Killing Justice in the Lone Star State by O'Brien Michael

Author:O'Brien, Michael [O'Brien, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781909976948
Google: Re6RzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Waterside Press
Published: 2021-01-15T04:25:01+00:00

Kenneth Foster Jr, born October 22, 1976, was a prisoner on Death Row in Texas until his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. An African-American man he was found guilty of murdering Michael LaHood Jnr in August 1996. His conviction and sentence were contested because they occurred under Texas’ ‘law of parties’ (Chapter 4), and because someone else killed the victim. He was a remote participant in these events if he ever participated at all.

Foster’s case involves questions about why he and three other men, Mauriceo Brown, Julius Steen and DeWayne Dillard were in Foster’s car close to the scene of a murder. Centrally about why Brown got out to talk to and as it turned out shoot the victim, and why Foster did not leave the scene as soon as he sensed trouble was brewing. It is complicated by further questions around the relationships or otherwise of some of those at the crime scene and the fact that Brown grabbed a gun from Dillard as he left the car.

Foster was received onto Death Row in 1997 and initially located in the Ellis Unit, but transferred to the Allan B Polunsky Unit in 1999. Each day he lived in hope that the safeguards of the judicial system would remedy his imminent death at the hands of the State. Having looked at the facts (as set out in this chapter), Texas State Governor Rick Perry commuted Foster’s death sentence to life imprisonment only six hours before his execution was scheduled to take place on August 30, 2007. That is how close he came to being put to death under what many believe to be an unjust law and concerning which there are currently moves in the Texas legislature for it to be abolished (see again Chapter 4). At the time of writing incarcerated at the Stiles Facility of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), Foster was being held in ‘administrative segregation.’ He will be eligible for parole in 2036.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.