Kenneth Foster's execution is scheduled for this evening. With the Board of Pardons and Paroles decision on a clemency recommendation still pending, the case is getting an even higher level of national and Texas press attention. Last night I posted Ralph Blumenthal's article in today's New York Times.
Miguel Bustillo has, "Texas set to execute accomplice," in today's Los Angeles Times.
A federal appellate judge ruled in 2005 that the evidence against Foster did not warrant the death penalty. But that ruling was overturned a year later by the U.S. 5th District Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which said Foster had acted with "reckless indifference to human life."
Robert C. Owen, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said he believed there was ample precedent to seek the death penalty against a co-conspirator in a murder. But he questioned whether Foster deserved such harsh punishment.
"What is most troubling about the Foster case is not the law, but how it has been applied," Owen said. "The law was intended to punish people who truly anticipated that someone was about to be killed. The facts here do not suggest that."
Foster's lawyer, Keith S. Hampton, said he was resigned to the fact that his client probably would die.
KSAT-TV in San Antoinio reports, "Lawmakers Ask Perry to Save Man From Execution."
Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon and Rep. Mike Villareal disagree with the sentencing and sent a letter of clemency to Gov. Rick Perry signed by them and four other representatives to plead for Foster's life.
McClendon and Villareal are asking that Perry and the board of pardons and paroles to commute his sentence and give him life in prison without parole.
"We should take extra careful attention in deciding to murder somebody -- execute somebody -- who did not directly murder another person," Villareal said. "(He) may in fact have evidence to demonstrate that (he) acted against the crime."
The letter was signed by Reps. Harold Dutton, Donna Howard, Alma Allen, and Eddie Rodriguez.Other representatives have sent their own letters of clemency, including Reps. Sylvester Turner, Helen Giddings, Dora Olivo, and Elliot Naishtat.Reps. Lon Burnam and Jessica Farrar have also sent letters to Perry.
Austin's KXAN-TV has, "Decision Yet To Arrive From Pardons Board In Foster's Clemency."
If the board can't find clemency for a man for whom everyone agrees never killed anybody, then we don't have clemency in the state of Texas," said Keith Hampton, Foster's attorney.
Hampton said he was expecting the ruling from the board by 1 p.m. Wednesday.
The seven-member board does not meet and discuss the case. Each member reviews the evidence and casts a vote for or against clemency, which is rarely granted.
The Bryan College Station Eagle has the editorial, "Texas may execute an innocent man." Note that the link is not working at this time.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has the editorial, "No needle."
Although his statement could have been phrased a tad more gently, Gov. Rick Perry was on target when he informed the European Union that Texans aren't too concerned about what Europeans think when it comes to his state's use of the death penalty.
Calls from South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former President Jimmy Carter to spare the life of Death Row inmate Kenneth Foster Jr. are likely to receive similar dismissals.
But Perry and the state Board of Pardons and Paroles should be listening to what Texans say when it comes to today's scheduled execution by lethal injection of Foster, who did not fire the gun that ended Michael LaHood's life that Aug. 15, 1996, night in San Antonio.
Thirteen members of the Texas House petitioned Perry and the board to commute Foster's sentence to life without parole.
Those voices -- those of legislators who, in the words of their Aug. 23 letter, "are responsible for making the laws of the State of Texas" and "also assume responsibility for protecting our system of justice from mistakes" -- argued that the execution of Foster "is just wrong."
San Antonio Express-News columnist Rebeca Chapa has a must-read column, " Lone Star State's broken system metes out irreversible 'justice.'"
No one argues that Foster is an angel. And certainly no one argues that he is innocent of a crime. But executing him is going too far.
"If Kenneth Foster's execution is permitted to go forward, it will mean that the death penalty in Texas predates Old Testament law, which limits one life for a life," Keith Hampton of Austin, Foster's attorney, said Wednesday.
"If you are not deserving for clemency because you killed, and you can't be spared when you didn't, not only is there officially no clemency in Texas, but we've expanded death to bounds not seen since before Moses," Hampton said.
Of course, this comes as no surprise. We do everything big in Texas.
This year, two developments at the Legislature served to further cement that reputation.
On the one hand, we expanded the list of capital crimes to include repeated child molestation. Although child molesters certainly rank among the more heinous among us, even some child advocates oppose the death penalty. Child abuse is often committed within the family circle, which could deter members from reporting abuse if they believe their "loved one" could get the needle.
It also, they say, could prompt predators to kill their victims to avoid identification and subsequent punishment.
On the other hand, legislators decided for the third time against creating an innocence commission designed to review documented cases of wrongful conviction. At least 28 cases of wrongful conviction have turned up since 2001, when a law began allowing inmates to petition for DNA testing.
So ... we want to kill more people, but we don't want to confront information that might indicate we got the wrong guy. (The innocence commission wouldn't have even considered the cases of executed felons, and it still didn't pass!)
In another pathetic case, an El Paso man is sitting on death row despite widespread belief among many close to the case that his confession was coerced as a result of police misconduct. The prosecutor in the case told the Chicago Tribune in 2000 that he would have suppressed the confession if he had known about the misconduct.
Without that confession, Cesar Fierro would not be on death row.
There are hundreds of men, and 10 women, awaiting the final punishment in Texas. And yet we still have violent, horrible crime. Something's not working.
Isn't it time we put an end to yee-haw justice?
Blogger Katie Halper has, "Do Not Not Execute an Innocent Man," at Huffington Post.
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).
Earlier coverage is here. There is a link to previous coverage at the bottom of each post.
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