Perry the Executioner

Texas leads the country in executions, and Rick Perry holds the record tally.

Should Perry wish to commute a death sentence, under state law he must wait for the BPP [Board of Pardons and Paroles] to recommend he do so before he can act accordingly. In that sense, says Jordan Steiker, a professor at the University of Texas' School of Law and co-director of its Capital Punishment Clinic, a Texas governor's hand is not as strong in death cases as some might suppose. "The sort of large picture ... is that the governor isn't all that powerful," he says. Yet the governor is responsible for appointing the members of the BPP (because Perry has been governor for three terms, all of the current appointees were named by him) and so is effectively able to stack it as he wishes. If Perry were at all skeptical of capital punishment, one would expect that skepticism to be reflected in his choices for the board.

As it stands, the current members are a not a bleeding-heart bunch. That is one reason that the Foster case stands out: "The Foster case was unusual; it was an actual vision of the death penalty as being disproportionate," says Steiker. "But [Perry] hasn't been consistent with that principle since Foster." Indeed, although "his powers are significantly limited in terms of clemency procedures," notes Kristin Houlé, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Perry has demonstrated clearly that he runs the show, rejecting the two other cases where the board recommended clemency – including one similar to Foster's. In 2009, the BPP recommended that Perry commute the sentence of Robert Thompson, also convicted and sentenced to die under the state's law of parties. Thomp­son had participated in a robbery that left a store clerk dead, but he had not fired the fatal shot. His accomplice, Sammy Butler, was responsible for Mansoor Mohammed's death; at trial, Butler was given a life sentence. In rejecting the BPP's recommendation, Perry noted that Thompson had a "murderous past."

(It's necessary to point out that the state of Texas only employs a "clemency" process at all because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that one is required for any state that allows the death penalty. In fact, the Texas system is designed so that actual clemency – an extrajudicial judgement of mitigating circumstances requiring mercy – has as little effect as possible. State officials, including the governor and his appointed members of the BPP, routinely cite the existence of "due process" – trial, conviction, and appeals – for their confirmation of death sentences, and potential reasons for clemency are rarely addressed at all.)

Since 2001, the BPP has made three recommendations that a death sentence be commuted to life. In two of those cases, Perry rejected the recommendation and allowed the offender to be executed. In fact, Perry stands in the annals of history as the governor who has presided over the most executions during the modern era of the death penalty.

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Source : The Austin Chronicle, Jordan Smith, September 15, 2011

"Scant evidence that he (Steven Woods) killed anyone" says Austin Chronicle

Steven Woods

The Austin Chronicle says there is "scant evidence" that Steven Woods killed anyone. He is scheduled for execution in Texas under Governor Rick Perry on Sept 13. This is a case that likely would have a high chance for a commutation to life in other death penalty states, since the physical evidence does not indicate that the person being executed actually killed anyone while there is clear evidence linking his co-defendant as the killer.

"Unless the U.S. Supreme Court steps in to stop it – or the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends and the governor grants clemency (a remote chance) – inmate Steven Woods will be put to death Sept. 13, even though there is scant evidence suggesting that he actually killed anyone. 

Woods was sentenced to death for a 2001 double murder in The Colony, near Dallas. After his conviction, a co-defendant, Marcus Rhodes, made a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty in exchange for two life sentences. Nonetheless, while there was clear physical evidence linking Rhodes to the crime, there was no such evidence linking Woods. "There is no physical proof linking him to the crime," says attorney Alex Calhoun, who has represented Woods on appeal and who has filed a clemency petition with the parole board, seeking to have Woods' sentence commuted to life. That would be far more equitable, he argues; while that is a good argument against sending Woods to death, it's been the argument in two out of the three cases in which the board has recommended clemency under the leadership of Gov. Rick Perry. Perry only granted clemency in one of those (that of Kenneth Foster), and he said he did so because Foster and a co-defendant had a shared trial, not because Foster literally was not guilty of killing anyone.

Meanwhile, Brad Levenson, director of the state's Office of Capital Writs, responsible for representing indigent death row inmates on appeal, late last week filed a final appeal in Woods' case. In the appeal, Levenson argues that Calhoun rendered ineffective assistance when he failed to pursue in a timely manner evidence that one of Woods' jurors was so biased that his presence on the jury violated Woods' right to an impartial panel. (Should the ineffective assistance claim fail, Levenson argues that the presence of the juror alone should render the Woods verdict unsound.) 

The appeal comes on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court announcing that it would hear two cases this fall that relate to the right to effective counsel on appeal. Whether Texas courts will see fit to stay Woods' execution until the high court has an opportunity to weigh in on the topic remains to be seen."

Source: Texas Moratorium Network, September 8, 2011

Related article:

Death Penalty News: Steven Woods, Claiming Innocence, Scheduled ...

Aug 30, 2011

On September 13 2011, Steven Woods (31) is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection by the state of Texas after being wrongfully convicted and confined 24 hours a day for the past 9 years of his life. ...

http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/

Former DR prisoner Anthony Graves decries justice system

Anthony Graves

Anthony Graves spoke to students on Thursday evening in the University Teaching Center about capital punishment in the United States. Graves was wrongly convicted of the mass murder in 1992 and exonerated in 2010.

After surviving 18 years in prison and 2 death sentences, exonerated prisoner Anthony Graves encouraged students to change the system that imprisoned him.

The state accused Graves of taking part in the murder of 2 women and 4 children and setting their home on fire in 1992. The main witness in Graves’ trial, Robert Carter, was eventually executed for committing the murders. Before Carter’s execution, he admitted to lying under oath about Graves’ involvement. Graves was exonerated in October 2010.

“I am the walking example of the flaws of the death penalty because they tried to murder me twice,” Graves said in a lecture Thursday. “They can’t say Texas doesn’t execute innocents."

Graves spoke about the flaws in the state’s criminal justice system to about 40 people Thursday. The Campaign to End the Death Penalty, a national grassroots organization, hosted the talk partially to address the race and class disparity of inmates.

“It’s an epidemic,” Graves said. “Not a black-and-white issue, not a minority issue. It’s an epidemic."

Death penalty abolitionist Laura Brady compared the United States with Apartheid-era South Africa. From 1948 to 1993, South Africa incarcerated 851 black South Africans per 100,000 black residents. 5 % of the black population in the U.S., or 5,000 out of every 100,000 black residents, are inmates in the U.S., Brady said.

“So what does it mean when the leader of the free world locks up black men at a rate almost 6 times higher than the most openly racist country in our history?” Brady said. “More black men are in prison than attending college."

Brady said more black men are in prison, on probation or on parole than the number subjected to slavery prior to the Civil War.

Lawrence Foster, who also spoke at the event, is the grandfather of death-row inmate Kenneth Foster. A judge sentenced Kenneth Foster to death for acting as an accomplice in a burglary that resulted in a man’s death. Foster is currently serving a life sentence after having his sentence commuted by Gov. Rick Perry in 2007.

“Just imagine the agony of an individual as he is waiting to get executed, as he is waiting to have his life extracted from him,” Foster said, “That’s not execution; that’s murder."

Government lecturer Alan Sager said the death penalty deters crime.

“I used to not view the evidence this way,” Sager said. “However, as I saw the continuing studies over the years and an econometric study showing most death penalty studies reflect the bias of the researchers, my views have changed."

