Exonerees Leading March to Abolish the Death Penalty

Death row exonerees Gary Drinkard, Ron Keine and Shujaa Graham leading the 2010 March to Abolish the Death Penalty. marchforabolition.org
Upcoming Executions

Upcoming Executions

Click for a list of upcoming scheduled executions in Texas.
Innocence

Innocence

The death penalty puts innocent people at risk of execution.
Todd Willingham

Todd Willingham

Todd Willingham was wrongfully executed under Governor Rick Perry on February 17, 2004.

SA Current: Waiting for Misplaced Foster File

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The San Antonio Current is having problems getting to read the file of Kenneth Foster from the Bexar County District Clerk’s office.

Losing the case, literally

The object of the Queque’s ire this week is three-fold, and we’ll start with the Bexar County District Clerk’s Office by way of Kenneth Foster, innocent man on death row.

Regular Questers know that on August 30 the state plans to administer the lethal injection to Foster, an inmate from San Antonio who didn’t actually murder anyone. Foster was convicted under the archaic “law of parties” for being in the same car, 80 feet away, from the guy who did shoot the son of a prominent local attorney. So far, the Austin American-Statesman has called for the governor to commute Foster’s sentence, as has local blogger Sean-Paul Kelley, who names the victim as one of his best friends. Even Le Monde, the French newspaper of record, dispatched a reporter to interview Foster, who’s still waiting for a visit from his hometown daily, the Express-News. In an interview two weeks ago, the Queque told Foster not to hold his breath; the daily, we’ve heard, has yet to replace their death-penalty reporter Maro Robbins, who departed last month to study law.

Even if they do set a last-minute newshound on the hunt, they’re going to run into the same paper-trail obstacle the Queque faced at District Clerk Margaret Montemayor’s office. The Queque filed a request to view Foster’s case file a month ago, and we’ve yet to set our paws on it, despite the 10-day maximum wait. What’s the hold-up? According to an assistant clerk in the criminal-records department, the archives department misplaced Foster’s file and is currently checking each and every storage shelf to find it.

Many People are Contacting Texas Legislators Urging them to Help Stop Kenneth Foster’s Execution

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Yesterday, we put up a link to an alert for people to contact members of the Texas Legislature asking them to help us persuade Governor Perry to stop the execution of Kenneth Foster, Jr. So far already 200 people have sent an email in their own words to each of the 181 Texas legislators.

Democracy Now! had a long segment today in which they interviewed members of Kenneth’s family and some of his supporters. They also played taped segments of an interview with Kenneth himself.

Kenneth Foster was sentenced to death ten years ago for the murder of Michael LaHood, a white man. The trial judge, the prosecutor, and the jury that sentenced him to die admit he never killed anyone. Foster is scheduled to be executed under a controversial Texan law known as the law of parties. The law imposes the death penalty on anybody involved in a crime where a murder occurred. In Foster’s case he was driving a car with three passengers, one of whom left the car, got into an altercation and shot LaHood dead.

One of the family members on the show was Nydesha, Foster’s 11 year old daughter.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go back to Austin to speak with Kenneth Foster’s daughter Nydesha. She’s eleven years old, about the same amount of time that Kenneth Foster has been on death row. Nydesha, you’ve grown up visiting your dad in prison?

NYDESHA FOSTER: Yes. Since I was about — I was about one years old when the incident had taken place. And ever since he has been put into death row sentence, I have been — he’s been watching me grow up from behind glass, and I’ve seen him watch me get older from behind glass. And it’s a hard thing for me to do, but I get used to it, but it’s not a happy thing for me to do.

AMY GOODMAN: Have you ever touched your dad?

NYDESHA FOSTER: When I was one years old, before the incident happened. I have not touched my dad since probably ’96.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And when you speak with him, what are some of the things he tells you, in terms of continuing to have hope that he will be able to be saved?

NYDESHA FOSTER: Yes. He encourages me. That’s what keeps me strong about his case, because, you know, if I didn’t have him to encourage me, I would probably not be able to do anything, because I’d be so sad and stressed out. But it’s the matter of things that he does and, you know, how he listens to me, even when people don’t look or listen to us. It’s, you know, everybody — he calls me his little princess, and, I mean, I feel like I am his princess because of the things he does for me. And even though he is a father behind glass, he does a lot of stuff for me. You know, he still is a father. And people need to recognize that.

When somebody is a big part of your heart, like my father is — I mean, my father is more than half of my heart. I mean, I love him so much. And if the State of Texas kills him just for driving a car, it’s like you’re killing my heart. It’s like you’re killing half of me. It’s like if you execute him, you might as well execute me, because of the type of things and the could-have-should-have-known stuff, and it’s just how the Texas law of parties, they just really need to take the time to listen, and my dad probably would not be in the predicament that he is in, if the law of parties would take the time to listen to us.

