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A convicted killer who spent three years on Death Row says he wanted to kill his fellow-inmates after finding out about their crimes.

James Allen Jr was jailed for shooting dead 22-year-old Tony Sylvester during a burglary in 1980 when he was just 19.

He recalled on Steve-O's Wild Ride podcast being sent down, saying: “When they read that verdict out, I heard a wailing sound – it was my mum.

READ MORE: Death Row's top boss on his 89 executions, chilling last signal and worst part of job

“I’d never heard her scream like that and it went through me.”

There was little doubt about the verdict – James had made his escape through a window after the shooting, and left significant DNA evidence on a piece of broken glass.

But as bad as his crimes were, there were inmates he stayed inside with who committed far worse acts.

“There are the guys on Death Row that deserve it,” he said. “When your neighbour is a dude that just killed a girl – you know a little 12-year-old girl.

“He slit her throat, decapitated her body and burned parts of her, put her in a shallow grave.

“This is my neighbour. It was hard for me to come out during a recreation period and not try to kill this guy.”

After living on Death Row for just over three years, James had his sentence commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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  Death Row killer who had wife murdered 'chose coward's way out' with damning last words

Later that sentence was reduced to life with the possibility of parole and he is now free.

He works for a Re-Entry of Ex-Offenders programme, which provides intensive case management, job skills training and other services for parolees..

But James keeps a photo of his victim in the back of his Bible, and looks at it every day. “You can never pay for taking a life,” he said.

He’s ashamed of his criminal past, and apologised in person to Tony Sylvester’s mother. But she was unable to forgive him, telling reporters in 2006: “He’s alive. He can still be with his family. My son is dead.”

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