[Ppnews] Kenneth Foster's Sentence Commuted!

[Political Prisoner News]

In Rare Move, Texas Gov. Commutes Inmate's Death Sentence




Foster Was to Die Today for Murder, Even Though He Never Pulled the Trigger

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3541391&page=1


By WILLIAM MARRA

Aug. 30, 2007

Kenneth Foster, the man sentenced to die this 
evening even though he did not pull the trigger 
that killed Michael LaHood Jr. in 1996, was 
spared today by Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

"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," 
Perry said in a statement. "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."

Foster will now only serve a life sentence. A 
spokeswoman for the Governor said that Foster 
will be eligible for parole beginning in 2036. He 
had been tried for the murder alongside Mauriceo 
Brown, who shot LaHood after attempting to rob 
him. Brown was executed for the murder last year.

Perry's decision came about an hour after the 
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 6-1 to 
recommend that Perry commute the sentence.

Foster was set to be executed for LaHood's 
murder. He did not actually pull the trigger that 
killed the man, but was convicted under a Texas 
law that makes an accomplice to murder subject to the death penalty.

Hampton had told ABCNEWS.com earlier this month 
that he was not hopeful that Foster's appeal 
would be granted. "The odds are extremely low," he said then.

Foster's wife, Tasha Narez-Foster, was breathless 
and ecstatic after she heard news that clemency was granted.

"As soon as I realized what was happening I was 
crying&.I just just crying and now everything is 
going to be fine," Narez-Foster told ABCNEWS.com. 
"Right now we're just going to buy a bottle of 
champagne, open it up, and celebrate."

Though she has not talked to Foster since news of 
Perry's clemency was handed down, she was with 
him when he heard that the Board of Pardons and 
Paroles had recommended clemency.

"Kenneth, his head fell to the table, he was 
hiding his head in his hands. It was just, oh I 
cannot begin to express what we're feeling right now," she exclaimed.

Foster was on death row today stemming from an 
incident in the early morning of Aug. 15, 1996. 
Foster, who was 19 at the time, had been driving 
around drunk and high on marijuana with three 
friends, committing armed robberies. At about 2 
a.m., Foster's passenger, Mauriceo Brown, jumped 
out of the car, approached LaHood as he stood 
with his girlfriend, and tried to rob him. With 
Foster sitting in the car about 80 feet away, Brown shot and killed LaHood.

Foster has testified that he did not know that 
Brown -- who was executed last year -- was going 
to kill LaHood. Foster and Brown were tried 
together, and prosecutors charged that Foster, as 
an accomplice, could be held capitally liable under Texas' "law of parties."

"He was guilty. He was driving that car, he 
helped set that up, he was reaping the rewards. 
It was all of them working together on it," Susan 
Reed, the district attorney of Bexar County, 
where the case was prosecuted, told ABCNEWS.com earlier this month.

Hampton agrees that Foster should be held liable 
for the crimes he did commit that evening. But he 
maintains that executing someone who was at the 
scene of a murder based on what they were 
thinking -- specifically, whether Foster knew a 
murder was going to occur -- is a miscarriage of justice.

Texas is the only state in the country where a 
person may be executed if a murder he or she did 
not anticipate or plan occurs during the course 
of another crime they committed, Hampton said.

Foster's wife, Narez-Foster, said this morning, 
before the pardon had been handed down, that her 
husband is "in very high spirits." She said she 
would see Kenneth in the afternoon, and that they 
were hopeful he would win his appeal.

"He said that he is very hopeful. He's thinking 
that everything is looking good. He is absolutely 
not sad. He's doing alright so far," 
Narez-Foster, sounding calm and composed, said today.

In an interview with The Associated Press before 
the pardon was handed down today, Foster -- who 
has become a poet and activist since entering 
prison, in addition to getting married earlier 
this year -- said that his actions that night 
were reprehensible. But Foster has maintained 
that he does not deserve to die for his actions.

"It was wrong," Foster told the AP. "I don't want 
to downplay that. I was wrong for that. I was too 
much of a follower. I'm straight up about that."

Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures




Governor Perry's Statement

Aug. 30, 2007
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.




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