Truemors
Man faces execution for being in car with killer
Photos
Texas has absolutely the worst death penalty laws in the United States. It is the only state in the Union that allows the authorities to execute someone even after there is actual evidence to show that the accused is innocent.
I was in a production of the stage play 'The Exonerated' about several normal people who were wrongly accused of capital crimes and how is damaged their lives. If the United States was really about justice for all, it would include using such a finalising judgement when it is common knowledge that American justice is not perfect.
- The Angryindian
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A 30-year old man, Kenneth Foster, is set to be executed today for a murder which he not only did not commit, but which the authorities in Texas accept was carried out by another man in 1996.The trial judge, the prosecutor, and the jury that sentenced Mr Foster to die admit that he did not murder the victim Michael LaHood. But, under a controversial "law of parties", in Texas an associate of a perpetrator can be found co-responsible in a capital case. The law imposes the death penalty on anybody involved in a crime where a murder occurred.
This is how Foster, a black man out on a crime spree with some friends, came to be convicted of murdering Mr LaHood, a white man and the son of a prominent lawyer . The killer, Mauriceo Brown, was executed last year.
Foster has been politically active on death row. He has organised fellow prisoners, becoming a leader in the anti-death penalty movement in Texas and starting a non-violent movement called Drive, to campaign over conditions on death row. Unlike most other inmates he had several years of college education before jail.
On the night of the murder, Foster and several friends had been driving around drinking and committing robberies. On the way home, Brown left the car to talk to a woman. He then got into an altercation with Mr LaHood and shot him dead in the driveway of his house in San Antonio.
The murder occurred as Foster was sitting in a car some 30 metres away with three other passengers – but prosecutors said there was a conspiracy to commit the crime and therefore he deserved a death sentence. Since Foster's original trial, the other passengers – none of whom was tried under the law of parties – have testified that Foster had no idea a shooting was going to take place.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Foster's final appeal on Tuesday and his last recourse is a pardon from Texas Governor Rick Perry. This seems unlikely, as five of the seven Board of Pardons members must recommend clemency first. Last week Texas executed its 400th prisoner since it resumed capital punishment in 1982.
Recently a friend of the victim has described the pending execution as vengeance and called for it to be halted. The LaHood family has so far not offered support to Foster's case. LaHood's mother said she supported the execution of the actual killer.
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (9)
at 02:46 on August 30th, 2007
If someone´s innocent of a crime but sentenced to death for it that´s the end of justice.
at 05:25 on August 30th, 2007
The texacutioner knows no legal boundery
at 05:54 on August 30th, 2007
Lets see Foster was just hangin out with his Thug friends doing nothing out of the ordinary drinking and smoking pot. Then these fine upstanding citizen thugs roam town with a gun robbing "innocent" citizens. So first I would have to disagree with my above esteemed friend who so easily said "innocent". The victims were the real "innocent" that night. Then to Fosters surprise of course one of these oppressed thugs kills an "innocent" man in cold blood. Soon when he meets his maker and victims
if he is truly "innocent" they will forgive him. I do not think he shoud be executed he should spend the rest of his life in a cage so he can think about his victims everyday. Maybe next time a thug is riding around town with his friends and a gun terrorizing "innocent" citizens he will tell his thug friends to drop him off at the corner.
at 06:08 on August 30th, 2007
Nobody's saying Foster was innocent of crime... just innocent of murder. The difference is vast.
at 06:27 on August 30th, 2007
In part that is why I say he should not be executed. But if he is on a crime spree with others and someone gets murdered he should get life. And in all state laws guilty of accessory to murder. So he is not innocent of murder. Just not 1st degree. Common law
traditionally considers an accessory just as guilty as the principal(s)
in a crime, and subject to the same penalties. Separate and lesser
punishments exist by statute in many jurisdictions.
at 06:50 on August 30th, 2007
Hmmm..you know - this man did robbery, that´s proven. So why execute him for being 30 meters away from a murder people usually do not commit collaborative when they perpetrated successful robbery already?
The person who committed the murder - which was apparently not planned - has been executed. Don´t wanna play "The twelve Jurymen" in here, but - what would have been your part?
Well, friend - I know..
at 07:12 on August 30th, 2007
apparently is a big word. And what do you Know? pls elaborate. I live in Florida there are places in this state that if they catch my Cuban ass with a bunch of Cuban thugs and one of my thug friends murders someone will I be surprised when a redneck jury has no mercy on me. So I avoid riding around with Cuban thugs because in Florida I am considered a spic by some.
at 08:42 on August 30th, 2007
Below is a list of wrongly convicted people defened by the innocence project. perhaps some should focus on non thugs to defend. it is always interesting how some choose to defend those who embrace thug life and then wonder how they ended up where they are, instead of the ones who are truly innocent. let me know if you are interested in a list of non criminals being railroaded thru the system.
at 08:22 on August 30th, 2007
angryindian, I like this story. It's good stuff.thanx for the heads up on this story great story.
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