TX Attorney General says death row art sales are legal

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D87TRSV00.html


James Vernon Allridge IV may have been guilty of capital murder, but there was nothing illegal about the drawings of flowers, animals and landscapes that he sold from death row, the Texas attorney general has ruled.

Victims' rights advocates had argued that Allridge's Internet art sales to patrons such as actress Susan Sarandon and rocker Sting violated a state law against profiting from crimes.

"Our bottom line is that there shouldn't be any market for this so-called art from death row. Period," said Dianne Clements, who heads the crime victims' organization Justice For All. "No one's going to buy those inmates' paintings because they were done by great artists. They buy them because some killer drew them, and that's disgusting."

But Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott ruled last week that inmates are free to sell their artwork. Abbott did say it would be up to the courts to determine whether the value of art was unduly inflated because it was drawn by a person condemned to death.