Source: Daily Texan, April 8, 2011

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Law of Parties all over again: Death row inmate hopes for Perry's intervention

Robert Lee Thompson (pictured) didn't fire the shot that killed a Houston convenience store clerk; his accomplice did. But barring Gov. Rick Perry's intervention, Thompson will be the one headed to the Texas death chamber next month while the accomplice serves a life sentence.

Thompson, 34, and Sammy Butler, 32, were tried for capital murder for the Dec. 5, 1996 stickup of a Braeswood Boulevard convenience store in which clerk Mansoor Rahim was killed. Under Texas' law of parties, all participants in a such cases are eligible for the death penalty, regardless of who did the actual killing.

Thus, Thompson, who wounded but did not kill another employee, was convicted and sentenced to die. But prosecutors failed to prove Butler intended to kill his victim, leading to a noncapital conviction and a life sentence for the triggerman. Butler will be eligible for parole in 2036.

Thompson's lawyer Patrick McCann calls the situation “egregious,” and describes the case as a “legal Catch-22 that could only happen in Harris County.”

Rebuffed by a series of appeals courts, McCann on Monday turned to the state's pardons and paroles board in a near-last-minute bid to save his client from a Nov. 19 execution.

In a six-page petition, the lawyer asks the board to recommend that Perry issue a 180-day reprieve or commute the sentence to life in prison. It's a long shot, McCann knows. The pardons board rarely advocates clemency and the governor almost never grants it.

In the petition, McCann likens Thompson's case to that of San Antonio robber Kenneth Foster — the only capital murder case in which Perry voluntarily commuted a death sentence to life in prison.

Three hours before the scheduled execution in August 2007, Perry spared Foster's life, expressing concern that trials for Foster and his accomplice had been held simultaneously. Foster had been a getaway driver in the 1996 robbery in which his accomplice killed a store employee.

The trials for Thompson and Butler were not held simultaneously, McCann conceded, but Thompson was tried first — and that was just as unfair, he contended.

Turning to the pardons board is an indication that McCann believes Thompson is running out of options. Similar arguments gained no traction with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. Since January 2001, more than 200 Texas killers have been executed. In more than 120 instances, the pardons board rejected killers' petitions. Given the slim chance board members will act favorably on a petition, many condemned killers don't bother asking.

“I'm always hopeful when it's a law of parties case and my client hasn't killed,” McCann said. “I'll admit the odds are against us, but if Gov. Perry has shown one thing, it's that he's receptive to hearing law of parties cases.”

Thompson, interviewed recently on death row, said his case “shows why the death penalty in Texas is corrupt. They're trying to justify capital murder. Where is the capital murder?”

Trial testimony revealed Thompson shot store clerk Mubarakali Meredia four times but did not kill him. After the clerk opened the cash drawer, Thompson placed his pistol to Meredia's neck and pulled the trigger a fifth time. The weapon was out of bullets. Thompson then clubbed Meredia with his pistol.

The shot that killed Rahim, Meredia's cousin, was fired by Butler as the robbers fled the parking lot.

Prosecutors on Monday said they have not seen Thompson's clemency petition.

In the punishment phase of Thompson's trial, prosecutors called witnesses who testified that he had participated in at least seven other robberies.

Source: Houston Chronicle, Oct. 27, 2009

Perry uses clemency sparingly on death row

Governor has never called off an execution on a claim of innocence.

In nearly nine years as Texas governor, Rick Perry has never spared a life based on a claim of innocence and only once delayed an execution in such a case, according to a Chronicle review of public records, clemency statistics and information from the governor's office.

During that same period, officials in other death penalty states granted clemency for humanitarian reasons at least 200 times — 171 based on questions of innocence in Illinois alone.

Texas has executed 200 convicts under Perry's watch, but he has spared just one condemned man's life in a case in which he was not compelled to do so by the U.S. Supreme Court. In that case, the inmate Perry saved in 2007 was not a killer but the admitted driver of a getaway car, condemned alongside the triggerman in a joint trial under Texas' tough “law of parties.”

Clemency — the use of executive power to reduce, forgive or delay a sentence — is considered the last fail-safe in the death penalty review process nationwide.

Yet in Texas, it is almost never granted. In fact, at least 50 of the past 200 executions were carried out without any clemency board review at all, a Chronicle analysis of state execution and parole board statistics shows. Other death row inmates' final pleas for mercy were rejected for arriving after the board's deadline.

Most of the nation's 35 death penalty states grant clemency powers to the governor. In the other eight states, including Texas, the governor relies on recommendations from a parole board. Perry uses the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, whose members he appoints, to decide whether to commute death sentences or grant longer reprieves — though he can and has carried out an execution the board voted to halt.

On his own, the governor can issue last-minute reprieves of up to 30 days. Perry has done so only twice.

The Willingham case

Perry has come under fire in recent weeks for his rapid dismissal of just such a request from Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in 2004. To the end, Willingham claimed he was innocent of setting a house fire that killed his three daughters. Though an arson expert's opinion faxed to Perry's office 88 minutes before the execution cast doubt on Willingham's guilt, the governor has refused to release records to indicate whether he read it before the man was put to death.

In an e-mail sent by his office, Perry defended his clemency review process as careful and thorough. Prior to executions, a member of the governor's general counsel's staff reads case documents and briefs Perry at least once.

“The governor believes making decisions in death penalty cases is one of the most serious considerations a governor is asked to give,” the statement said. “He believes that all cases deserve the kind of careful review he and his staff provide. He weighs the totality of all issues.”

In Texas, alone among the states that use parole boards for execution cases, the board never meets to review applications from the condemned. Instead, its members vote via fax. Efforts to reform the process have been unsuccessful.

“No matter where you stand on capital punishment, I think we can all agree that life and death decisions should be taken more seriously than sending a fax,” said Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, a longtime reform advocate and death penalty supporter who oversaw three executions as acting governor in 2000.

“Since 1999, I have been pushing legislation to make the Board of Pardons and Paroles' clemency process in death penalty cases more fair and open, to at least get on a conference call before they vote to take someone's life,” he said.

Paddy Burwell, a retired Exxon geophysicist who served on the parole board from 1999-2005, recalled several troubling death row reviews when he said he received subtle pressure from other members to vote against clemency.

“I don't think they care whether a person is guilty or not guilty,” Burwell said.

Perry had used his power to issue last-minute delays twice before Willingham's execution in 2004. But neither involved a claim of potential innocence. He granted a 30-day reprieve in 2002 to allow authorities to interview a condemned man about other crimes. He delayed another execution because of court closures caused by the Sept. 11 attacks.

Perry granted his first and only reprieve for a death row inmate claiming innocence in December 2004, 10 months after Willingham's execution. Acting on a board recommendation, Perry delayed for 120 days the execution of Frances Newton, a Houston woman convicted of the 1987 shooting of her husband and children, “to allow the courts the opportunity to order a retesting of gunpowder residue on the skirt the defendant wore at the time of the murders and of the gun used in the murders.”

“After a lengthy review of the trial transcript, appellate court rulings and clemency proceedings, I see no evidence of innocence,” Perry said. “However, I am granting the additional time. ... Justice delayed in this case is not justice denied.”

The tests were not exculpatory, and Newton was executed.

Spared by high court

In 2005, Perry commuted the sentences of 28 death row inmates convicted of murders committed before turning 18. Those commutations were ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court decision. He did the same thing in the two other cases involving severely mentally disabled offenders affected by another high court decision.

