Post by thinkinkmesa on Jun 1, 2007 19:25:00 GMT -5
www.petitiononline.com/a_foster/petition.html
We are turning to you because we are deeply concerned about Mr. Kenneth E. Foster, a death row inmate at Polunsky Unit in Livingston, who has an execution date on August 30, 2007.
We feel deep sympathy for the family of victim Michael LaHood. Their loss is tremendous. However we do not believe that taking the life of Kenneth Foster will ease the LaHood family’s pain and suffering. Mauriceo Brown, the man who shot Michael LaHood, is dead already. He was executed for this crime last year. The execution of Kenneth Foster - who was convicted after the law of parties - would be an unnecessary act of violence that does not serve justice but only vengeance.
Kenneth Foster grew up in poverty, both his parents were drug addicts and often in jail. When later living with his grand-parents the harm the horrible family background caused on him was irreversible. He went to high school and graduated in 1995, but at the same time surrounded himself with the wrong crowd.
On the night of August 14th, 1996 Kenneth Foster was together with three other young men: Mauriceo Brown, Julius Steen, and Dwayne Dillard. He was driving a car rented by his grandfather. During the night they committed two robberies. According to Dillard, the role of 19-years old Kenneth Foster was “just to drive”. Dillard also testified that Foster had told him that he wanted to stop committing the robberies: “He told me that he wanted to stop and he felt like if he told me that I would tell them and that they would listen to me.”
Foster was driving through a residential area; they stopped as a woman was waving her arms in the air as if to flag them down for assistance. As Foster began to pull away, Brown got out of the car and grabbed the gun. Dillard testified that Foster could not have seen Brown taking gun because it was dark and Brown and Dillard were in the back seat. Foster, Dillard, and Steen remained in the car. When Brown walked toward the woman, her boyfriend, Michael LaHood, approached from the driveway. Brown inexplicably shot and killed LaHood.
All four men gave the same account regarding Kenneth Foster’s alleged liability for Brown’s murder of LaHood: Brown acted on his own independent impulse, no robbery was contemplated by Foster, and Foster did not anticipate and could not have anticipated Brown’s action.
Not participating in the first robberies, not agreeing to rob Michael LaHood, not knowing why Brown left the car, and not knowing that Brown had the gun, Kenneth Foster can’t be guilty of capital murder after the law of parties. The US Supreme Court ruled in Enmund vs. Florida that it violates the constitution to sentence someone to death who did not himself kill, attempt to kill, or intend to kill. The only exception to this rule is - Tison vs. Arizona - if someone has a major personal involvement in the crime and displays a reckless indifference to human life.
Kenneth Foster took nobody’s life, did not intent to kill nor had a major personal involvement in the murder of Michael LaHood. His wrongdoing confines to driving Brown, Steen and Dillard around while they committed criminal acts. One can reproach Foster with allowing them to use his car and him as a driver, one can reproach him with not stopping the two robberies of that night. However no-one can reproach him for not preventing the murder of Michael LaHood, because he had no idea that Brown planned another robbery, let alone a murder.
If considering the events of this night as a whole and the role Kenneth Foster played within these events, you will come to the conclusion that his execution would be completely disproportionate to his guilt. What we ask you for is to take a deep look into the case of Kenneth Foster and especially in the testimonies of Julius Steen and Dwayne Dillard. We are asking you to grant Mr. Foster a stay of execution and give him a chance for a punishment measured by his liability.
Sincerely,
We are turning to you because we are deeply concerned about Mr. Kenneth E. Foster, a death row inmate at Polunsky Unit in Livingston, who has an execution date on August 30, 2007.
We feel deep sympathy for the family of victim Michael LaHood. Their loss is tremendous. However we do not believe that taking the life of Kenneth Foster will ease the LaHood family’s pain and suffering. Mauriceo Brown, the man who shot Michael LaHood, is dead already. He was executed for this crime last year. The execution of Kenneth Foster - who was convicted after the law of parties - would be an unnecessary act of violence that does not serve justice but only vengeance.
Kenneth Foster grew up in poverty, both his parents were drug addicts and often in jail. When later living with his grand-parents the harm the horrible family background caused on him was irreversible. He went to high school and graduated in 1995, but at the same time surrounded himself with the wrong crowd.
On the night of August 14th, 1996 Kenneth Foster was together with three other young men: Mauriceo Brown, Julius Steen, and Dwayne Dillard. He was driving a car rented by his grandfather. During the night they committed two robberies. According to Dillard, the role of 19-years old Kenneth Foster was “just to drive”. Dillard also testified that Foster had told him that he wanted to stop committing the robberies: “He told me that he wanted to stop and he felt like if he told me that I would tell them and that they would listen to me.”
Foster was driving through a residential area; they stopped as a woman was waving her arms in the air as if to flag them down for assistance. As Foster began to pull away, Brown got out of the car and grabbed the gun. Dillard testified that Foster could not have seen Brown taking gun because it was dark and Brown and Dillard were in the back seat. Foster, Dillard, and Steen remained in the car. When Brown walked toward the woman, her boyfriend, Michael LaHood, approached from the driveway. Brown inexplicably shot and killed LaHood.
All four men gave the same account regarding Kenneth Foster’s alleged liability for Brown’s murder of LaHood: Brown acted on his own independent impulse, no robbery was contemplated by Foster, and Foster did not anticipate and could not have anticipated Brown’s action.
Not participating in the first robberies, not agreeing to rob Michael LaHood, not knowing why Brown left the car, and not knowing that Brown had the gun, Kenneth Foster can’t be guilty of capital murder after the law of parties. The US Supreme Court ruled in Enmund vs. Florida that it violates the constitution to sentence someone to death who did not himself kill, attempt to kill, or intend to kill. The only exception to this rule is - Tison vs. Arizona - if someone has a major personal involvement in the crime and displays a reckless indifference to human life.
Kenneth Foster took nobody’s life, did not intent to kill nor had a major personal involvement in the murder of Michael LaHood. His wrongdoing confines to driving Brown, Steen and Dillard around while they committed criminal acts. One can reproach Foster with allowing them to use his car and him as a driver, one can reproach him with not stopping the two robberies of that night. However no-one can reproach him for not preventing the murder of Michael LaHood, because he had no idea that Brown planned another robbery, let alone a murder.
If considering the events of this night as a whole and the role Kenneth Foster played within these events, you will come to the conclusion that his execution would be completely disproportionate to his guilt. What we ask you for is to take a deep look into the case of Kenneth Foster and especially in the testimonies of Julius Steen and Dwayne Dillard. We are asking you to grant Mr. Foster a stay of execution and give him a chance for a punishment measured by his liability.
Sincerely,