Kenneth Foster Saved!!!

August 30, 2007

Movement to Save Kenneth Foster Wins Historic Victory

Family members and supporters of Kenneth Foster, Jr. are jubilant in the reaction to Texas Governor Rick Perry's today's announcement today that he would commute the death sentence of Kenneth Foster, who was convicted under the controversial "Law of Parties" for a 1996 murder in which he had no actual involvement. The Board of Pardons and Paroles had recommened clemency by a vote of 6-1. Foster's execution had been scheduled for tonight.

In a statement announcing the commutation, Perry said, "I am concerned about Texas law that allowed capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously and it is an issue I think the Legislature should examine."

Reaction among Foster's family and friends included both joy and disbelief. “We felt a bit of disbelief because Perry’s decision was so unprecedented.” said Dana Cloud of the Save Kenneth Foster campaign. “But everyone is so happy that Kenneth will be able to touch his wife and daughter and that we have a chance of seeing him free. Anything is possible when you are alive.”

Claire Dube, a close high-school friend of Kenneth’s and an active member of the Save Kenneth Foster Campaign, broke into tears when she heard the news. “We don’t even know what to say. It’s incredible.”

Keith Hampton, Foster’s attorney, also expressed relief and happiness at winning his client’s life. Hampton thanked the activists of the grassroots movement that started in Austin and spread around the world for putting the necessary pressure on the Board and the Governor to win. “Extra-legal means work,” he said.

“Governor Perry once said that there was no hue and cry against the death penalty in Texas,” commented Lily Hughes of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. “Well, here was your hue and cry.”

Foster’s family and other supporters will continue to work to free him from prison. “It seems like ten years on death row under 23-hour lockdown could amount to time served for any crime that Kenneth ever committed,” Cloud said.

Perry’s decision is historic. Not only has the Board of Pardons and Paroles rarely recommended clemency (by one count, 3 times since 1982), but Rick Perry has overseen more executions than any Governor of the State of Texas, including George Bush.

“This case demonstrated to the world just how arbitrary and capricious capital punishment is,” Cloud said. “It gives people pause when someone who killed no one could come this close to being executed.”

“Public sentiment has been turning against capital punishment,” Hughes said. “We’ve seen a lot of states stop executing people. Winning Kenneth’s life might be a real turning point in the history of the death penalty in Texas.”

For More Info Check Out The Following Sites:

http://savekenneth.blogspot.com/
http://www.freekenneth.com

Killing Begets More Killing: Stop The State Murder Of Kenneth Foster...

Kenneth Foster with his girlfriend, Nicole Johnson, and their daughter, Nydesha, during a 2001 visit to Texas death row.
(Photo courtesy of the Foster family)

Date With The Executioner For Murder By Someone Else

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL

HOUSTON, Aug. 29 — Kenneth Foster has a date on Thursday with the executioner’s needle. Not for killing anyone himself but for what he was doing — and may have been thinking — the night in 1996 when he was 19 and a sidekick pulled the trigger, killing a 25-year-old San Antonio law student.

Ensnared in a Texas law that makes accomplices subject to the death penalty, Mr. Foster, 30, is to become the third death row inmate this week, and the 403rd since capital punishment resumed in Texas in 1982, to give his life for a life taken.

But unlike most others condemned to death in this state, Mr. Foster, a onetime gang member, aspiring musician and prison poet from San Antonio, is not a murderer in the usual sense. He was convicted and sentenced to die for abetting a killing — 80 feet away — that he may, or may not, have had reason to anticipate.

The man who pulled the trigger is dead, executed last year. One accomplice is serving life in prison as a result of a plea bargain, and a second is serving life for a separate murder.

Now, failing a last-minute reprieve, Mr. Foster, the group’s driver in a robbery spree — who argues that he never was party to the murder — is facing lethal injection. His guilt, affirmed so far in every appeal, including five turned away by the United States Supreme Court, hinges in large part on difficult questions of awareness and intention.

Other states hold co-conspirators responsible for each other’s criminal acts in a so-called law of parties. But few of those have a death penalty. And no other state executes them on the scale of Texas.

With polls showing capital punishment still enjoying majority support in Texas and around the country, but by dwindling margins, the Foster case has spurred vigils and protests from abroad to the death house in Huntsville, as well as a backlash by victim’s rights advocates who still mourn the slain law student, Michael LaHood Jr.

It has also smudged concepts of guilt and innocence. If Mr. Foster is not legally guilty of murder, as his lawyer, Keith S. Hampton, and supporters contend, many find it hard to pronounce him blameless.

