[NYTr] Kennth Foster - Due to Be Murdered by TX in 3 Days - Now on Hunger Strike
All the News That Doesn't Fit
nytr at blythe-systems.com
Mon Aug 27 06:11:33 EDT 2007
See previous story with extensive links here:
Dangerous Sport: What Texas Won’t Let Kenneth Foster Read
https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20070820/066983.html
[Note: since the above post, a column by Dave Zirin, Kenneth Foster has
gone on hunger strike to protest his impending assassination by Texas.]
The Texas death-row industry won't let a death row prisoner (who's due
to be killed on August 30) read Dave Zirin's first book. A sickening
column that will make your blood boil. Oh, by the way, this guy
Kenneth Foster killed no one. But he's going to die anyway. See the
blog http://savekenneth.blogspot.com/ and the website Zirin lists at
the end, http://www.freekenneth.com for most up-to-date information.
PLEASE KEEP CALLING GOVERNOR PERRY! In Austin, call 512.463.1782 . From
outside Austin, call 800.252.9600. Fax: 512.463.1849. E-mail: send
message from website: http:// www.governor.state.tx.us/contact.
Each of these Texas cases is worse than the last. -NY Transfer]
***
sent by mart
URGENT! PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY!
"Justice" Texas Style:
Kenneth Foster Execution a Shocking Perversion of the Law.
Kenneth Foster Jr. Slated To Be Killed By The State Of Texas Aug. 30,
For a Murder He Did Not Commit And Could Not Predict!
My San Antonio (MSA.Com) - Aug 27, 2007
http://www.mysanantonio.com Aug. 27, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/37go3y
Commentary
Kathy Clay Little: In Texas, bad company can mean capital punishment
"Shun evil companions ... Yield Not to Temptation"
- Baptist Standard Hymnal
"That's too cold!"
-Black slang from 1970s describing hard, merciless fact
Kenneth Foster will be executed in three days.
His execution is unique among Texas' many executions in that he
murdered no one.
Foster was driving the vehicle that Mauriceo Brown exited on a muggy
August night in 1996 to shoot and kill Michael LaHood, the son of a
prominent attorney in Bexar County.
Brown was executed last summer, and the two other men in the car are
serving life sentences for other capital murder cases, though neither
was prosecuted for the LaHood murder.
Foster was convicted under the Texas Law of Parties statute, which
states "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."
In other words, the law's position is that even if Foster had no
knowledge that Brown was going to kill LaHood, he should have
anticipated it and, thus, he is eligible for the death penalty.
Although four other states have law of parties statutes, Texas is the
only state that attaches the death penalty to the statute.
There are many troubling aspects of Foster's trial, particularly that
Foster was tried with Brown, the admitted shooter, and the fact that
attorneys for Dewayne Dillard and Julius Steen - the two other men in
the car - refused to allow Foster's attorney to interview them
because they were each under indictment in capital cases. The
prosecution, however, had full access to both men.
Furthermore, Foster's court-appointed attorney had tried only one
other death penalty case before Foster's case.
One of the more troubling aspects of Foster's case is his
grandfather's allegation that he could not find an attorney to take
the case.
Lawrence Foster told the Austin Chronicle that local attorneys said
they were afraid of reprisals if they represented his grandson.
Foster's case has attracted international attention, and last week
award-winning Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Bob Ray Sanders
challenged the state of Texas not to execute Foster. Whether one
believes in the death penalty or not, Sanders wrote, "a man who did
not plan or commit a murder will die Aug. 30 unless somebody - a
judge, the Board of Pardons and Paroles and/or the governor - has the
heart and the guts to stop it."
LaHood was a law student. It is tragic that hundreds are deprived of
the legal talent he could have brought to the justice system. Foster,
with the help of his grandfather, had overcome a childhood scarred by
drug-addicted, criminally inclined parents, to become a business
owner by the age of 20 and was attending college. It is tragic that
his potential was cut short.
But we accomplish nothing if we extract nothing but state-mandated
revenge from these tragedies.
Therefore, we must make Foster's situation instructive. The life
lesson learned from his execution is one that every parent or
caregiver should forcefully relate to his or her child: Shun evil
companions.
We also need to educate kids on the Texas Law of Parties statute and
teach them how to remove themselves from the type of situation Foster
found himself in. This is particularly important for at-risk kids,
whose behavior continually lands them in detention. Information can
be a powerful tool in preventing tragedy.
Foster is being executed as much for choosing the wrong companions
and not having the courage to say no when they robbed two people
earlier in the night as he is for driving Brown away from the scene
after LaHood was murdered.
Of all the men in the car, he came to the situation the most innocent.
Yet on Friday, Dillard and Steen, who had already participated in
capital murders when LaHood was killed, will experience another day
of life while Foster's body will most likely lie on a cooling board
in a morgue.
