Spare Getaway Driver, TX Parole Board Urges
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted today to recommend that the governor spare the life of a man who drove three companions on a robbery spree that resulted in the death of one of the victims.
Kenneth Foster was scheduled to be executed today and will be the third Texas inmate put to death this week if Gov. Rick Perry does not accept the recommendation, the New York Times reports.
The Associated Press calls the recommendation “highly unusual.”
The case has spurred vigils and protests. The Times points out that other states also hold co-conspirators responsible for others’ criminal acts, but said few execute them on the scale of Texas.
A1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Tison v. Arizona, permits the execution of some participants in a crime who do not pull the trigger. It held the Eighth Amendment does not bar execution of a defendant “whose participation in a felony that results in murder is major and whose mental state is one of reckless indifference.”
Foster said in a death-row interview that he didn’t realize his companion was going to shoot one of the robbery victims.
“In life, we have hindsight,” he said. “Texas is saying you better have foresight. They’re saying you better be psychic.”