“I’d hate to use the word innocent,” said his father, Kenneth Foster Sr., a former heroin addict who told a church audience in Houston Saturday that he used to take his baby son with him on drug runs and petty crimes. He said his son “should be punished to some degree, but not put to death.”

At the heart of the case is Texas’s law of parties under which those conspiring to commit one felony such as a robbery can all be held responsible for an ensuing crime, like murder, if it “should have been anticipated.”

In 1982, in Edmund v. Florida, the United States Supreme Court found that the Constitution barred the death penalty for co-conspirators who do not themselves kill. But five years later in Tison v Arizona, the justices carved out an exception, ruling that the Eighth Amendment did not forbid execution of a defendant “whose participation in a felony that results in murder is major and whose mental state is one of reckless indifference.”

According to evidence in the case, on the afternoon of Aug. 14, 1996, Mr. Foster had borrowed his grandfather’s rented white Chevy Cavalier and was driving three companions — Julius Steen, Dewayne Dillard, and Mauriceo Brown — on a robbery spree through San Antonio. Mr. Steen and Mr. Brown, with Mr. Dillard’s gun, held up four people.

After midnight, they trailed two cars to a street where Mr. LaHood had just driven home, followed by a companion, Mary Patrick. She and Mr. Steen exchanged some remarks. Mr. Brown took the gun, chased Mr. LaHood and shot him dead. Ms. Patrick later characterized it as a robbery.

Mr. Foster and his companions fled but were soon stopped by the police. Mr. Foster denied participating in the earlier robberies or the shooting, claiming the group had been out looking for clients for his music business.

He was tried together with Mr. Brown, who was also convicted and was executed in July 2006. Mr. Steen and Mr. Dillard, facing charges in other cases, were not tried. But Mr. Steen testified he did not believe that Mr. Foster knew that Mr. LaHood would be robbed, although Mr. Steen said, “I would say I kind of thought it.”

Later Mr. Dillard testified in Mr. Foster’s appeals, claiming that before they reached the LaHood house, Mr. Foster sought to end the night’s spree so he could return the car to his grandfather. Therefore, Mr. Fuller’s lawyer, Mr. Hampton, argued, his client lacked the mindset to be legally culpable for the killing that followed.

Mr. Hampton also contended that Mr. Steen and Mr. Dillard were improperly withheld as crucial witnesses, and that mitigating testimony about Mr. Foster’s upbringing was not presented to the jury.

“I was in jail at the time he got arrested,” said Kenneth Foster Sr., saying that a strategy of portraying his son as churchgoing and well-raised had backfired.

“One of the jurors said he should have known better,” the elder Mr. Foster said. “They never called me. If the mitigating evidence had been put on, he never would be on death row.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Go To http://savekenneth.blogspot.com For Continuing Updates On This Case...

Stop The State Murder Of An Innocent Man On August 30, 2007!!! Free Kenneth Foster!!!

Kenneth And His Daughter

Please Go To Http://www.freekenneth.com To Find Out How!!!
(W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Subscribers To View Video Please Go To The Following Link:http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2007/08/stop-state-murder-of-innocent-man-on.html)

Kenneth's Wife And The Mother Of His 11 Year old Daughter, The Popular Holland Hip Hop Artist Jav'lin Did This Video To Raise Awareness About The Plight Of Her Husband Who Is Set To Die In Texas On Thursday August 30, 2007

Jav'lin videoclip "Walk with me"

Kenneth Foster’s Songs of Freedom
by Alexander Billet / August 24th, 2007

The debate over “black culture” has taken a turn for the especially
absurd in recent months. If one were to take the Don Imuses of this
country at their word, then somehow the daily horrors of the African-
American experience–the poverty, the discrimination, the brutality–
stem from the way the community views itself, from the “self-
loathing” of the ghetto to the “thug mentality” of hip-hop. It’s the
classic argument; that if only the black community would trade in its
bling for bootstraps, then they will most surely prosper in the land
of opportunity.

Tell that to Kenneth Foster.

Ten years ago, Kenneth was a young college student, a music lover,
and recent father. Born in Austin, Texas, he spent his high school
years working for several small record companies in the area. In 1995
he began his first year at St. Phillips College majoring in
sociology, and less than a year later, in May of ‘96, he started his
own label, Tribulation Records. Kenneth had a bright future ahead of
him, no doubt.

