In a public statement released today, Jan Arriens, a former diplomat and founder of LifeLines, the oldest penpal organisation in Europe based that includes thousands of members in the UK and around the world, states:

I happened to be at my desk when an email came in.
It was from the lawyer of a prisoner on death row in Florida, Mike Lambrix. It said that the Florida governor had signed a death warrant on Mike that day and that the execution was scheduled for 11 February 2016.
 
After all I have done to help develop correspondence between prisoners and people from the free world around the world, I feel saddened that Florida has decided not to grant a special clemency review to Mike, which all his loved ones and pen friends around the world were kindly asking. This case requires it so badly, yet it has unfortunately been denied to Michael.
 
Mike has been there for any 32 years; we have been corresponding for the past 25 years. I have not so far been able to contact him, and I find it impossible to imagine what he must be going through. Even though Mike knew he was high up the list, the warrant was unexpected as he had just filed an appeal in a federal court and thought he might therefore be ineligible. The first he will have known about the warrant will have been when a prison officer came to his cell and read it out to him.
 
I think of his mother and stepfather and the agonies they will be going through. I wonder what the victims’ families will be thinking: whether this will represent closure, as some find, or whether it will, ultimately, be a hollow act that reopens past pain.
 
For my part, I am left astounded that the most powerful nation in the Western world, which sets such store by human rights and civil liberties, can keep a man under sentence of death for so long and not view this as cruel and unusual punishment, as prohibited under the Eighth Amendment. I marvel at the way in which Mike has managed to educate himself, read widely and reach out to the outside world. I shall miss his letters with their intense interest in life, his wisdom and his humour. I shall miss our discussions about politics, religion and superstring theory. I shall miss his advice and support in difficult times.
 
Whatever Mike may have done in 1983 – and the circumstances are by no means clear – he is not the same person he was then. It is distressing and utterly bizarre to think that this intelligent, healthy person who has done so much to make the best of his appalling conditions over the past 32 years is on the verge of being snuffed out by the state.

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About
Jan Arriens

Jan Arriens is a former diplomat. He founded Lifelines in 1988, which counts over 1400 members today in the UK and around the world. He has been friend with Mike Lambrix for over 25 years. Last year, in 2014, he had addressed a unique video plea to the Florida Commission on Offender Review:

About
Mike Lambrix

Mike Lambrix has been on death row for over 30 years in Florida. He has always maintained that he acted in self defence  He has previously turned down several plea offers of life imprisonment.
At his first trial, the Glades County jury ended with the declaration of a mistrial on December 17, 1983, when the jury failed to reach a verdict after deliberating for 11 hours. The retrial jury found M. Lambrix on two counts of indictment on February 24, 1984. Read more about the case here

Other press releases relating to Mike Lambrix:

. Press release December 14th, 2015:
Clemency counsel for Mike Lambrix objects to the denial of clemency and requests a stay of execution to allow time for the full Executive Clemency Board to conduct a hearing.
. Press release December 22nd, 2014:
Litigation Director CCRC-South William M.Hennis III files a last ditch appeal urging the court:
This is the extraordinary case in which a prima facie case of actual innocence has been established

For further information, contact Emmanuelle Purdon - T. (+44) 751 535 71 49