The Kenneth Foster story, together with a picture, is on the front page of the New York Times online. It includes an mp3 audio with the reporter and he gives a lot of credit to the anti-death penalty movement and the power of swaying politicians through public/popular opinion. This is a similar observation that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram made in this editorial.

In the audio, he mentions the annual March to Stop Executions in October and says that with this victory the anti-death penalty movement in Texas will be “encouraged that they can change things”.

http://times.com

Mona Reeder/The Dallas Morning News, via Associated Press

Governor Commutes Sentence in Texas

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL 9:40 PM ET

Kenneth Foster, whose case has raised international protest, won a rare commutation to life in prison.

• Back Story With Ralph Blumenthal (mp3)

We just returned from the governor’s mansion where a group of us celebrated saving the life of Kenneth Foster.

Here is the first news report from the mansion.

Death Penalty Opponents Celebrate Perry’s Decision

Commutation Of Kenneth Foster Is Rare Victory For Anti-Death-Penalty Forces

Video: Watch Our Latest News

Gregg Watson
Reporting

Perry spares inmate set to die today
By LISA SANDBERG, Austin Bureau
Full article

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry offered a rare reprieve today to a death row inmate who was sentenced to die for a killing he did not personally carry out.

Six hours before Kenneth Foster was scheduled to die, Perry accepted a recommendation from the state board of pardon and paroles and commuted Foster’s death sentence to life in prison.
In a statement, Perry said he arrived at “the right and just decision” after carefully reviewing the facts and after considering the board’s 6-1 recommendation, which was issued earlier this morning.

Foster, a former gang member from San Antonio, was sentenced to die for being an accessory to the murder of 25-year-old law student Michael LaHood Jr., who was killed in 1996 at age 25. Foster, who was then 19, was the getaway driver in a car some 80 feet away from where one of his buddies shot and killed LaHood during a botched robbery.

Perry specifically cited the fact that Foster was tried, convicted and sentenced directly alongside the triggerman, which could have tainted the jury’s punishment choice.

“After carefully considering the facts of this case, along with the recommendation 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.

“I am concerned about Texas law that allowed capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously and it is an issue I think the Legislature should examine.”

The seven-member parole board had voted 6-1 to recommend the commutation. Legally, Foster remains a convicted murderer.

Perry was not obligated to accept the highly unusual recommendation from the board whose members he appoints. The commutation is the first in his more than eight years in office this close to an actual execution. The board decision was announced about seven hours before Foster was scheduled to die. Perry’s announcement came about an hour later.

Foster acknowledged he and his friends were up to no good as he drove them around San Antonio in a rented car and robbed at least four people before the slaying of LaHood.
“It was wrong,” Foster, 30, said recently from death row. “I don’t want to downplay that. I was wrong for that. I was too much of a follower. I’m straight up about that.”

Click here to Send an email to Say Thank You to Governor Perry and Members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles for Granting Clemency to Kenneth Foster, Jr.

Thank you very much also to the more than 5,000 people who wrote Governor Perry, the Board of Pardons and Paroles and every member of the Texas Legislature. Thank you to the many members of the Foster family, lawyers and activists around the world in the Save Kenneth Foster Campaign who have worked on this case and saved Kenneth’s life. Thank you to the 13 members of the Texas Legislature who wrote clemency letters to Perry and the BPP. You have made a difference! You have made history! Extra thank you to the Campaign to End the Death Penalty in Austin who worked very hard for Kenneth.

By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE – Gov. Rick Perry accepted a recommendation from the state parole board and said today he would spare condemned prisoner Kenneth Foster from execution and commute his sentence to life.

Foster had been scheduled to die tonight.

“After carefully considering the facts of this case, along with the recommendation 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.

“I am concerned about Texas law that allowed capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously and it is an issue I think the Legislature should examine.”

The seven-member parole board had voted 6-1 to recommend the commutation.

Perry did not have to accept the highly unusual recommendation from the board whose members he appoints.

Foster was the getaway driver and not the actual shooter in the slaying of a 25-year-old man in San Antonio 11 years ago.

Foster acknowledged he and his friends were up to no good as he drove them around San Antonio in a rental car and robbed at least four people 11 years ago before the slaying of Michael LaHood Jr.

“It was wrong,” Foster, 30, said recently from death row. “I don’t want to downplay that. I was wrong for that. I was too much of a follower. I’m straight up about that.”

Another execution, the first of five scheduled for September in Texas, is set for next week when South Carolina native Tony Roach faces injection Wednesday for the strangling of an Amarillo woman, Ronnie Dawn Hewitt, 37, during a burglary of her apartment nine years ago.