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Good for Rick Perry
The governor of Texas has commuted Kenneth Foster's death sentence. Foster was to be killed today for driving the getaway car after a murder he didn't know was going to happen:
Gov. Rick Perry accepted a recommendation from the state parole board and said Thursday he would spare condemned prisoner Kenneth Foster from execution and commute his sentence to life.
Foster had been scheduled to die Thursday evening.
"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 from the death penalty to life imprisonment," Perry said in a statement.
"I am concerned about Texas law that allowed capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously and it is an issue I think the legislature should examine."
A surprising move, but one that the state's legal eagles and newspapers had been clamoring for.
Trollaphile|8.30.07 @ 3:37PM|#
Someone from the Peoples Republic of Texas did something reasonable? Did the Cubs win the pennant?
|8.30.07 @ 3:43PM|#
Dan,
Contrary to popular belief, Texans are not all bloodthirsty Branch
Davidians.
In fact, most of us are Mexican
The Extispicator|8.30.07 @ 3:49PM|#
I thought the Clinton administration had Ken Foster secretly murdered. You mean he's alive and in a Texas prison?!?
|8.30.07 @ 3:51PM|#
Dan,
Contrary to popular belief, Texans are not all bloodthirsty Branch
Davidians.
In fact, most of us are Mexican
Leave me to my delusions, please!
|8.30.07 @ 3:54PM|#
I thought the Clinton administration had Ken Foster secretly
murdered. You mean he's alive and in a Texas prison?!?
And who knew that the lead singer of Journey was now governor of
Texas?
|8.30.07 @ 4:11PM|#
And here I was confusing him with that basketball player who shot foul shots underhanded for the Lakers.
|8.30.07 @ 4:14PM|#
For no good reason, I just looked at the Journey wiki. Did you know that there was once a band called Frumious Bandersnatch? Huh.
|8.30.07 @ 4:16PM|#
It's too bad for Perry that Foster wasn't scheduled to be executed tomorrow. That would've allowed him to make the announcement the Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend in an effort to bury the story. Former Indiana governor Joe Kernan pulled that trick when he commuted Darnell Williams' sentence in 2004. Of course, he still got trounced in the next general election, so maybe it's hopeless for Perry either way.
Nigel Watt|8.30.07 @ 4:19PM|#
Goodhair's advisers finally told him to do something
smart.
It's about time - the guy has the IQ of an eggplant.
|8.30.07 @ 4:21PM|#
C'mon. STEVE Perry was the lead singer of Journey. At least he was after they stopped being a prog rock band and Greg Rolie was relegated to keyboards and backing vocals.
|8.30.07 @ 4:23PM|#
What's funny about Journey was how great the supporting cast was--Santana escapees, etc. Strange they ended up being so "pop".
Timothy|8.30.07 @ 4:44PM|#
Every Texan knows that Perry's hair really runs the state. Way to go, Governor Hair!
|8.30.07 @ 5:03PM|#
In his entire term as Governor of Texas, George W. Bush never
commuted one death penalty.
Does any intelligent person honestly believe that no one who did
not deserve to die was on Death Row during Bush's term? If not,
then it must be some combination of cowardice, arrogance,
ignorance, laziness, cynicism and criminality that had Bush let
every one of them--the guilty and the innocent--die. President
Bush's dereliction of duty may not amount to premeditated murder
but it is at least manslaughter. Now he is in the White
House.
What a different type of guy is this Rick Perry, simply by showing
a moral sense. Today, Governor Perry sticks up for reason and
justice. Let's hope that other governors are brave enough to follow
his example.
|8.30.07 @ 5:26PM|#
I was wondering if life was too much, but it does sound like this guy deserves considerable jail time, though not death.
|8.30.07 @ 5:55PM|#
Melvyn, "Does any intelligent person honestly believe that no
one who did not deserve to die was on Death Row during Bush's
term?"
Well Melvyn, name him or her? What is the problem? If there was
one, we would've heard about it.
About this prick who sentence was commuted. If he was executed, it
would've be unjust how?
He participated in a felony crime that killed an innocent person.
That is murder one. Its the law, look it up.
He was the get away driver, so what?
He says he didn't know anyone would be killed.
How do you know he is telling the truth?
Even still, so what? You plan an armed robber, the reason its armed
is because by threatening to KILL someone you expect the execution
of crime will be easier.
