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The Death Penalty. A concept that many hate yet some feel should be used in the absolute most appalling of crimes. To take a life is a very serious matter, and one that everyone — even proponents of the death penalty — take seriously.

Enter Kenneth Foster. Kenneth was a driver in a robbery. He was sitting 80 feet away in a car when the robbery turned violent, and one of his robbery accomplices shot someone dead. Normally, Kenneth would be serving a possible life sentence, more likely getting released after 30 years. Unfortunately for Kenneth, this all happened in Texas.

The person who pulled the trigger is already dead — executed. As for the Kenneth, he is set to die this Thursday. In Texas, you can get the death penalty for being a co-conspirator to murder. The issue, obviously, is not only that Kenneth might not have anticipated the robbery to escalate to murder — he was the driver — but also this going beyond the "eye for an eye" ideology so commonly voiced by supporters of capital punishment, as the murderer is already dead.

It has also blurred concepts of guilt and innocence. If Mr. Foster is not legally guilty of murder, as his lawyer, Keith S. Hampton, and supporters contend, many find it hard to pronounce him blameless.

"I’d hate to use the word 'innocent,'" said his father, Kenneth Foster Sr., a former heroin addict who told a church audience in Houston on Saturday that he used to take his baby son with him on drug runs and petty crimes. He said his son "should be punished to some degree, but not put to death."

At the heart of the case is Texas' law of parties, under which those conspiring to commit one felony, like a robbery, can all be held responsible for an ensuing crime, like murder, if it "should have been anticipated." NYT

Activists are in uproar over the ensuing execution. All appeals seem exhausted, and there isn't much left to do but hope for a last minute reprieve.

Kenneth did not hold the gun, he did not encourage the murder, it is even admitted by the prosecution that he might not have known it was going to happen. He did, however, participate in a crime that could lead to murder. But, if that is the case, where does the death penalty stop? It is one thing to defend the execution of a person who took someone's life, it is another to support the execution of someone who has never held someone else's life in his or her hands and chose to take it.

Daily Kos discussed Kenneth's case,

Kenneth Foster's case is important not just because he is innocent; not just because the death penalty targets people of color and the poor. Kenneth is also an activist and a leader on death row. He help found the DRIVE Movement which has held numerous hunger strikes and protests on death row. Right now he and Johnny Amador, who is also scheduled to be executed this week, are both on a hunger strike. Neither will go willingly to their death and neither will cooperate with the executioners.

If you want to help the Kenneth's cause, and speak out against his execution, go to www.freekenneth.com .

Whatever your beliefs about the death penalty for murderers, Kenneth's case should make everyone rethink the extension of the death penalty to someone who drives a car — for a robbery.

 

UPDATE:

LATimes has announced that Governor Perry is releasing Kenneth from the death penalty.

 

 

"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.

The governor did not address the Texas law that allows an accomplice to be given the death penalty, but 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."