People seeking companionship, or an outlet for their creative expression, have been turning to the Internet since its beginnings. Death row inmates are no exception.

A Texas-based Web site called The Lamp of Hope gives condemned prisoners a place to display their art and writings, while putting a face on the issue of the death penalty for Web users.

Founded in 1991, the Lamp of Hope Project seeks to "shed light on the truth about the terrible conditions of our justice system and to bring hope to those who believe in life," the site states. The nonprofit's board, comprised then of Texas prisoners on death row, launched the Web site in 1997.

"The purpose of the Web site is to give a voice to death row prisoners," explains Karen Sebung, the site's administrator, in an e-mail to a CourtTV.com reporter.

Sebung got involved in the project through Kerry Cook, a former death row prisoner with whom she became penpals following his attempted suicide several years ago.

The site posts a monthly list of inmates seeking penpals, giving interested parties a wide variety of prisoners from which to choose.

James V. Allridge III, a black inmate who's been on death row in Texas for a decade, describes himself as a self-taught artist who has produced more than 350 works, mostly in color pencil, which have been displayed from Washington, D.C., to Switzerland. Kenneth Bruce, a song lyricist and poet, wants a penpal who shares his sense of humor and love for reading, sports and listening to music. Then there's John Wade Adams, a self-described outdoorsman from Louisiana who enjoys Harley Davidsons and counts Roadrunner and Daffy Duck among his favorite cartoon characters.

The site began garnering attention after the last words of Michael Sharp, who was executed in November 1997, were posted.

"It was the first time an executed person's words had been put on the Internet," Sebung notes in her e-mail.

Since then, the site's home page has averaged roughly 3,000 visits per month, she adds.

Site surfers can read excerpts from inmate Roland King's diary and reflections on life as a father on death row. In one journal entry, he expresses pity for those who advocate killing him for his crimes.

"There are people who would have you think the men on death row are the most hated people alive," he writes. "Advocates of such hate are not able to feel the freedom that comes with love. Their entire life is taken up with finding ways to inflict punishment rather than using this time to show their families what love is all about."

Prisoner Carl Buntion maintains in his poem, Society's Child, that society can't expect to create an environment that produces predators without suffering the consequences.

Poverty cocked the hammer
Your environmentalism pulled the trigger
Sure, it's time to look down your nose, again
At the bastard child that you have abandoned.

In addition to poetry and prose, the site provides the latest news on death penalty cases from a prisoner's perspective and links to inmates' homepages, where some explain their cases and why they hope to get off death row. A running tally of all the executions since 1997, as well as a schedule of upcoming ones in 2001, is also posted.

Overall, the site has proved popular with prisoners and nonprisoners alike, Sebung says. "The prisoners are utilizing the site fairly well. I finally have a webmaster so we hope to expand what we are doing as time goes on."

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