was executed in 1995. The case of Brian Clendennen's murder raised familiar questions about the Texas justice system, particularly regarding the consideration of a defendant's past and the influence of their relationships on their actions.