Only rarely has the Texas parole board recommended commutation of a death sentence without a high court mandate. But it did so in May 2004.

Kelsey Patterson shot and killed two people in Palestine in 1992 and then returned home, laid down his gun, removed everything but his socks and began walking up and down the street. Though found competent, Patterson, a paranoid schizophrenic, ranted at trial about devices planted inside him. As his execution approached, Patterson failed to recognize his lawyers. The board voted to spare his life.

Perry sent him to his death.

In 2007, the board again recommended commutation in the case of Kenneth Foster, the admitted getaway driver in a San Antonio murder who had been convicted in the same trial as the shooter. Perry commuted Foster's sentence to life in prison on the day he was to have been executed.

“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,” Perry said. “I am concerned about Texas law that allowed capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously.”

Perry later supported reforms to end joint capital murder trials in Texas.

Source: Houston Chronicle, Oct. 18, 2009

Texas stoops to a new low

2 men convicted under the controversial Texas’ Law of Parties statute are scheduled to be executed in the weeks to come (Michael Rodriguez on August 14th and Jeff Woods on the 21st). Although neither was charged of being the actual murderer, they were both convicted and sentenced to die.

Currently between 80 and 100 prisoners convicted under the Law of Parties sit on Texas’ death row. Section 7.02 of the Texas Penal Code outlines the following: A person is criminally responsible for an offense committed by the conduct of another if "acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense he solicits, encourages, directs, aids or attempts to aid the other persons to commit the offense" or "If, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it, if the offense was committed in furtherance of the unlawful purpose and was one that should have been anticipated as a result of the carrying out of the conspiracy."

The last time Texas attempted to execute someone convicted under this highly flawed statute was in August 2007 when Kenneth Foster was facing imminent death. . Due to unprecedented media coverage and political pressure, Governor Perry commuted the sentence just hours before the scheduled execution. In order to avoid overt condemnation of the law of parties, Perry stated his reason for commuting the sentence was the fact that Foster was forced to go to trial with the admitted shooter.]

Now is the time to attack the law of parties head on. Please contact Governor Perry’s office and ask that these executions be stopped and that he urge the State legislature to reexamine the law itself when the legislature reconvenes in 2009. Below is a sample letter and contact information. You can mail, fax, or email the letter. Also please call his office to vocally state your opinion. Texas must abandon its barbaric Law of Parties statute - NOW IS THE TIME!
“In the wake of all the media attention geared towards DNA and mental competency issues, inmates with other legitimate innocence claims are being unjustly sentenced and forgotten about. People sentenced under the Law of Parties are among such claims.”

Keith Hampton, attorney for Kenneth Foster.

Texas Law of Parties

Kenneth Foster to Remain in Solitary Confinement Despite Commuted Sentence

Supporters of former Texas death row inmate Kenneth Foster, Jr. learned today that he will remain in solitary confinement indefinitely at the McConnell Unit in Beeville. He has been placed at the lowest security level, meaning he has the highest amount of restrictions on his daily activities. He will only be allowed two visits per month and will not have contact visits.

Family and supporters of Foster had expected that his commutation would result in looser restrictions on his visitations. Specifically, they had hoped he would be able to have contact visits with his wife, Tasha Narez-Foster, and his daughter, Nydesha Foster. Foster has never had physical contact with his wife and has not touched his daughter since she was an infant.

“This is a very discouraging development,” said Lily Hughes of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, “Obviously, we are happy that Kenneth is no longer on death row, but the fact that he is living under basically the same conditions as death row is unacceptable.” Inmates on Texas’ death row live in 22-hour lockdown and do not have contact visits with family.

Foster was scheduled to be executed on August 30 for the murder of Michael LaHood, Jr. in San Antonio. Foster did not shoot the gun that ended LaHood’s life, but was driving the car carrying the actual triggerman, Mauriceo Brown. Foster was convicted and sentenced to death under the Law of Parties, which allows the state to seek convictions for those present at the scene of a crime as if they committed it. Since Foster’s original trial, the other men in the car that night have testified that Foster had no idea LaHood would be shot.

Foster’s case generated widespread international attention over the summer, mainly due to the Austin-based movement against his execution. Formed in May, the Save Kenneth Foster Campaign held weekly meetings, public rallies, and contacted media in an effort to halt Foster’s impending execution.

Approximately six hours before Foster was to be put to death, Governor Rick Perry approved the Board of Pardons and Paroles’ 6-1 recommendation in favor of clemency. "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 following the commutation, “I am concerned about Texas law that allows capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously, and it is an issue I think the Legislature should examine."

Source : Save Kenneth Foster!

Resurrection: August 30th, 2007

Holding cells, Death House,
Huntsville Unit, Texas

Like thieves in the night they swooped me up. It was the eve of my own State sanctioned murder, approximately 8:20 PM and I was listening to shout-outs pour in to me on 96.1 KDOL. Unexpectedly, there was a knock at my cell door. There stood a death row Lieutenant and 2 Wardens (Simmons and Hirch.) "Strip out!" was the Lieutenant's order. "For what reason?" I responded. "Because we told you to" was all that I got back.

Having no idea what the situation could be I complied with the order. Though I was being provoked I didn't want to act before knowing what the situation was. I stripped out and exited the cell. I could feel in my bones that something wasn't right. And as we exited the pod my feelings were true - there waiting for me was a 5 man extraction team and all of the shift supervisors (several Sergeants) and to top it off several plain clothed people (at first I thought these were Sheriffs, but later found out that it was the TDC Regional Director Mr. Treon and the Warden from the Walls Unit.)

As soon as I set my eyes on this circus like spectacle I immediately dropped to the ground and announced that I wasn't going anywhere until somebody told me where I was going and why. In his typical tyranical rage Warden Hirch said "I told you we'd tell you when you got up the hallway."

I told him that if he wanted me to cooperate with him that he needed to give me some understanding to what was going on and that's when he told me that I was being taken to the Walls Unit right then.

I needed a minute to think, so I stood up. By this time I had ankle chains on, so I began shuffling down the hallway. I was placed in an isolated cage and was again told to strip down. I saw this as nothing but a degrading process and I began to voice that. I looked at the Lieutenant and told him that all he was doing he just did 5 minutes ago and that all this was being done just to provoke me and degrade me.

I put on the clothes they gave me and was cuffed again and as soon as I stepped out that cage I laid down in protest. I emphatically stated that I was not going to participate in what they were trying to do to me. I told them that I would not dignify this lynch show. I told them the only thing that I could and that is that they were terrorists and they were only terrorizing.

It wasn't bad enough that I was set to die the next day, but I was basically being terrorized in the middle of the night. I was chained all the way up and placed on a stretcher and I was carried to a dark tinted van where I was loaded in the back.

I saw other death row prisoners watching me through their windows. I could only hope that word would get to my DRIVE comrades. There is no doubt that DRIVE planned to be in motion with civil disobedience against the wrongful murder that was sitting over my head and alongside of that vibe of resistance was a lot of rumors about something violent to take place. I did the best I could talking to the Staff assuring them that DRIVE does not condone violence in regards to this Struggle, but nevertheless extreme precautions were taken. And it wasn't just the vibe of DRIVE that was felt, there was a whole other vibe that was being felt and that was the disapproval of the people. There was social discontent being exuded and the system felt it. And that led to this expedition.