Urge Texas Legislators to Pressure Governor Perry to Stop Kenneth Foster, Jr’s Execution

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Click Here to Urge Texas Legislators to Pressure Governor Perry to Stop Kenneth Foster, Jr’s Execution

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has denied Kenneth’s last appeal. The only remaining option to stop this execution is with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Rick Perry. In order to convince the Governor and the BPP to act, we need to convince members of the Texas Legislature to urge Perry and the BPP to stop this execution, so click above and take action.

Urge Equal Justice USA to Choose Texas to Participate in Their Retreat Against the Death Penalty

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Click Here to Urge Equal Justice USA to Choose Texas to Participate in Their Important Retreat Against the Death Penalty

We need your help to persuade a national organization named Equal Justice USA to choose a Texas anti-death penalty team for their upcoming retreat to plan a new strategy for ending the death penalty in Texas. This is a vitally important opportunity for Texas to move forward with an effective strategy against the death penalty. We held several meetings and conference calls to put together our application. We have already submitted the application. Now, we need people like you to send emails to EJUSA in support of our application. If EJUSA knows that lots of people want them to choose Texas for this retreat, then they are more likely to pick us.

There is a precedent for this type of grassroots campaign directed at a national anti-death penalty organization asking them to help Texas. In 2005, the NCADP held their national conference in Austin after we organized a similar campaign to get people to send NCADP emails and or call them supporting our application for the 2005 conference. When they selected us they emailed us saying “the NCADP Board is impressed with the Texas proposal — and with the extraordinary level of grassroots support behind it.”

We can persuade EJUSA too. We just need to impress them with some grassroots support. So, please write EJUSA in support of our application. If you have any contacts in other states and outside the U.S., ask them to also write EJUSA in support of our application. Everyone in the anti-death penalty movement knows that Texas is the state where the most executions take place. Texas needs this retreat more than any other state. Ask any family members of people on death row that you know to also write EJUSA.

EJUSA required us to send them five names for our proposed team. The following people have volunteered to attend the retreat as the Texas team. The rest of the Texas team consists of everyone who works against the death penalty in Texas, because when the five member team returns, they will work with everyone together on a unified effort to end the death penalty in Texas, including organizations who are not able to send a team member because EJUSA only has room for five.

  • Rick Halperin, immediate past chair of Amnesty International USA and current president of TCADP
  • Stefanie Collins, a member of Campaign to End the Death Penalty and a 3rd year law student at the University of Texas at Austin.
  • Scott Cobb, president of Texas Moratorium Network
  • Njeri Shakur, a member of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement
  • Hooman Hedayati, president of Texas Students Against the Death Penalty.

Equal Justice USA (EJUSA) is excited to announce its third annual Training and Strategy retreat. The retreat will bring together five state teams fsome serious learning. This is not your average death penalty conference! Each state team will receive a dedicated facilitator throughout the weekend to help develop a proposed strategic plan or to expand/improve upon sections of an existing strategic plan. Training in different functional areas will be based on the exact needs of participating states – instead of talking about organizing, media, fundraising, or lobbying in theory, we’ll use your state’s own materials and experiences as examples and starting points. Teams will regroup privately with their facilitator throughout the weekend to apply the information gathered to their state’s unique realities.

Equal Justice USA is a grassroots project of the Quixote Center that mobilizes and educates ordinary citizens around issues of crime and punishment in the U.S. Our work brings into public focus the racial, economic and political biases that permeate our legal system. By transforming our culture of vengeance and violence, we build support for an alternative public policy that is both effective and humane.

Send the link to the alert page to anyone you know and ask them to also write EJUSA.

Please use the form below to send your message to Equal Justice USA asking them to choose Texas for this important retreat.

In order for your letter to be effective, you must compose it in your own words. Each email that EJUSA receives should be different and personal. Form letters are not effective.

We are leaving the text field below empty for you to fill out in your own words. You must also fill out the subject line. Please choose a subject line that will make sure that your message is opened and read.

You must write your own email in your own language to EJUSA. But here are some key points to weave in:

  1. Texas executes way more people than any other state. In August alone, there are five executions in Texas and only two others in the entire rest of the United States.
  2. Texas needs this retreat as another step to build a unified effort against the death penalty in Texas.
  3. Texas needs more attention from the leaders of the national anti-death penalty movement and this retreat will be a good step in showing the national leaders that people in Texas are ready and willing to organize a major campaign against the death penalty.
  4. Texas is changing. People here are increasingly more receptive to our anti-death penalty message because of all the problems they have read about in the media. Even the Dallas Morning News has endorsed abolition of the death penalty.

Kenneth Foster Denied by Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

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The Court of Criminal Appeals denied Kenneth Foster’s petition in a cursory order, with 3 judges dissenting and one not participating. This means that everything is up to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, and we need 5 of the 7 to recommend clemency.

We will have to check the vote to be sure, but we can probably guess how Texas’ foremost hanging judge Sharon Killer voted.

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