Hang 'Em High (Or Juice 'Em Up, I Guess) In Texas

So, barbarianism is alive and well in the United States. Well specifically, in the great state of Texas.

Apparently, authorities there are preparing to execute their 400th person since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States, a man that everyone agrees is not a killer. He might be many things - not being very bright, chief among them - and surely he is guilty of some crime, but murder is not one of them. The case of Kenneth Foster, Jr. is perhaps the most disturbing instance of misconduct by a state judiciary in recent memory.

Some background:

In the very early morning of Aug. 15, 1996, Kenneth Foster, then-19 years old, was smoking marijuana and drinking with three other people in San Antonio. As they got high and drunk, they decided to use a gun belonging to DeWayne Dillard, one of group, to commit two armed robberies. After their last robbery, they came upon a man named Michael LaHood, the son of a prominent attorney, and his girlfriend. Some sort of altercation ensued and the end result was that Maurecio Brown, another of the foursome, shot Michael LaHood in the head, killing him. Foster was 80 feet away from the actual shooting, as he was in fact, trying to leave the scene after observing the way events were unfolding between his friend Brown and the victim, LaHood. (His friends forced him to remain and wait for Brown),

Mauriceo Brown confessed to his complicity, (although he attempted to claim self-defense at trial) and was subsequently executed after being found guilty. The other two defendants turned state's evidence and got plea deals. Foster did not take a plea, and was tried along with Brown. This is where his dilemma begins.

Everyone involved in this case, from defendants, to police, the prosecutors, judges, and even friends of the victim know that Foster was not the killer. In open court, the executed Brown admitted he was "freelancing" and that killing LaHood was not part of the foursome's plan even up to the moment of LaHood's death. But due to a little-known Texas statute called the "Law of Parties," it doesn't matter that Foster had no knowledge of LaHood's impending death.

So, Foster's execution is legal. But, that doesn't make it right.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TxCCA) rejected Foster's appeal of his sentence by a 5-3 margin with one abstaining, by virtue of a state law passed in 1995 that allows the TxCCA to ignore new evidence in capital cases. The law bars judges of the Court of Criminal Appeals from considering new evidence in death penalty cases, even if the judges unanimously believed the new evidence would spare a life. In essence, Texas judges are barred from giving relief to people who they believe are not to be subjected to death.

Not that the TxCCA is of much use, as it has rendered a number of bizarre rulings that would call into question whether Texas is a US state or a banana republic in Bizarro world. (In one recent case, the CCA acknowledged that the defense attorney had fallen deeply asleep repeatedly during a capital murder trial in 1992. Nonetheless, the TCCA upheld the conviction, finding that this gross misconduct had not affected the outcome of the trial.)

FOR REAL?!

In essence, what Texas is saying to its citizens and the rest of the country is that its judiciary knows best and that even when its wrong...its right. I wonder if this is where George W. Bush developed his attitude of never admitting a mistake. Wait, it was under his administration that the 1995 law was passed!!

Now, understand me, I am not agitating for Foster's release from prison. Nor do I consider him some choirboy, or even a misguided youth who had a momentary indiscretion. No, he needs jail time, serious jail time, because he thought it'd be cool to rob some folks. I'd be OK with 25-50 years in the pen. But, to die for something for which you're not responsible? That's unconscionable.

Times and stories like this make me ashamed to be an American. I am angered by the reality that my country basically approves the state-sanctioned murder of a man not guilty of the death of another. As much as we gallivant around the globe proclaiming ourselves to be the paragon of liberty and fairness, when you pull back the blinds, the light of day shines on our own lawlessness, unfairness and callousness. That we'd allow any state in the union to make such a mockery of Justice and execute a person known not to be a killer makes us all look like backwoods savages, hell-bent on revenge, even if it means executing the wrong person.