Do Not Not Execute an Innocent Man

UPDATE: Earlier today, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted six-to-one to commute Kenneth Foster's death sentence and Governor Rick Perry commuted Foster's sentence to life in jail. Guess the governor didn't get my letter on time. Oh well, Texas still has 23 more executions before the year is over."

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Dear Governor Perry,

First of all, happy belated 400th execution day! It seems like only yesterday that Texas reinstated the death penalty, and yet you have managed to execute 400 people since 1982. Oops, scratch that, you killed DaRoyce Mosley Tuesday night, so make that 401 people, right? Actually, by the time you get this letter, you may have killed your 402nd inmate, John Amador, scheduled for August 29th. Or you may even have killed the 403rd person, Kenneth Foster, scheduled to die August 30th.

As you know, Kenneth Foster's fate is in your hands. In 1996, when Michael LaHood was fatally shot, of course, the man who pulled the trigger was not Foster, but Mauriceo Brown. And sure, Foster was inside a car at the time of the murder. Sure, 80 feet away from the crime scene, he was unaware of what Brown was up to. And sure, Amnesty International says, "In essence, Kenneth Foster has been sentenced to death for leaving his crystal ball at home. There is no concrete evidence demonstrating that he could know a murder would be committed. Allowing his life to be taken is a shocking perversion of the law." The law of parties allows anyone involved in anyway in a crime to be found as guilty as the person who committed the crime. Texas is unique because it applies this law to death penalty cases. In other words, Texas is so special, it will execute you for a crime it admits you did not commit.

I know you have received letters from leftist anarchist wing bats like Archbishop Tutu, Jimmy Carter, and the European Union, who are trying to bully you into granting a stay of execution. So I wanted to write you my own letter, urging you to hold your ground. Stay strong Mr. Governor! I so admire how you stood up to those EU girly boys, telling them, "230 years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination. Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens. While we respect our friends in Europe, welcome their investment in our state and appreciate their interest in our laws, Texans are doing just fine governing Texas."

Who cares what the EU pansies think? When it comes to the death penalty, you are in good company. Some of the most freedom-loving countries-- Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, Zimbabwe--have capital punishment. I, like yourself, am a traditionalist and love your argument that "the people of Texas decided a long time ago that the death penalty was a good idea." After all, Texas has a long proud history of old noble decisions going back to the War of Northern Aggression.

And, of course, "Texans are doing just fine governing Texas," representing its people and defending their interests. I think the Texan record speaks for itself. You are number one in percentage of uninsured, and number two in non-immunized children, and teenage pregnancy. You are number five in poverty and child poverty (no fair).

Now some people like to claim the death penalty is racist. OK, of the three men killed this week, two are black and one was Latino. But, out of the 10 upcoming executions, one of them is white.

Governor Perry, when you feel yourself faltering, just remember the strong gubernatorial roots that ground and nourish you. President George Bush, arguably Texas's greatest governor, executed 152 people in his unique caring way. In his page-turning autobiography A Charge to Keep, Bush wrote, "I take every death penalty case seriously and review each case carefully.... Each case is major because each case is life or death." Bush took the cases so seriously, that he would even read the clemency pleas, according to his then legal council Alberto Gonzalez, "from time to time". Signing 152 death sentences was so stressful for Bush, sometimes the poor governor had to resort to impersonating death row inmates' pleas for clemency in order to decompress.

So please listen to reason, Mr. Governor, your own reason:

"Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens."

Like sitting in your car and not being clairvoyant.

Sincerely,
Katie Halper

To tell Governor Perry what you think about Kenneth Foster's case, call 512-463-2000, fax [phone] and visit here.

EARLIER UPDATE: The Board of Pardons and Paroles (six to one) has just recommended clemency for Foster. So make sure you call Governor Perry and tell him how you feel now! It's really in his hands!

Comments

[Lilly06]

08:02 AM on 08/31/2007

America needs to look at its whole penal and judicial system. The police tend to have their motives for finding a killer, sometimes they are just, sometimes it can be pressure from the media, management or the community a killer must be caught even if it isn't the right person. Judges want to get reelected so they must be seen as tough on crime even if it means innocent people are convicted, prisons are profit making entities that benefit from each inmate that they enters their door. The whole justice system is flawed and so subject to much human error.

In a system where there are so many obvious failures, it is a huge miscarriage of justice to allow the death penalty. Innocent people will die.

[Bill from Temple]

01:09 AM on 08/31/2007

Well, it is sad to see that all of the lies and half-truths finally worked. Now we get to support him for another 40+ years. AND the nuts will have been reinforced in their anti-death penalty crusade, too bad that what happened to most of the crusaders will not happen to them.

