They're on death row, and also on MySpace
Crime victims' advocate is upset that 30 inmates have Web pages

By TERRI LANGFORD
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle


They don't smoke and they don't drink. They're not big television watchers and their reading material is on the limited side.

But they do want to know more about you. So, won't you please write?

They're prison inmates and many, including those on Texas' death row, have moved their cell-based ponderings from isolated anti-death penalty Internet pages to the popular social networking Web site favored by the younger set: MySpace.

At least 30 Texas death row inmates have MySpace pages created for them. On these personal pages they detail their likes and dislikes, just like anyone else.

"I think I'm a pretty funny guy. I have a wacked sense of humor," writes Randy Halprin, who was convicted in the 2000 shooting death of an Irving police officer. "I can be a big kid at heart. I'm a hopeless (and I mean HOPELESS) romatic (sic)."

To be clear, no Texas inmate has Internet access. Instead, inmates send letters, journal entries or blog postings to friends and families who create the pages for them and post their writings for them.

I bet that makes adding friends difficult, i,e, if you have no internet access?

I wonder if they post inmate-y pics of themselves or pics from their free world days?

On the other hand, I guess you wouldn't have the issue of the death row inmate himself actually using the myspace page to be a child predator, Eh?