A Murder is Not Committed

Time for me to give the devil his due, eat crow, whatever. (Sorry, crows, that's just a figure of speech, I wouldn't really.) Texas' governor Perry chose not to murder a condemned man. It's a beginning toward civilized conduct, and congratulations to the state for falling short of committing an atrocity.

Hopefully our infamous Texas legislature will take a look at the laws that allowed this to go up to the date of execution before it was stopped gratuitously by a governor not much inclined to take a humane outlook on things. Even this legislature can see that an injustice was committed, and it nearly was fatal.

Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday commuted death row inmate Kenneth Foster’s sentence to life, following a 6-1 recommendation by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

“After carefully considering the facts of this case, along with the recommendations 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,” Gov. Perry said. “I am concerned about Texas law that allows capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously, and it is an issue I think the legislature should examine.”

Mr. Foster was the getaway driver in a 1996 armed robbery spree that ended in the murder of a 25-year-old San Antonio man. He contends he had no knowledge a murder was going to occur, and he was not the trigger man. But he was convicted, in the same courtroom as the shooter, under the state’s “law of parties,” which authorizes capital punishment for accomplices who either intended to kill or "should have anticipated" a murder.

The reversal of its 100 years of support for death penalties by the Dallas Morning News has had some influence, I hope. That is a step toward the reforms our 'legal' system needs.