Retrosnipes

In less than three weeks Kenneth Foster, an African American man sentenced to death in 1997 for the murder of Michael LaHood, is scheduled to be executed in Texas.LaHood's actual killer, Mauriceo Brown, was executed in 2006. Foster, who was in a car about 100 yards from the crime when it was committed, was convicted under the controversial Texas state "law of parties", under which the distinction between principal actor and accomplice in a crime is abolished. The law can impose the death penalty on anybody involved in a crime where a murder occurred. In Foster's case he was driving a car with three passengers, one of whom, Brown, left the car, got into an altercation and shot LaHood dead. Texas is the only state that applies this statute in capital cases, making it the only place in the United States where a person can be factually innocent of murder and still face the death penalty.



Foster maintains that he did not know that Brown would either rob or kill LaHood. According to an Amnesty International investigation, there is evidence not heard at trial that the murder was an unplanned act committed by Brown, as the latter himself claimed before his execution.

In 2005, a federal district judge found a "fundamental constitutional defect in Foster's sentence" and ruled that Foster's jury had not been asked to determine if he had any intent to kill LaHood, and that this failure represented a misapplication of the law. However, the state of Texas appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which overturned the decision.

The crazy thing about this case is that no one argues that Foster killed the victim. As the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's award-winning columnist Bob Ray Sanders wrote, the case "is further proof of how cruel, capricious, unjust and utterly insane our death penalty laws have become....Because of this tainted system, whether you believe in capital punishment or not, a man who did not plan or commit a murder will die August 30 unless somebody -- a judge, the Board of Pardons and Paroles and/or the governor-- has the heart and the guts to stop it."

You can help these folks get up the guts at freekenneth.com. Find updates on the case and urge members of the Texas legislature to stay Foster's execution and ask for a re-trial based on new evidence.

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4.Sickness

That's a good reason to know who your friends are...

I'd like to know if Kenneth immediately contacted the police when the guy was killed, and if not, why.

Walker92

Bizob

now that is ****ed up, Texas has some backwards laws when it comes to capital punisment.

And before I get flamed i am a firm believer in capital punishment butths is taking it too far

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MWGC #7
2009 MW Fantasy Baseball Champion

Alfdog

Free Tookie

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MWPC Presidente , MW80's #001 , MWJC #002 , MWAN #011

WankMyYoda

Jesus fvcking christ, no wonder this country is so fvcked up, it's run by someone who thinks like this...

Texas

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BCS fail.

five-pt-oh

there's more to this story than what is being reported here.

If they were just executing everyone that was around, they would have convicted all of the passengers. They didn't. It may not have been disclosed here, but they had a reason for bringing Foster into it and not messing with the other 2 people who were also in the car.

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03zincGT

Yea, I'm thinking the same thing. There's more to this story than what's being reported.

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Ron Paul's Campaign For Liberty

five-pt-oh

if stories were always reported 100% complete, most would never make it to print/air because they'd be too boring.

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AmmoChief

i don't believe that *****r, fry him