Don’t anybody get hung up on the reporting source I used for this. In fact, it’s kind of interesting (and sad) that I couldn’t find a current, ‘regular’ news source that mentions this guy’s case. Guess it’s not news to execute one more poor, black guy no matter the reason.
Facing execution for driving a car
THE STATE of Texas plans to execute Kenneth Foster Jr. August 30 for the 1996 murder of Michael LaHood Jr.
What makes Foster’s case unique is that he killed no one–and the state of Texas is first to admit this.
How is this possible? Texas’ Law of Parties, adopted in 1974, allows prosecutors to hold all those present legally responsible for a crime. Because Foster was driving the car carrying Mauriceo Brown the night Brown shot LaHood, prosecutors were able to try Kenneth as if he was the shooter.
Brown, who was executed in July 2006, admitted to shooting LaHood, but claimed it was in self-defense. He also insisted that Foster, who remained in a car 80 feet away from the shooting with the radio on and windows rolled up, didn’t know he had left the car with the gun.
There’s a website devoted to Foster.
George Bush is a compassionate person. I’m sure he will find it in his Christian heart to spare this mans life…
Wow that looks silly written out doesn’t it.
I’d really like to hear Lauren’s defense of how Texas can execute just one more poor black man. He must have had it coming. After all, the statistics will back up Fishbreath how Blacks have higher violent crime rates, how their women prefer knives, how Blacks like to kill Blacks, …
I just want to hear an effen bigot’s justification.
This is nothing new. In my state it’s called felony murder. If someone is murdered during the commission of a felony, all those who participated in the felony are guilty of felony murder and it’s equivalent to first degree murder.
And to say he did “nothing wrong” is ludicrous because he committed a felony which led to a murder. That’s something, right?
#3 but is that something enough to justify the death penalty? Last time I read the constitution it banned cruel and unusual punishment.
Just further proof of the immorality of the death penalty.
This doesn’t surprise me. It’s Texas. You could probably end up on death row for jay waking there.
Especially if you are black man in your twenties.
4. “but is that something enough to justify the death penalty?”
I totally agree with you about the death penalty. I’m also of the opinion that felony murder should be equivalent to at most 2nd degree murder, not first degree murder, because there is no intent to murder merely because you’re a get-a-way driver during a felony.
My point in 3 was to point out that states other than Texas have these laws on the books and actively enforce them.
I’m pretty sure Canada and Britain have the exact same law that’s in question here but there’s no death penalty and the judges seem to have a modicum of common sense and normal human compassion.
Unless there’s some sort of mandatory death sentence, it’s not the law that’s the problem here, it’s the judges. They don’t seem to rise to the level of ‘human’ in Texas.
I feel no “compassion” for someone who aided a murder, FF.
#5, daurgon 88
BUT, …
He and his partner had been traveling around earlier in the day robbing people. He did know they had a gun. Just because none of the earlier robberies had turned violent, didn’t mean that the next one couldn’t. By the nature of his conduct that day, he participated.
I don’t agree with Capitol Punishment, but if you are going to have it, this man qualifies.
AND, …
Doing some quick checks on this story I came to one realization. He will never get off death row. All references seemed to be in communist or communist inspired sites.
7. “it’s not the law that’s the problem here, it’s the judges.”
Actually in Texas the jury determines whether or not the death penalty is appropriate.
#4 “but is that something enough to justify the death penalty? Last time I read the constitution it banned cruel and unusual punishment.”
Read the Coinage Act of 1792 some time. BTW, the 8th Amendment hasn’t changed since it was first adopted.
Yeah, we should just take the word of a guy who’s being executed, that all the other people convicted had nothing to do with it.
Isn’t it true that this only happens on those obscure parts of the world where there is still a death sentence?
You don’t need your president to pardon this guy. Just remove the capital punishment.
Why? Well just because death is irreversible and errors do happen.
10. – SN
Thanks for the information and I ought to have known that already. I suppose I could ask to have ‘juries’ substituted for ‘judges’ but I actually know some Texans I respect who aren’t judges and I don’t want to paint with a brush even broader than the one I already used (incorrectly).
#1 – I found this on a site called Obsidian Wings:
“So I asked myself: self, if George W. Bush is so worried about excessive sentences, how has he acted in previous cases in which a sentence might seem excessive?
Here’s the short version: Serving twelve years for a rape that DNA testing shows you didn’t commit does not get you a pardon. Being represented by a lawyer who slept through large chunks of the trial does not get you a pardon. Being convicted of murder in proceedings that a court-appointed special master describes as “”a breakdown of the adversarial process” caused by the incompetence of your lawyer does not get you a pardon, even when someone else confesses on tape to the murder you were convicted of. Likewise, when someone else confesses to the murder you were convicted of and you ask for a stay of execution in order to conduct tests that will establish your innocence, no dice. And when you are unquestionably incompetent to assist in your own defense but no one seems to take that fact into account, or tells the jury, that’s just too bad. None of these sentences are in any way excessive, as far as George W. Bush is concerned.
