SCHOOLCHILDREN are swapping letters with a convicted killer on Death Row.

Virgil Brownlee, who has been sentenced to die in the electric chair, is writing from his cell in Alabama to 13-year-old pupils at The Hollins County High School, Accrington.

The remarkable correspondence, in which he advises on their schoolwork, friendships and family life, has come about through Mrs Deborah Arnold, head of special needs.

She has been writing to the 42-year-old prisoner for seven years and says he has come to be a very close and special friend.

Virgil, who is black, was convicted of capital murder in the slaying 11 years ago of a white bar owner shot in the chest during a hold-up by three robbers at his bar in Birmingham, Alabama.

Mrs Arnold firmly believes he is innocent and has been campaigning to bring to light what she describes as the injustice he endures at the hands of the American legal system.

She admits she had reservations at first when pupils in her basic English class asked if they could write to Virgil but with parents' consent she agreed.

The dozen youngsters have sent him letters, photographs, stories and poems, as well as making magazines and drawing pictures for him. Mrs Arnold said: "Not only have they brought sunshine into his life but he has enriched theirs."

As well as motivating them into writing, pupils were learning about caring and putting themselves in another person's position, she said. She added: "Children can be extremely self-centred and from their point of view their own problems are always huge.

"This gives them a sense of how lucky they are and that they have an awful lot compared to some.

"He's always telling them to work hard and be good."

Zeenat Arif, 13, told Virgil in a letter she had been naughty in school and not paying attention in class.

Zeenat said: "He told me if you don't learn you won't get anywhere in life and if you don't want to ruin your education don't be naughty."

Virgil, who signs himself "your Big Brother", writes individually to each of the pupils, but all their letters and his replies go through Mrs Arnold.

In an effort to highlight his case, the children have written about Virgil to GMTV, Kilroy, Blue Peter, and This Morning. Mrs Arnold, whose ten-year-old son has been writing to Virgil since he was five, was put in touch with him through the organisation LifeLines.

She said several years ago he had asked her to marry him but Virgil had never been more than a special friend.

She was last able to speak to him on the phone on Christmas Day three years ago, and plans to meet him whatever his fate.

"He has to stay hopeful and wants to meet me when he is free," she said.

"I will either go if he is released or, if he is executed, I would go to be with him at the end but I'm not sure how I would handle that."

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