[zasu]

08:47 PM on 08/30/2007

Two days a go, a Canadian man who was convicted of murdering a 12-year-old girl in 1959 and was sentenced to death, was finally acquitted of the crime after all these many years. The man was only 14-years-old when he was convicted and sentenced, but Canada eliminated the death penalty, and the young man was then sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison (as an adult) and then lifetime parole. Now, as I said, after all these years, it was discovered that he was wrongfully convicted. But Canada was going to put a 14-year-old boy to death by hanging for a crime he did not commit. This kid came really close to the gallows. The death penalty is not an answer to anything. There are other ways of punishing heinous crimes short of death. Life in prison, with no chance of parole is not exactly a picnic. Is life under hard labour still an option, by the way?

[MissFortunate]

06:42 PM on 08/30/2007

Another decider in Texas, great. Culture of life my ass.

[LittleBrother]

03:56 PM on 08/30/2007

All's well that ends well.

[PhillyQuaker]

02:04 PM on 08/30/2007

Sentence commuted:
Perry commutes sentences of man scheduled to die Thursday
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press Writer

HUNTSVILLE, Texas ­ Gov. Rick Perry accepted a recommendation from the state parole board and said Thursday he would spare condemned prisoner Kenneth Foster from execution and commute his sentence to life.

Foster had been scheduled to die Thursday evening.

"After carefully considering the facts of this case, along with the recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles, I believe the right and just decision is to commute Foster's sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment," Perry said in a statement.

"I am concerned about Texas law that allowed capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously and it is an issue I think the legislature should examine."

The seven-member parole board had voted 6-1 to recommend the commutation.

Perry was not obligated to accept the highly unusual recommendation from the board whose members he appoints. The commutation is the first in his more than eight years in office this close to an actual execution. The board decision was announced about seven hours before Foster was scheduled to die. Perry's announcement came about an hour later.

[cynara]

05:25 PM on 08/30/2007

Go figure, for once in a great while, common sense won....

[persiancowboy]

01:03 PM on 08/30/2007

Thanks for the great post. BPP has decided 6-1 in favor of Kenneth Foster.

Contact Rick Perry and ask him to stop Kenneth Foster's execution:

Telephone

* Citizen's Assistance Hotline: [phone]
[for Texas callers]
* Citizen's Opinion Hotline: [phone]
[for Texas callers]
* Citizen's Assistance and Opinion Hotline: [phone]
[for Austin, Texas and out-of-state callers]
* Office of the Governor Main Switchboard: [phone]
[office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST]
* Citizen's Assistance Telecommunications Device
If you are using a telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD), call 711 to reach Relay Texas

Fax

* Office of the Governor Fax: [phone]

[VaProf]

11:35 AM on 08/30/2007

Did anyone else notice the space for "race of victim" on the Texas information forms linked to the Scheduled Executions page? I understand that the race of the convict is standard information for identification purposes, along with weight, height, etc. But "race of victim" gives me the creeps. Is the state of Texas insinuating that it matters? Silly me -- I thought the Southern states were at least pretending these days not to be treating such information as relevant in their capital punishment decisions.

[woodsywizz]

01:13 AM on 08/31/2007

Have you ever heard of "hate" crimes? Did you know (gasp!) that race is one of the reasons given for hate crime? So...doesn't it make sense, in the context of hate-crime legislation, to keep track of the victim's demographics? And yes, in Texas we DO have hate-crime laws. Like everywhere else, we have our bad actors. I guess there's no excuse for all the executing, though. I'm anti-death-penalty, but killin' is just part of the ethos here. We try to change what we can, and I always vote against Republicans. Still waiting for the balance to tilt.

[LionelMandrake]

09:28 AM on 08/30/2007

Though I have been in Texas, and as a guest have been treated with hospitality, when it comes to good ole' fashioned Texas justice, you are inhuman, and thus animals.
I'm not saying that these thugs aren't animals as well, but let's look at the facts.

Three people were in the car the night of this murder. One of them, Dillard, had murdered a cab driver a week before, the other one, Brown, pulled the trigger that killed LaHood, and then there was Foster, the driver, scheduled to be executed, (murdered), by the state of Texas today.

Dillard, the murderer of the cab driver, testified against Brown in a plea bargain deal giving him life in prison for his murder, instead of death.

And, you in Texas are going to execute the driver, while the other murderer spends the rest of his days living off my tax dollars?

No wonder you neanderthals elected Bush as your governor, and passed the virus down to the nation as a whole.

I think it's written into your state constitution the right to secede from the United States.

I wish you would, and take the other backwater states like Alabama and Mississippi with you.

You ought to be ashamed of yourselves, but you're not. You're proud of your dirty little record holding, execution state.