Heart and guts are in short supply when it comes to stopping an
execution in Texas.
That's too cold!
Kathy Clay-Little
ublisher of African-American Reflections,
online at http://www.aareflections.com
***
ACLU via Common Dreams News Center - Aug 24, 2007
http://www.commondreams.org
http://tinyurl.com/33he4d
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: AUGUST 24, 2007 2:44 PM
CONTACT: Amnesty International
Wende Gozan at 212-633-4247 or
Brian Evans at 202-544-0200 x4
Foster Execution in TX a Shocking Perversion of the Law
Foster Convicted For a Murder He Did Not Commit or Predict; Human
Rights Organization Calls on Texas Board of Pardons, Gov. Perry to
Grant Clemency
WASHINGTON - August 24 - 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."
In the early hours of August 15th, 1996, Mauriceo Brown, DeWayne
Dillard, Julius Steen and Kenneth Foster stopped outside the house of
Michael LaHood. Brown got out of the car, robbed LaHood, and then shot
him. To convict Kenneth Foster of capital murder under the law of
parties, the prosecution had to prove that there was a conspiracy
between him and Brown to rob LaHood, and that Foster should have
anticipated that murder might have occurred during the robbery. At the
trial Brown testified that there had been no discussion of robbing
LaHood before he got out of the car.
Dillard testified at a state appeal that after the shot was heard,
Foster had appeared surprised and panicked. Steen signed an affidavit
in 2003 stating that, "There was no agreement that I am aware of for
Brown to commit a robbery at the LaHood residence. I do not believe
that Foster and Brown ever agreed to commit a robbery. I don't think
that Foster thought that Brown was going to commit a robbery."
Brown was executed on July 19, 2006. Neither Steen nor Dillard, the
two other accomplices, was prosecuted for LaHood's murder. Yet, as
the evidence stands today, their and Foster's culpability in the
crime appears to be the same.
***
People's Weekly World www.pww.org Aug. 20, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/2tsmen
Texas Set to Execute Innocent Man on August 30
by John Stanford
SAN ANTONIO, Tex.-Kenneth Foster, Jr., whose adopted name is Haramia
KiNassor, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on August 30
for a crime he did not commit.
Foster grew up here in San Antonio, where he lived with his
grandparents. On August 14, 1996, 19-year-old Foster was driving a
car with three other passengers who were involved in a series of
robberies. Foster did not rob anyone, but he was the driver. Later in
the evening the men found themselves behind another car. That car
parked, a woman, Mary Patrick, got out and waived them to the side of
the road. Mauriceo Brown got out of the car Foster was driving, got
into a discussion with Patrick and ended up shooting and killing her
boyfriend, Michael T. LaHood, Jr. There is no evidence that Foster or
the other passengers participated or knew that a murder would be
committed.
Foster was tried along with Brown, and both were found guilty of
capital murder. The judge told the jury they could find Foster guilty
of capital murder even though he had no intent to commit the offense.
On May 5, 1997, Foster was found guilty of capital murder and he
remains on death row.
Texas' "Law of Parties" is being used in this case, but this is a
gross misuse of the Law of Parties.
On March 3, 2005 San Antonio Federal District Judge Royal Fergeson
overturned Foster's death sentence, but the sentence was reinstated
by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The U.S.
Supreme Court has refused to review the case.
Foster has a beautiful and talented daughter, Nydesha, 11 years old,
who lives with her mother. Tasha Narez, Dutch hip hop artist from
Rotterdam who goes by the name Jav'lin, began corresponding with
Foster by email several years ago and recently married him by radio.
She has been able to talk to him on death row, separated by glass,
but she has never been able to touch him. On August 18, at the
Concert to Stop the Execution of Kenneth Foster, Jr., held at the
Carver Community Center, she spoke of her pride in bearing the name
Foster but also of her sadness because he is on death row.
In his 10 years on death row Foster has educated himself and become
an eloquent poet and fighter for social justice.
The death of LaHood was a tragedy. The killer of LaHood has already
been executed. If Foster, who was 80 feet away in a car with the
windows rolled up and the radio on, unaware of what had happened, is
also executed, the tragedy is multiplied. In that case we all lose a
fighter for social justice, Nydesha loses a father and Jav'lin loses
a husband.
There is an urgent need for phone calls and faxes to Texas Governor
Rick Perry, asking him to grant clemency to Kenneth Foster, Jr. (TDC
#999232). Don't let Texas execute Kenneth Foster for driving a car.
In Austin or from out of state the number is (512) 463-1782.
Fax: (512) 463-1849.
Calls from Texas: (800) 252-9600.
Email messages can be sent from the website:
http://www.governor.state.tx.us/contact .
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