SCHOOL pupils have stopped writing to a convicted killer on death row.

The controversial scheme at The Hollins County High School, Accrington, involved 13-year-olds sending letters to Virgil Brownlee, who was sentenced to die in the electric chair.

He wrote back from his cell in Alabama, advising pupils on their schoolwork, friendships and family life.

A Lancashire County Council spokesman said the scheme had been part of course work and was no longer running.

She said: "It was done as part of the national curriculum. It had been picked because it was topical in the light of the Louise Woodward case.

"It is unlikely that it would used as part of the curriculum again."

She denied that the decision had been prompted by media attention on the scheme.

It was set up by the school's head of special needs, Mrs Deborah Arnold, who has been writing to the prisoner for more than seven years.

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 believes he is innocent and has been campaigning to highlight what she believes is an injustice in the American legal system.

Headteacher Frank Havard was unavailable for comment.

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