I was loaded into the van and ran smack into a 4 car SWAT team escort to the Walls Unit. We had a caravan on our way there and there were a lot of officers armed to the teeth with handguns, shotguns, assault rifles in every car. There was enough arsenal to wage a small war.

Though I was sickened by the whole process I can't lie and say that I didn't feel that every execution should have this type of security concern. There is no way that people should be able to be friendly while being escorted down the road and murdered. What this proved to me is that when the people rise up their strength will be acknowledged. It was about a 45 minute drive to Huntsville. I silently watched the street signs as I went .

We arrived at the Walls, a Unit that resembled more of a College than a prison. It seemed that I was taken into the heart of the Unit somewhere deep behind a maze of streets and buildings. I could only think in my mind that they was taking me to the death chamber, the place that had taken so many men that I knew.

As the van backed up and they opened the door to take me out, I would not walk, so they gladly packed me into the death house. I was dropped on the floor, my wrists were in excruciating pain. I was being told to stand up, but I would not. I only grabbed my wrists which were now bruised and hurting. I looked around the room and I was surrounded by approximately 10 officers and while I wanted to continue to resist, I took great notice that no use of force camera was rolling.

I felt the set up, thus I didn't give them what they wanted. I allowed myself to be fingerprinted and then I was placed in the death watch cell. After I gained my composure I surveyed the room. It was one of the most intensely cold and numb places I had ever seen. It was a narrow room with about 4 other cells.

I was in the very first - just a few steps away from the death chamber. In front of my cell was a long table with drink containers and several Bibles. Straight up - it was like a funeral home. I couldn't help but to again look towards the death chamber. It was a big steel door with a square window at the top. It was a one way mirror, so one could not see in. I just stared at it. I couldn't help but to think about my good friend John Amador that was just executed hours before. I felt his presence with me. I thought of his last words which were so profound. I was in the Texas catacomb and yet while I was there I didn't feel death calling me.

I began pacing my cell for a moment. The Unit Wardens spoke to me and were very respectful. They offered me food and drink, but I refused. For years I had been living off of polluted TDC faucet water, so polluted TDC faucet water would do me just fine then. Slowly but surely my property was gone through and given to me piece by piece. I then began to sort through my property and divide it up for my family (just in case.)

Once I got things pretty situated I remembered that I had something to do for my wife I had a letter to read that she had specifically wrote for me if I got to the point that I didn't feel I'd get a stay. Though that feeling had never hit me 100% I felt that this time was as good as any. I reached into her folder and grabbed the letter that she had written: "You cannot read this unless you are not granted a stay. Open/read this no earlier than the morning of August 30th" on the front. While I wasn't unsure of the stay it was approximately 2:30 in the morning of August 30th and I was across from the death chamber, so I felt now was the time to read that letter. What I opened to was one of the best love letters of my life. In no way did it feel like a goodbye letter and in fact was an - I will see you later letter. My wife and I are resolute on the fact that we are soul mates and no matter in this life or the next we will continually swirl around each other. Her letter did nothing short of hold me up during this time. It was a beautiful speech made to the man whose heart only she understands. And I was at peace with it. Something in me told me that those would not be our last love letters.

I finished getting situated around 3:30 AM and fell into a hard sleep. But, I could not sleep long. I was up by 6:30 AM. I woke feeling nothing but love in my bones. It was such an amazing feeling, because even though I stood hours away from my scheduled execution I didn't feel any fear. I just felt love surrounding my body and stood head up as I had been doing. I washed up, but was allowed a shower around 7:30. By the time I finished and got dressed I was ready to go see my family at visit. I was ready to face the day head on. I started off my visits with my most beloved revolutionary sister and brother Walidah Imarisha and Ray Ramirez.

I only had 4 hours to visit with everyone, so we knew that our exchange would be short and sweet. I was already in the mindset that I wouldn't be doing any goodbyes, but right off the bat the latest media news was what was at hand.

Reports of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times plus more - was the topics. Movement, movement and more movement was all we had to talk about. There was no time for goodbyes. We wrapped up our visit in about 40 minutes and we ended with fist in the air and revolutionary salutes.

My next visit would be with my childhood cousin Beverly Fisher and close friend from France Emilie Artaud. I hadn't seen my cousin in over 11 years, so that was such a warming thing.

Again - no time for goodbyes - news of activism in France and mobilization for the day. Things were positive and as my friend Emilie was ready to leave we exchanged smiles. Up next was the man himself, my super star point guard of the team Adam Axel. Here is a young man that was able to move mountains and I have no doubts that if it wasn't for him, I might not be where I am today. His efforts alongside of the CEDP proved to be life savers. Our visit was so very upbeat and nothing but victory was tapping at our minds. My father found his way in in between everyone else and I have never seen my father so alive and positive.

His mind was already convinced that victory was ours and no one or nothing could convince him to otherwise. We all had good talks and as those visits winded down my wife and my grandparents came in. Everything was joyous. It had been years since I had seen my grandmother and though ailing with Alzheimer's she was as beautiful as ever to me. In fact everything was beautiful. Not once did we feel a need for a goodbye, so after I spoke with my grandfather he departed the visiting room with my grandmother just leaving me and my wife. There we sat hand in hand, eye to eye talking about this future that we had together. We talked and talked. I told her about her letter that I read and we just gave a knowing smile to each other.

We had decided to spend the last hour with each other and as the time got closer to 12noon I noticed my father walking up to our booth. Neither of us was expecting that, so we looked over to him as he approached and when he got near us he just threw his fist in the air and screamed - "Whoah!!!" He yelled to me that the Board had voted 6-1 in my favor. Next to my wifes screams for joy all I could do was let off a grin from ear to ear. As my wife and father embraced I could only tell my father to give her a kiss for me. And while my father was saying that it was all up to the Governor at that point I knew that there was no more guessing to it. When the Board didn't deliver their decision on the 28th as planned I knew that something greater was in the works. I knew that they were feeling the pressure and would want to consult with the higher ups. As I told my supporters - if the decision comes back negative it's over. That would be a sign that nothing else would go for me. But... if it comes back in my favor I knew that it had been decided that I would live. So, when that 6-1 came down I knew that victory was mine. My father left the visitation room leaving me and my wife to rejoice amongst each other. We gave each other kisses and I pointed something out to her. I told her that I was always looking for the signs from God. Once upon a time as a youth I didn't know how to pay attention, though I was always getting signs. Now I'm very much more alert. And while I had been getting mixed signals from all the bad dreams my closest friends were having one sign came right before I left the death chamber to go to visit. The night before when all my property was taken and searched they took all the shoe strings from my shoes. I had not known this, because they kept my shoes and said that they would give them to me when I went to visit. So, that morning before visit I told them that I had some tennis shoes and some boots and that I would like my boots. As I got dressed and my boots were handed to me and I saw the missing laces I could only crack a very wide smile, because my mind drifted to my poem "The Final Call" where I start saying: "I'm coming straight off death row in boots with no laces." I pointed this out to them and before I closed my visit with my wife I reminded her I'm coming straight off death row. She replied emphasizing "OFF!" I smiled and concurred. "Yes, OFF!" We ended our visit with a kiss from behind the glass and I was escorted back to the death chamber. As I was placed in the cell I spoke to some of the rank that was around me. I let one of them know why my family was so excited. I know that they were monitoring all attitudes, actions and behaviors, so I wanted them to know why my family got so excited. The guard looked back at me and said "well, today just might be your day."

