 "Photo: Jeffrey McWhorter; The Daily Texan")
Correction: Kenneth Foster Jr. was not the triggerman despite the fact that he was convicted of murder. The sentence stating “despite Foster’s best efforts, Brown left the car and approached the woman” should have been attributed to Foster’s family.
The Texan regrets the errors.
On August 30, 2007, Gov. Rick Perry commited death row inmate Kenneth Foster Jr. to life imprisonment. Foster had been on death row for 10 years for the August 1996 murder of Michael LaHood Jr., a crime he did not commit.
“I don’t think he should be there now,” said his father, Kenneth Foster Sr. “He should be out here with his family.”
Foster was charged with the murder under the Texas Law of Parties, which convicts anyone in the murderer’s party as if he or she had committed the crime.
Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, presented a bill Tuesday that would end death penalty sentences under the Law of Parties.
Foster’s grandfather, Lawrence Foster, said his grandson had no intent to commit murder and no idea that his friend, Mauricio Brown, had intended to murder LaHood.
While driving with two other friends, Brown spotted LaHood’s girlfriend and asked Foster to stop the car. Despite Foster’s best efforts, Brown left the car and approached the woman. At some point in the conversation, LaHood approached the two and during a fight, Brown drew a firearm and killed LaHood.
Foster’s grandfather said his grandson did not know Brown was carrying a gun and that he did not see the shot fired.
The other two men in the vehicle, Dwayne Dillard and Julius Steen, faced lighter sentences, because they assisted police in the investigation of Foster and Brown.
“The court said he should have anticipated what he was going to do,” Lawrence said. “But can you anticipate what I’m going to do when I leave here today?”
Dutton said there have been at least 12 people executed under the Law of Parties and possibly as many as 20. He said he has seen cases in which a convicted murderer had been released from prison while members of his party were still on death row.
Twenty-five other states have the Law of Parties, but Texas is the only state that allows the death penalty for defendants convicted under the Law of Parties.
“Nobody knows that you could just be along for the ride and be executed by the death penalty,” Dutton said. “Today, we’re asking the whole Legislature to do what they did for Kenneth Foster.”
Dutton said that legislation has passed each session since he became a representative in 1985 that narrowed laws involving the death penalty in Texas. Dutton said that he hopes the death penalty will be abolished in Texas in the future and he believes the state has turned the corner.
“People are starting to understand the difference between factually innocent and legally guilty,” he said. “Just because a jury found them guilty and they were arrested for a crime didn’t mean they did anything.”
Dutton said there are many other problems with the death penalty in Texas, including poor crime labs, prosecutors who withhold evidence and inadequate judges.
“These are problems that beg people to get involved,” he said.