But when you are Scooter Libby, convicted of four felony charges, and you face thirty months in jail, that’s excessive.”
I see it as this: no matter what the circumstances, he did not pull the trigger. Being a witting or unwitting accessory, even planning the actual killing does NOT rise to the level of actual doing it.
Life without parole. Death for the triggerman.
#1 – Pretending Bush has ever displayed anything resembling empathy or compassion for others just feels obscene.
#16 – Great quote. Really nails it.
And I want to add here for those who assume that I automatically approve of the death penalty – I do not.
I believe that it should never, ever be applied when there is no physical evidence linking the accused to the crime. No one should be executed based solely on circumstantial and/or eyewitness evidence.
There is a point in the middle on this issue, as with all things, a matter of balance. The truth never lies at one extreme or the other; it’s somewhere between.
And between the “kill ’em all” mentality and the “no one should be killed” there are undoubtably, unquestionably guilty people who have, as I have said before, by their actions, resigned from the human race and thereby waived all rights to be treated as a human. Let them die, and let them suffer.
Not everyone on Death Row deserves to die – but you can count those on your fingers. The rest did what they were convicted of, and they need to be permanently expunged from civilization.
Don’t you just hate it when folks leave your car with a gun and kill someone?
Why do bad things happen to good people?
RBG
The guy should have committed treason by lying and obstructing justice regarding the leaking of national security secrets, like Scooter Pie. He woulda walked.
He might even have gotten a clandestine, Halliburton-sponsored legal defense fund administered by Barbara Comstock, as Scooter Pie did (http://tinyurl.com/2kqrm9).
>Pretending Bush has ever displayed anything resembling empathy or compassion for others just feels obscene.
I’d say this was part of the reason he pushed immigration reform so much. Also, why he signs on to the democracy everywhere slogan.
#9
I agree that he was up to no good, but his friend was the one that murdered a guy. He wasn’t involved directly with shooting (assuming his claims are true). He should be punished for what he was doing PRIOR to the murder. Charging him with a murder that he didn’t commit is quite silly.
And yes, you are correct. He isn’t getting out.
#8 – I feel no “compassion” for someone who aided a murder, FF.
That’s just one type of person in a long list of people you feel no compassion for.
I know if I was on the Jury I would have decided based on facts and ignored the prosecutors story. I very likely would not agreed with the crowd, a bunch of red-necks.
The man did not murder anyone. FACT
The man who did murder, did so in Self defense. FACT
A man driving a man who later kills someone in self defense does not deserve to die. OPINION
If Texans feel he should die, I say NUKE the WHOLE state of diseased inbreed B.S. for Breakfast Eating TEXANS! At least that will prevent US electing another WAR president from Texas.
Does seem lately GOD has been drowning the DUMB RED NECKS.
Member of the Black Disciples street gang robbing people with a member of the Crips who shoots the fifth person they tried to rob that night. He’s a career criminal that finally got caught. He could have chosen a different path in life. You reap what you sow.
OFTLO –
I believe that the persons who murdered Ms. Calloway should also be executed.
And you? Or do you feel “compassion” towards Ms. Calloway’s murderers?
>>He’s a career criminal that finally got caught. He could have
>>chosen a different path in life. You reap what you sow.
Yep, and if you’re a career criminal, you should probably spend the rest of your natural born days in jail.
Killing robbers seems a little over the top though, even for a state where “clearing brush” , hatemongering, and xenophobia are the state sports. Maybe “life at hard labor”, clearing brush in Crawford? Naw. Then what would Bush have left to do? No wonder he didn’t get a pardon.
#25, noname,
Does seem lately GOD has been drowning the DUMB RED NECKS.
Now that is just plain mean. Funny as heck, but still mean. You bad man you.
What was even worse for most Texans was when it rained on their Gay Pride Day Parade.
That schizophrenia medication ain’t workin’ out for ya, is it, Fusebox?
First you jump out pointing the finger at me, claiming I want the guy to die, then you pop back in to say he deserves to die – and I, the Great Exalted Kommander or whatever of the local KKK say that he should’nt be executed… strange indeed.
A Pome 4 Fusion
_____________
Roses are red
Violets are blue
I’m schizophrenic
And so am I
“…worse for most Texans was when it rained on their Gay Pride Day Parade.”
And even more bad news for you, amigo; “most Texans” most certainly don’t consider anything involving gays to be “theirs,” and no small number of them would cheerfully stomp your ass for even suggesting it. This ain’t exactly West Hollywood here, y’know. As the great Boz Scaggs said,
Oh, I wonder wonder wonder wonder who
Put those ideas in your head…
The issue raised here is the validity of the felony murder rule. I think its validity wanes with the distance from the crime.
Help someone tie up and hold down someone getting raped and hand a gun to the raper and say “Kill him”. Yes, fair application of the FMR. Now, the guy outside in the car, or further away the guy who lent those two the car? Too attenuated for FMR to apply.
Some tweaking of the conspiracy laws should be done.