No sooner than he said that the Warden walked through the door on his cell phone. He looked at me and said, "They're commuting your sentence." I guess I was kind of surprised that he told me just like that, so I was like, "That's it? It's done?" He said, "Yeah, your sentence was just commuted. We'll have you out of here in just a few." My head was tingling and I wasted no time to drop to my knees and say a little prayer of thanks to the Most High, because I knew that He had had His hands around this situation.

A few minutes later I was headed back to Polunsky. On the drive back everything seemed brand new. Even officers were telling me that I had a new chance at life and I knew that. The sky was brighter and my heart was lighter. I got back to Polunsky Unit and was just hoping to be able to get around some comrades. While I was in a holding cell I had the fortune to see my best friend and mentor Tony Ford pass by and he had a smile so big on his face that I would have swore he had 2 mouths. That was a perfect passing, because that was my best friend and I'm glad he got to see my face before I left. I was placed on a pod where I only stayed about 30 minutes. As I walked through the door there was an elder comrade of mine in the dayroom - Harvey Earvin - and I went up to the bars and let him hug me. I went into the cell and had only enough time for about 3 persons to send me short kites of congratulations. And in no time a team came to pick me up.

They wanted me OFF death row and I was ready to go. In just that fast of time I was being moved off death row and sent to the Byrd Unit to be reprocessed as a general population prisoner. Having had an international campaign, an armed SWAT team escort and a political commutation there wasn't too many people that didn't know who I was. Most had good things to say to me and one guard even came up to me and asked how I was being treated. I told him that I was being treated ok thus far. Not knowing if this was a man of importance I asked him who he was. He simply replied "Just an officer." But then he added in "I listen to KPFT everyday. And Democracy Now!" I could only smile and say - "Right on, brotha!" And Right On it has been.

After a 10 year battle of fighting the death penalty I can finally sit back and breathe a bit. I can finally let off a small sigh. I've said if from the beginning that as long as the battle was on that I couldn't do that. And though the war isn't over a huge battle has been won and I can finally sit back and exhale and even let go a few tears of joy joyous tears that say that I'm going to continue to have the fuel to do positive and great things.

I have so many to live for so many that didn't get the chance to carry on that greatness they attained while on death row. I can't speak for the men that have gotten off death row before me, but I know that I'm ready to do something phenomenal. This will not be a wasted opportunity.

So many people stood by my side, supported me and believed in me and I owe them something. I owe them 100% effort and dedication to the struggle we merged in on. I can't help but to think about those I left behind - the others that now sit on death watch. This has been such a traumatic journey and there are so many pains and scars.

I hope that my fight has given some new hope to the struggle showing that the impossible can be done. And if it ever happens once it can happen again - and it must! History was made on August 30, 2007 and it's this day that I pray HOPE was resurrected amongst our fighters in an otherwise grim minded people where over 400 murders have brutalized us.

Today is a new day and we're taking Texas by the horns and we're not letting go. We can't let go until we break the beast and I can't help but to end in the same way that I ended my almost prophetic poem "The Final Call": "These words are a prose of focus on death row... of letting go of the fear and hate of Selves... let's take it off the shelves and activate the way... the way today is leaving the gates... and the point I was trying to make it - I'M COMING STRAIGHT OFF DEATH ROW!"

Visit Kenneth's site for more.

Picture: Andrew Lichtenstein, Life & Death Row in Texas. Click here to visit his Website.

Board's ruling not seen as shift in favor of killers

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles' role in saving a San Antonio killer from execution Thursday may have delighted death penalty opponents, but legal experts said the panel's recommendation of mercy does not portend a policy of sympathy for capital killers.

The board's 6-1 recommendation that Kenneth Foster's death sentence be commuted to life in prison was only the fifth time in more than a dozen years that the board has acted in favor of a killer.

Thursday's action also marked the fourth time in that period in which a governor accepted the board's recommendation of a life sentence.

Gov. Rick Perry made the move about seven hours before Foster's scheduled execution and explained that his concern centered on the fact that Foster, who drove the getaway car, and the gunman were tried together.

While Texas' position as the nation's busiest death penalty state remains secure, Thursdays action may lead to greater discretion in the filing of capital cases against those other than the actual killers.

"With the death penalty under tighter scrutiny if someone isn't the actual shooter, it's going to be harder to get the death sentence," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the non-partisan Death Penalty Information Center.

Perry's commutation of Foster's death sentence "was very unexpected," said Rob Owen, a clinical professor at the University of Texas School of Law.

"This decision by the governor today, which I applaud, can be justified in that Mr. Foster did not anticipate that a killing would take place," Owen said. "That will serve to distinguish this case from any other case."

But it would be "over interpreting the case" to conclude that the parole board has become more receptive to killer's appeals, said David Dow, a University of Houston law professor also with the Texas Innocence Network.

"I think Gov. Perry's statement illuminates the highly unusual nature of the board's action in this case," Dow said, alluding to the governor's expressed concern about the pair being tried together.
The lesson to be drawn from the board's action, Dow said, is that appellate attorneys should submit clemency petitions to the pardons board more often. He said they are not filed in 75 percent of capital cases in Texas because "attorneys don't get paid for doing it."

Source: Houston Chronicle

Perry Commutes Death Sentence

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today commuted the death sentence of Kenneth Eugene Foster of San Antonio to life imprisonment after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles (TBPP) recommended such action.

On May 6, 1997, Foster was sentenced to death for his role in the 1996 capital murder of Michael LaHood. Foster sought to have his death sentence commuted to a life sentence arguing that he did not shoot the victim, but merely drove the car in which that the actual killer was riding. In addition, Foster was tried along side the actual killer, Maurecio Brown, and the jury that convicted Foster also considered punishment for both him and his co-defendant in the same proceeding.

"After carefully considering the facts of this case, along with the recommendations 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," Gov. Perry said. "I am concerned about Texas law that allows capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously, and it is an issue I think the legislature should examine."

The TBPP voted 6-1 to recommend commutation, and the governor signed the commutation papers Thursday morning.

The governor's action means Foster's sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment as soon as the Texas Department of Criminal Justice can process this change.

http://www.governor.state.tx.us/divisions/press/pressreleases/PressRelease.2007-08-30.0856

Gov. Perry commutes death row inmate's sentence

AUSTIN -- Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday commuted death row inmate Kenneth Foster’s sentence to life, following a 6-1 recommendation by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

“After carefully considering the facts of this case, along with the recommendations 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,” Gov. Perry said. “I am concerned about Texas law that allows capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously, and it is an issue I think the legislature should examine.”

Mr. Foster was the getaway driver in a 1996 armed robbery spree that ended in the murder of a 25-year-old San Antonio man. He contends he had no knowledge a murder was going to occur, and he was not the trigger man. But he was convicted, in the same courtroom as the shooter, under the state’s “law of parties,” which authorizes capital punishment for accomplices who either intended to kill or "should have anticipated" a murder.

Mr. Foster is one of an estimated 80 Texas death row inmates convicted under the law; about 20 have already been put to death. Most states have such laws for many types of crimes, but Texas is the only state to apply it broadly to capital cases. While death penalty opponents decry its use, prosecutors argue all those responsible for heinous crimes must be held accountable.

Mr. Foster acknowledges he was up for getting high and robbing a few people on that night 11 years ago. But he was in a car with two other men nearly 90 feet away when one of his partners shot and killed Michael LaHood in what jurors determined was a botched robbery.