See the logic?
No you don't, because you are a dip.
Sulla|8.30.07 @ 5:57PM|#
Just wondering - how many people are happy about this (the
commutation) because they are against the death penalty in general,
and how many think this particular individual did not deserve to
die for his crimes, but that the death penalty is ok in some
situations?
I haven't examined the record, but if you support the death penalty
for felony murder (I don't), based on the facts as reported in the
media I don't think it would be an absurd result for him to be
executed.
|8.30.07 @ 6:10PM|#
How long will it take for a Republican partisan to mention Ricky
Ray Rector?
OK, I just mentioned him, and I'm preemptively stating that his
case has nothing to do with this topic, especially since the
Supremes have banned the use of the death penalty on the mentally
retarded.
|8.30.07 @ 7:18PM|#
I'm not persuaded by the 'he was only the getaway driver' argument either. The legal standard is all culpable parties are guilty.
|8.30.07 @ 7:24PM|#
Terry,
David Wayne Stoker, for one, did not deserve to be executed. The
problems: The key witness against him was paid for his testimony
and had pending charges against him dropped; a second witness later
recanted his testimony; the psychiatrist who called him a sociopath
had never examined him and was later disbarred; his lawyer was
forced to give up his license shortly after the trial. See
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/061100-01.htm (the Atlantic
also mentioned him in their article on the death penalty in
Texas).
"If there was [a problem], we would have heard about it."
Whaddya mean "we," kemo sabe?
Trollaphile|8.30.07 @ 7:42PM|#
This guy was sensenced to death under a law that says everyone in a group can be charged with a crime. There were 3 other people with him, all three said he knew nothing about the killing before it happened and he was 80 feet away when it occured. The state of Texas does not dispute this. I don't know what he did after the crime occured, but evidentakky didn't have any involvement in the killing.
Les|8.30.07 @ 8:10PM|#
Terry, a dozen people on death row have been exonerated by DNA
evidence. Before DNA evidence was available, it's fair to
extrapolate that there were innocent people without the means to be
exonerated.
See the logic?
|8.30.07 @ 8:54PM|#
Actually, Perry's career as governor will be over in 2010 one
way or another since he can't run again. Speaking as a
fourth-generation Texan and unabashed Team Blue Rah Rah girl, I
still congratulate Gov. Perry for doing this. There is something
beneath the hair after all.
Of course, he's moving to an undisclosed location for 18 months
while they remodel the Governor's Mansion, so maybe that had
something to do with it.
Scooby|8.30.07 @ 11:47PM|#
Karen,
I don't think there are term limits for governor. I can't find any
reference to them in the TX constitution.
Of course, he only got 39% of the vote last time 'round, so I don't
expect him to bother running in 2010.
Juanita|8.31.07 @ 8:28AM|#
Terry, a dozen people on death row have been exonerated by
DNA evidence. Before DNA evidence was available, it's fair to
extrapolate that there were innocent people without the means to be
exonerated.
It doesn't matter, because the Supreme court has ruled that it is
not unconstitutional to execute an innocent person, as long as they
had a fair trial.
lunchstealer|8.31.07 @ 10:02AM|#
"I didn't kill anybody," Foster told The Associated Press in a recent interview from death row. "It's hard for you to anticipate how Brown is going to react. Texas is saying flat out: You should have known better.
"In life, we have hindsight. Texas is saying you better have foresight. They're saying you better be psychic."
While I am sympathetic to the idea that capital murder
shouldn't be "felony murder", where you didn't have a direct hand
in the decision to kill, I nonetheless have zero sympathy for his
line of reasoning here. Admittedly this quote is out of context and
I don't know if he's said other things that ameliorate this
statement, but right here he seems to be saying "Hey, it wasn't my
fault, how was I supposed to know what my unpredictable friend
would do when he pointed a gun at somebody?" Well, unpredictable
guy + thing that shoots = a good chance that somebody gets shot,
dumbass. It's not astrology. It's not even rocket science. You're
culpable. Get over it.
That said, I don't think that he's culpable to a capital
extent.
BTW, can we deprecate the damn capital/capitol distinction? I'm
normally tolerant of English spelling irregularities, but this
one's a bit egregious. They're both from the exact same Latin root,
and mean pretty much exactly the same thing, so can we just make
them the same word already?
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