Yeah, everything is bigger in Texas, except your hearts and brains.

[woodsywizz]

01:07 AM on 08/31/2007

Look, I see you're angry, but am I "an animal" because I live in Texas? THINK. I don't believe in the death penalty. I voted against Bush. Look around the country - people vote for reasons associated with "branding" of products (not cattle-type "branding"!). People go for the lazy sound-bite, word association. Millions still believe Saddam attacked us on September 11, 2001. Because of sound-biting, word association. AND HERE YOU ARE DOING THE SAME THING. Please, my friend, let's fight the bad people, not each other. Many Texans (60%) voted against Perry. Big business elected Bush, and big business from every state - as well as a lot of shell corporations headquartered in Bermuda, etc. So, at least in your own mind, please apologize for the "neanderthal" comment. You didn't mean it, and you know it.

[LionelMandrake]

08:41 AM on 09/01/2007

Hey Woodsy,
You're right. I didn't mean it, and I know it!
I apologize for offending you. Yeah, I was angry, and I don't bunch people together, and I certainly don't want to be doing the same thing with, "lazy sound bite, word associations." Nice call.
I have good friends who are from Texas. And, as I said, I've been treated very well, even by Texans whose political views are neanderthal. But then again, I also have blood relatives, whom I love dearly, whose political views are neanderthal. I'm sure we all have.
And I know not all Texans are Bush lovers, Molly Ivins, (God Bless Her Soul), was one of my favorite authors in the world, and made us all laugh while being a gnarly thorn in the Bushies side.
I just get so pissed off at the red states in general, for in the majority, not in totality, being so darn self righteous, and living in the old, "thou shalt not," testament, instead of the new, "love thy enemies," testament, brought to us by the very man, whom they claim, in majority, mind you, to follow.
Meanwhile their crap stinks like the rest of ours, but seems to even more so, because of all the hypocrisy.
I'm sorry. While I love the people, I hate what they think, and how they vote. I hate the damn electoral college, and I hate that so many red states that have twenty people per square mile, still have two senators in congress. But hate the sin, love the sinner...
Touche! And, thanks for calling me out.

[Stefano]

09:24 AM on 08/30/2007

I was kicked off a jury because the judge and I disagreed about "felony murder." I believe one has to know what he was doing and actually be the one who pulls the trigger in order to commit a murder. How a jury could hand down the death penalty to someone associated with a murderer is beyond me. But yes, i think capital punishment is abhorant, but if it must be on the books, it should only be for the most extreme cases. Whats going on in texas disgusts me, its like the old west all over again.

[schmuckwithearlaps]

12:52 AM on 08/30/2007

To a liberal, a man who goes on a felony crime spree involving armed robbery of several people is an innocent man. Ever hear of felony murder?
I happen to be against the death penalty. That is my belief. But I also believe in telling a fair story. Foster is not the innocent lamb presented in this post. You do not have to go further than the save-foster blogs to see the true story. It is not unreasonable to prosecute someone for felony murder who was on a day long felony armed robbery spree and oops, what a surprise, someone gets killed. Liberals need not make every death row inmate into a saint to express sincere feelings against the dp.

[libdude]

01:57 AM on 08/30/2007

You are quite right, it's not unreasonable to
prosecute someone for an armed robbery spree.
It's just unreasonable to execute them if they
didn't kill someone. You don't have to look any
further than kill-happy Texas to realize that
our criminal justice system is neither accurate
enough, nor fair enough to have the death penalty as as option. I don't have any sympathy
for killers, but I'm not ready to make people
who are innocent of capital crimes sacrificial
lambs in politicized pursuits of justice. Where
in the world do you get ideas that liberals
view inmates as saints?

[steamboat]

11:29 PM on 08/30/2007

I'm against the death penalty except child-killers and mass-murderers. Having said that, GOOD POST. Remember that Graham guy. They said it was racist. Turns out he had shot something like eight white people (one lost his leg) and had bragged about it. He was the racist. And the witness to the one he murdered was a black lady. Despite pressure she said, "he killed the person." BTW, Texas has been executing since '82. Wasn't the super liberal, Ms. Richards, the governor in the 80's. If so, why no complaints when she was executing people? Just asking.

[jonl]

12:25 AM on 08/30/2007

Katie,

Thank you for this. Great writing--can you please get Governor Perry ("Goodhair") to try the succession thing again? This time we won't lift a finger.

[Silverstar]

06:50 AM on 08/30/2007

I think you mean secession, not succession. And yeah, considering what's crawled out of Texas lately, we'll drive them to the airport and wave bye-bye.

[jonl]

09:55 AM on 08/30/2007

Thank you--no more sleepy posting for me.