The men in the car, including Mr. Foster, have testified that they thought they were done robbing for the night and that there was no plan to stick up - and certainly not to murder - Mr. LaHood. The shooter, Mauriceo Brown, was executed last year.

Mr. Foster's attorney believes his client's fate was sealed during his joint trial with Mr. Brown, when one of his robbing partners testified that "it was kind of like, I guess, understood, what was probably fixing to go down" when Mr. Brown got out of the car.

It was enough for jurors - and later, the appeals court - to support a capital murder charge for Mr. Foster on the basis of conspiracy: They believed Mr. Foster, as the getaway driver on two previous robberies, either knew what was about to occur or should have anticipated it.

But Mr. Foster's attorney never got the chance to cross-examine the two other partners, who both received life sentences. One has since given a sworn statement to Mr. Hampton saying he didn't understand Mr. Brown's intent was to rob Mr. LaHood until Mr. Brown had already made his way up the driveway. The other has testified that Mr. Foster asked the men all night to quit and worried about returning the car to his grandfather.

In recent weeks, Mr. Foster’s case has brought waves of attention, from rallies across the state to public statements from former President Jimmy Carter, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and actress Susan Sarandon.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, upheld Mr. Foster's sentence for a final time this month.

Source : DallasNews.com

Board recommends condemned man be spared

AUSTIN -- The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended this morning that Gov. Rick Perry commute death row inmate Kenneth Foster’s sentence to life – leaving the governor just 7 hours to determine Mr. Foster’s fate.

“I’m trying to get him to make the decision just as fast as possible,” Keith Hampton, Mr. Foster’s attorney, said from the governor’s office. “I’m meeting with attorneys here to tell them the ups and downs and find out where they’re at.”

The execution by lethal injection is scheduled for 6 p.m. The governor’s office had no immediate comment the board’s vote. Mr. Perry does not have to follow the board’s recommendation, and he has rarely intervened in death penalty cases as governor.

Mr. Foster was the getaway driver in a 1996 armed robbery spree that ended in the murder of a 25-year-old San Antonio man. He contends he had no knowledge a murder was going to occur, and he was not the trigger man. But he was convicted under the state’s “law of parties,” which authorizes capital punishment for accomplices who either intended to kill or "should have anticipated" a murder.

Mr. Foster is one of an estimated 80 Texas death row inmates convicted under the law; about 20 have already been put to death. Most states have such laws for many types of crimes, but Texas is the only state to apply it broadly to capital cases. While death penalty opponents decry its use, prosecutors argue all those responsible for heinous crimes must be held accountable.

Mr. Foster acknowledges he was up for getting high and robbing a few people on that night 11 years ago. But he was in a car with two other men nearly 90 feet away when one of his partners shot and killed Michael LaHood in what jurors determined was a botched robbery.

The men in the car, including Mr. Foster, have testified that they thought they were done robbing for the night and that there was no plan to stick up - and certainly not to murder - Mr. LaHood. The shooter, Mauriceo Brown, was executed last year.

Mr. Foster's attorney believes his client's fate was sealed during his joint trial with Mr. Brown, when one of his robbing partners testified that "it was kind of like, I guess, understood, what was probably fixing to go down" when Mr. Brown got out of the car.

It was enough for jurors - and later, the appeals court - to support a capital murder charge for Mr. Foster on the basis of conspiracy: They believed Mr. Foster, as the getaway driver on two previous robberies, either knew what was about to occur or should have anticipated it.

But Mr. Foster's attorney never got the chance to cross-examine the two other partners, who both received life sentences. One has since said in a sworn statement that he didn't understand Mr. Brown's intent was to rob the victim until Mr. Brown had already made his way up the driveway. The other has testified that Mr. Foster asked the men all night to quit and worried about returning the car to his grandfather.

In recent weeks, Mr. Foster’s case has brought waves of attention, from rallies across the state to public statements from former President Jimmy Carter, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and actress Susan Sarandon.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, upheld Mr. Foster's sentence for a final time this month. If Mr. Foster is executed, it will be the third in Texas this week, and the 24th this year.

Source : DallasNews.com

Not the Killer, but Still Facing a Date With the Executioner

HOUSTON, Aug. 29 — Kenneth Foster has a date on Thursday with the executioner’s needle. Not for killing anyone himself, but for what he was doing — and might have been thinking — the night in 1996 when he was 19 and a sidekick gunned down a San Antonio law student.

Ensnared in a Texas law that makes accomplices subject to the death penalty, Mr. Foster, 30, is to become the third death row inmate this week, and the 403rd since capital punishment resumed in Texas in 1982, to give his life for a life taken.

But unlike most others condemned to death in this state, Mr. Foster, a former gang member and aspiring musician and now a prison poet from San Antonio, is not a murderer in the usual sense. He was convicted and sentenced to die for abetting a killing — 80 feet away — that he might, or might not, have had reason to anticipate.

The gunman is dead, executed last year. Two accomplices are serving life terms.
Now, failing a last-minute reprieve, Mr. Foster, the group’s driver in a robbery spree — who argues that he never was party to the murder — is facing lethal injection. His guilt, affirmed so far in every appeal, including five turned away by the United States Supreme Court, hinges in large part on difficult questions of awareness and intention.

Other states also hold co-conspirators responsible for one another’s criminal acts in a so-called law of parties. But few of those states have a death penalty. And no other state executes anybody on the scale of Texas.

Click here to read this feature in full.

Source : The New York Times

Report on status of Foster case

The update on Kenneth Foster is that the Board of Pardons and Paroles was working on John Amador's case all afternoon and didn't get to Kenneth's case. Johnny was just executed in Huntsville. The Foster family was with the Amador family in Huntsville for the execution. Both families are from San Antonio and Johnny and Kenneth both began a hunger strike last week. The Fosters had an eight hour visit with Kenneth today. Tomorrow they will have 4 hours.
So tomorrow the Board will rule on Kenneth's case. I am not holding my breath for them to do the right thing as they almost never do. But I still think we should call them all morning until they rule. The number to call is:

Board-- 1-512-406-5852
Gov-- 1-512-463-2000

It is so hard to have execution after execution in Texas while we know that this damn system will ultimately be done away with. But how many people do we have to lose to this racist assembly line to death sponsored by the state of Texas? I encourage everyone to turn their anger and energy at this machinery of death toward building the movement for abolition. We can't build a movement for all of the 400 people on death row in Texas, so we must build a movement to stop the whole disgusting tool of the rich rulers of this state.

Gloria Rubac

Another stain on justice, Texas style

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Gov. Rick Perry can spare a life, uphold justice and bring a semblance of honor to Texas this week, if only he will seize the opportunity.

Perry has the power to stop the execution of death row inmate Kenneth Foster, scheduled to die Thursday for a crime everyone acknowledges that he did not commit. The state's Board of Pardons and Paroles also can halt the execution.

Foster, 30, is not the sweetheart anti-death penalty activists insist he is. He was a thug, armed robber and drug dealer in San Antonio. But he did not commit the murder that put him on death row.

Foster was driving the car with three criminal friends on a robbery spree the night Michael LaHood, 25, was shot and killed in 1996. One of Foster's passengers, Mauriceo Brown, shot LaHood in the face during an attempted robbery. Brown was executed for that crime last year.
Foster was convicted under Texas' Law of Parties statute that considers those who had a major role in a capital crime as guilty as the actual killer. Texas is the only state that applies the Law of Parties to capital crimes, and an estimated 80 death row inmates have been condemned to die under that statute.

