Case of Kenneth Foster, Jr - Sentenced to Death Under the Law of Parties
On August 30, 2007, Texas was scheduled to execute San Antonio native Kenneth Foster, Jr. for the 1996 murder of Michael LaHood, Jr. Hours before his scheduled execution, his death sentence was commuted to life in prison by Governor Perry after a recommendation for commutation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Foster had been sentenced to death under Texas’ Law of Parties.
What made Foster’s case unusual is that he killed no one. The state of Texas will be the first to admit this. How is this possible? Adopted in 1974, Texas’ Law of Parties allows prosecutors to hold all those present legally responsible for a crime. Beginning in 1989, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals approved the use of the Law of Parties in death penalty cases. Because Foster was driving the car carrying Mauriceo Brown the night Brown shot Michael LaHood, prosecutors were able to try him with Brown as if he were the shooter. Brown, who was executed July 19, 2006, admitted to shooting LaHood, but claimed it was in self-defense. He also insisted that Foster did not know that Brown had left the car with the gun.
On August 14, 1996, Kenneth Foster was driving a car carrying Mauriceo Brown, Dewayne Dillard, and Julius Steen. That night, Brown and Steen committed two armed robberies, at which point Kenneth asked Dillard to persuade them to stop. On the way home, Foster ended up following two cars carrying Michael LaHood, Jr. and his girlfriend, Mary Patrick. Concerned that Foster was deliberately following them, Patrick waved the car down in front of the LaHood residence.
There was no discussion about committing a robbery. Dillard testified that Brown exited the car with the gun without permission or knowledge of the other men. When Brown approached the woman, her boyfriend Michael LaHood approached from the driveway. Brown and LaHood exchanged words, and Brown then shot and killed LaHood. Brown acted on his own, and no one assisted, encouraged and/or had knowledge of the shooting. Brown expressed deep remorse before his execution in 2006.
Following his arrest, Kenneth was wrongly tried alongside Brown. Not only did Brown admit to the shooting in self-defense, but clearly and freely stated that no robbery was planned and that he acted on his own. But because two robberies had already taken place that night, the prosecutors used the Law of Parties to argue that Kenneth should have anticipated that Brown would attempt to rob LaHood and, consequentially, that a murder might take place. Thus, Kenneth Foster faces execution simply for driving a car.
Foster’s criminal attorney, Keith Hampton, wrote in his federal appeal, "By employing the conspiracy liability statute, the state is able to make persons death-eligible on nothing greater than a negligence standard – that the defendant 'should have anticipated' that his conspirator would, in the course of any planned felony, intentionally kill another person.” He added, “negligence is the least culpable mental state known to criminal law."
More information at http://www.freekenneth.com/