Foster and the others in the car with him say Foster had no idea Brown would kill LaHood. But prosecutors and a jury said Foster should have known that Brown intended to shoot LaHood and should have prevented it.

The inescapable problem with the Law of Parties is that a jury has to go back in time and read the defendant's mind, guess at his intention. The sentence is based on what the jury believed Foster was thinking when the crime occurred. No one's life should hinge on guesswork by jurors.

A federal district judge overturned the death sentence in 2005 after determining that Foster didn't play a major role in the conspiracy to rob LaHood. But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court and reinstated the death sentence in 2006. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Foster's appeal.

So now it's up to Perry or the Board of Pardons and Paroles to do the right thing and spare Foster's life by granting him a reprieve. It's the only just thing to do. If the governor or parole board allows this execution, Texas will be further stained by injustice.

Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, Texas has executed 400 people, far more than any other state. That's more than a third of all the 1,100 executions in the United States in that same period.

Everyone can sympathize with LaHood's family and share their grief at their loss. But granting Foster a reprieve in no way endangers this state's embrace of the death penalty or threatens to turn a cold-blooded killer loose on the streets.

It only assures that one man is not put to death for a crime committed by someone else. It's simple justice.

Source: Austin-American Statesman (from Save Kenneth Foster Blog)

Kenneth Foster Execution a 'New Low for Texas' and a 'Shocking Perversion of the Law,' Says Amnesty International

(Washington, D.C.) -- Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) today condemned the scheduled August 30 execution of Kenneth Foster, who was convicted of a murder he did not commit and has consistently denied knowing would occur. The human rights organization has mobilized its international membership to urge the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Rick Perry to grant clemency.

Foster was sentenced to death in 1997 for the murder of Michael LaHood under Texas' controversial "law of parties." This law abolishes the distinction between principal actor and accomplice in a crime and allows both to be held equally culpable.

"This is a new low for Texas," said Larry Cox, executive director of AIUSA. "Texas has the most far-reaching 'law of parties' in this country, further marking it as the death penalty capital of the United States. 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."

Source : Amnesty International USA

Executing this man is bloodlust, not justice

You might have missed the story. After all, the football season is starting, and we had all the excitement of a tax-free weekend.

But Texas is about to execute an innocent man, that is, a man who killed no one, who did not want to kill anyone, who did not help kill anyone.

On these points, there is unanimous agreement between all the parties involved. How could this happen in Texas?

Kenneth Foster is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection Thursday for a murder committed by Mauriceo Brown, a friend of Foster who was executed for murder last year.

The incident in question is the murder of Michael LaHood. In an altercation, Brown pulled a gun and shot LaHood. Brown testified that LaHood had drawn a gun on him first. Whatever happened, it is undisputed that Foster sat in the car 80 feet away from the shooting. There is no evidence that Foster had felonious intent. When he heard the shot, he started to drive off before Brown got back in the car, a fact kept from the jury.

Part of what got Foster charged with capital murder is a legal concept known as "the law of parties." In Texas, a person is responsible for the criminal conduct of another if he intentionally assists the other in committing a crime. If a second crime is committed, and it can be anticipated, he can be held criminally responsible for that crime, as well.

Problematic law

Nearly thirty years ago, I was appointed to represent a capital murder defendant in Brazos County where the "law of parties" was involved. In that case, my client agreed with another person to do physical harm to the victim and the victim died as a result. Even though there was no direct evidence that my client intended the death of the victim, his conduct fit clearly within the "law of parties."

This is not the case with Kenneth Foster. Foster was merely present in the vicinity of the murder, not a participant in it in any way except that he was driving the car in which the killer, Brown, left the scene.

It should surprise no one who keeps up with such cases that Foster is a black man accused of killing a white man, a factor in many capital murder cases. Michael LaHood was the son of a well-known attorney in San Antonio. The LaHood family, through the media, made it known it wanted the guilty parties executed. The prosecuting attorney withheld evidence that would have supported Brown's testimony that LaHood was armed and that Brown shot him in self-defense. Foster was tried with Brown, a decision by the judge and prosecutor that prejudiced Foster's chance to receive a fair trial. Foster's court-appointed attorney made no inquiries into Foster's background. Had he done so, he would have found many factors that would have mitigated against sentencing him to death by lethal injection.

Proponents of capital punishment argue that we need this punishment for those who are the worst of the worse; for those who commit murder under the most cold and heinous circumstances; for the irretrievably lost among us. None of these conditions comes close to describing Kenneth Foster.

This case is not about revenge against Kenneth Foster because Foster didn't kill Michael LaHood, nor did he even want to kill him. It is about blood lust. Whether the proponents of capital punishment take refuge in Scripture or their general outrage at crime, their hands will be covered with the blood of Kenneth Foster if this travesty of justice is not stopped.

-- Lamar Hankins is a San Marcos attorney.

Shujaa Graham speaking on behalf of TX Death Row Inmate Kenneth Foster

Shujaa Graham, here speaking on behalf of TX Death Row Inmate Kenneth Foster, July 2007, spent three years on California’s death row for a crime he did not commit. Shujaa was framed for the murder of a prison guard because he was active in fighting for prisoners' rights. It took four trials and the work of dedicated high school students until Shujaa was found not guilty.

Source : National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

A Cruel and Unusual Excuse: Texas Evades EU Call to Conscience

In order to stop the killing at Texas death row, the European Union on Tuesday, through the office of its Presidency, asked the Governor of Texas to declare a death-penalty moratorium. But the Governor's reply was quick and flippant. He did nothing to stop the 400th killing Wednesday evening, and it is becoming horribly apparent that he will do nothing to intervene in the 3 executions scheduled for next week -- not even for Kenneth Foster who never killed anyone.

"We believe that elimination of the death penalty is fundamental to the protection of human dignity, and to the progressive development of human rights," argued the EU. "We further consider this punishment to be cruel and inhumane. There is no evidence to suggest that the use of the death penalty serves as a deterrent against violent crime and the irreversibility of the punishment means that miscarriages of justice - which are inevitable in all legal systems - cannot be redressed. Consequently, the death penalty has been abolished throughout the European Union."

In reply to the EU's four carefully worded reasons, the Texas Governor answered that "Texans are doing just fine governing Texas."

"Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens," said the Governor in an oddly titled "Statement by Robert Black." Does the Governor have in mind some joking reference to the film, "Meet Joe Black"? Speaking for the Governor, Mr. Black reminded the EU that the USA was born out of a revolution "to throw off the yoke of a European monarch."

The reply by the Texas Governor is a logical embarrassment, because it waves around an issue not disputed by the EU while failing to provide any reason beyond state's rights for why the long-ago decision by Texans should be considered reasonable.

When the Governor calls the death penalty "just and appropriate" we first wonder if he means to suggest that anything whatsoever can be just and in-appropriate. The construction of the Governor's conjunction signifies a careless haste in thinking precisely in a moment when careful considerations are most called for - that is, on the eve of the state's 400th execution.

If Texas has good reasons for deciding that the death penalty is a just basis for killing 400 people, and if the killing is to continue with an even broader scope to include people who drive cars for killers, then a "decent respect to the opinions of mankind" would compel the Governor to treat the matter with the logical seriousness that it deserves. Instead we get an anti-littering slogan on retreads: "Don't Mess with Texas."

Perhaps the Governor means for his readers across the Atlantic to infer that where a "most horrible crime" has been committed, a most terrible punishment is not to be considered cruel or unusual. An eye for an eye, a life for a life. If this is the Governor's intent, we would prefer that he state his reasons more clearly so that the discourse may continue on open ground.

In matters of judgment and punishment we may allow the Governor a point, despite the atrocious rhetoric that he uses to put it across. The law does seem to demand a certain reciprocal retribution for wrongdoing. But in all other cases, the lawful currency of punishment is put in terms of cash damages or some manner of restricted freedom, up to and including life in prison. If we don't literally take an eye for an eye, on what basis do we decide to take a life for a life? Texas has enough prisons to hold 400 killers for life.

The Governor's failure to state the case more clearly not only deflects dialogue on the second point raised by the EU; it also serves to fog the fact that the Governor completely evades the other three issues raised. If Texas takes the position that death for death is just, based on the horribleness of the crime, where does Texas stand on the other 3 issues raised by the EU?

Does Texas not believe that an eventual end to the death penalty is demanded by "the protection of human dignity, and to the progressive development of human rights"? The Governor's reply to the EU waves the bloody shirt of a 230-year-old war, but what about the progressive evolution of law in the USA since that time? Didn't Texas and USA follow several European examples in the abolition of slavery for example? Is the Governor suggesting that such monumental achievements of legal progress in Texas will require the world to apply the same methods that put an end to slavery? As for the third point raised by the EU, where does Texas stand on the question of deterrent effect? Does the Governor ease his own conscience by thinking about deterrence or not?

And what about the grave problem of irreversibility?

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for starting a fire that killed a person. But the Texas Governor refused to consider expert reviews declaring that the fire could not have been arson in the 2st place (Mills and Possley, Chicago Tribune, Dec. 9, 2004).

Ruben Cantu went to his execution in 1993 claiming that he had been framed. A dozen years later, both his accomplice and a witness now say Cantu spoke the truth (Olsen, Houston Chronicle, July 24, 2006).

Carlos De Luna was killed by the State of Texas in 1990, but there is good reason to believe that another man was the more likely killer (Possley andMills, Chicago Tribune, June 25, 2006).

"I'm an innocent black man that is being murdered," said Shaka Sankofa(Gary Graham) before his execution in June of 2000 (Wikipedia).

In the case of Kenneth Foster -- who is today on a hunger strike in protest of his scheduled execution next Thursday - the State of Texas does not even claim to be executing a killer. Foster drove the car that a killer rode in. The killing was impromptu and took place about 80 feet from the car. Foster was not part of any conspiracy to murder (Editorial, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Aug. 19, 2007).

As the EU says, mistakes in human judgment are inevitable. Does the Governor believe that Texas is infallible? A decent respect for world opinion requires the Governor to answer the question as if the moral life of his state depended upon it.

By what principles in the 21st Century does the Governor carry his conscience when he acts as if carefully planned killings are necessary to his lawful rule? His reply to the EU, that he executes people because the people of Texas long ago made up their minds to let him, displays a cruel and unusual disrespect toward the ongoing discourse that conscionable governance requires.

Texas Civil Rights Review - August, 24 2007

Source : National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Kenneth E. Foster Jr. and John Joe Amador: "a protest of passive non-participation in our executions"

AUGUST 22, 2007 DIRECTIVE

In the name of Human Rights; all religious doctrines of Peace, Love and Forgiveness; and in the vision of reform and atonement, on the above said date myself (Kenneth E. Foster Jr.) and John Joe Amador have committed to a protest of passive non-participation in our executions. Together we have decided to go on a spiritual missin to oppose our systematic executions in the hopes to open the eyes of people that think this horrific process is ok.

Starting on the 22nd we will engage in passive non-participation in this process in the same fashion that civil rights fighters stood down the cruel and inhumane treatments of their time.

We are here to say that we do not condone violence and will not promote it. We recognize that violence will not solve our problems, just like executions do not help our society. We are committed to peace and grassroots activism. We are not doing this for ourselves, but for YOU, the people, to demonstrate to you that we do not agree with this process. We do this for YOU, the people, to show that we are new men today and that we must stand down the death penalty. We seek to harm no person and we will not. We pray to compell this society to look at the death penalty in a new light.

Starting on the 23rd we will begin refusing all food. We will not eat any more meals served to us. Our only nourishment will be liquids.

Bexar County had lined up two San Antonio executions in a row - John Amador's for the 29th and mine for the 30th. While my case is known, Mr. Amador's is not. I will give Mr. Amador the opportunity to write his own words regarding the injustices that he has faced at the hands of Bexar County. Since I have a visual plight I am here to say that the State is wrong in its desire to kill me. If I was as equally guilty as the 2 other men in the car, and these 2 men are not on death row, then I should not be either. This is an obvious injustice and railroad.

As we enter into being 7 days away from our execution we will be placed in cells that have video cameras where we can be observed 24-7. We cannot condone this invasion. We cannot participate in the way our humanity is being stripped. While we are NOT indifferent to the victims, we are also not indifferent to the fact that we are still human beings. But for a country that professes it wants a good society it's hard to acknowledge that when the prison population is 2 million and rising and the conditions are left horrific. So what is really the purpose of the Penal system? We also ask you to think about this - in any other country when people are lined up and slaughtered it's called genocide. They said Sadaam Hussein committed mass Genocide. It has happened in Darfur and Rwanda and Presidents of Cuba and North Korea have been accused of it. But when America does it it is called justice? Texas will surpass 400 murders this year. If we are to be unjustly taken then we do not want to go silently. We will not walk to our executions and we will not eat last meals. We will not give this process a humane face.

We ask all of you to stand for human rights. We are men that are dedicated to change and betterment. We are dedicated to give atonement to the system and society. Who of us will be left to guide the lost? We sacrifice this for society, not for us, because death row is a cancer in the body of this country. Our actions are antibodies to oppose this atrocious disease.

I, as a DRIVE representer, stand in the name of a better day. We will be on a DRIVE and we do it with prayers, love and understand - even for those that hate us. We don't hate them and we don't hate the TDC officers that will usher us to our murders. Reports have said that Governor Perry is doing the will of the people. So, we come to you, the people, to relook at this process.

For those that have read about my case you now see how arbitrary capital punishment can be. AS long as it exists these things WILL continue to happen. Why? Because human beings are fallible. Many people want us to be the men we was 10 years ago. But we're not. We could point fingers and talk about scams and corruption going on. We can talk about the ENRON's and the Scooter Libby's, the Guantanamo Bay's and Abu Ghraib's. But we won't because we know you know that these things exist. We will only point our fingers up.....up.....and say that WE MUST GET UP. We must get up the way the CEDP has gotten up and made a movement. We must get up like these medias, politicians and even friends to the victims have gotten up. Some of us see a new way. It is possible.

And so, on August 22nd we commit ourselves to something that is beyond us. Perhaps we are just tools for a greater purpose.

We will not lift a finger to another person. We will only lift our voices and spirits. We will allow YOU, the people, to be the force that must be reckoned with.

We close this Directive in the words of Martin Luther King Jr.:

"Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness, only light can do that."

Let's shine to the world.

In struggle,

Kenneth E. Foster Jr. & John Joe Amador