But a year later, Kenneth was convicted of murder. The previous
August, he had been driving a car with three friends in the San
Antonio area. One of those riding in the car, Mauriceo Brown, got out
in front of a party to talk to a woman, Mary Patrick. While Kenneth
and his other two friends were eighty feet away, waiting in the car,
they heard a gunshot. Brown had shot Patrick’s boyfriend, Michael
LaHood.

Kenneth never had a gun in his hand, never saw, let alone aimed at
LaHood, and never he pulled the trigger. Even the prosecution admits
this. And he did not know anyone was going to be shot that night.

But according to Texas’ “law of parties,” Kenneth should have
anticipated the loss of life that was to come that night because he
was in the same car as Brown. It’s a law straight out of a Franz
Kafka novel, where the accused are expected to have an almost psychic
ability to predict when a crime is going to happen.

Kenneth’s execution has been set for August 30th, 2007. He is guilty
of nothing except driving a car.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise. This is Texas, the state that
has executed the most people of any state since the reinstatement of
the death penalty. A disproportionate number of these people have
been of color. This is the former stomping ground of the Texecutioner
George Bush, and the current Governor Rick Perry has already
surpassed Dubya’s record of 156 executions. LaHood was the white son
of a prominent Houston attorney. Kenneth is a working-class black
man. It was the perfect concoction of sick ingredients to continue
the pattern of the racist American injustice system.

But Kenneth has not spent the past ten years wallowing in misery. He
is a founding member of DRIVE (Death Row Inter-Communalist Vanguard
Engagement), a radical, multi-racial organization of death row
inmates fighting for better conditions in prisons and against the
injustice of the prison system. They have staged cafeteria sit-ins,
hunger strikes, and worked with groups on the outside to publicize
their cause. Kenneth also continues to write poetry about himself,
his case, and the need for a world without racism and inequality. On
August 22nd, he and fellow prisoner John Joe Amador, scheduled to be
executed the day before Kenneth, announced they will be taking part
in a “protest of passive non-participation” against their own
executions. It is clear he is not giving up without a fight.

Because of these efforts, and because of the bald-faced racism his
case puts on display, Kenneth’s cause has gained national and
international attention. Activists in Texas and beyond have mobilized
demanding his execution be stayed.

He has also gained support, not surprisingly, from the Welfare Poets,
one of underground hip-hop’s most radical and outspoken groups. Their
music has been a staple in many-an-activist’s CD player for a decade
now. When Kenneth and other DRIVE members heard of the group in 2004,
they had a letter sent to the Welfare Poets, extending an invitation
to perform at an anti-death penalty rally in Austin. They accepted,
and began to cultivate a personal relationship with Kenneth. As Ray
Ramirez, a founding member of the Poets told me, “Learning about
Kenneth’s case and seeing the injustice is real easy, but learning
about the man has been a fascinating experience. He lives with an
undying hope, always looking to the betterment of the world. He is a
true soldier for the people and an amazing poet and writer at that.”

In 2006 the Welfare Poets contributed to a compilation called “Cruel
and Unusual Punishment,” which sampled the work of several artists
opposed to the death penalty. Another performer on that comp was
Kenneth’s wife Tasha, an MC who goes by the name Jav’lin. Her song
“Walk With Me,” and the video for it, is about Kenneth’s case, and
can be downloaded on her site (http://www.javlin.nl) for 99 cents,
which goes toward his defense fund.

Jav’lin described to me recently what motivated her to write such a
song:

“I write down everything I feel, sometimes that turns into a song.
Well that’s what happened with ‘walk with me’. I wrote down how I
felt about his situation, turned it into a song and started leaking
that to people. People said it made the situation more visual, so I
decided that if I did a video along with it that would really give
people a good visual of what happened and it did. However, my initial
reason for recording the song was just to let Kenneth hear this. Hip
hop is the voice of the streets, music that appealed to Kenneth when
he was still out in the streets and I wanted him to know that ‘the
streets’ back here knew of his story and agreed that it was injustice
that was placed upon him.”

Decades ago, racism was enforced with trees and nooses. Billie
Holiday sang of this “strange fruit” in defiant protest. Today that
same racism is backed up with needles and gurneys. It is a form of
state sanctioned murder to keep people divided and scared. And
despite everything spoon-fed to us about rap’s “violence,” Kenneth
Foster’s case sheds ample light on where the real violence and
depravity is coming from.

*To learn more about Kenneth’s case, DRIVE, and to sign the petition
demanding his execution be stopped, go to FreeKenneth.com

Alexander Billet is a music journalist and activist living in
Washington DC. He is a frequent contributor to Dissident Voice and
Znet, and has also appeared in Socialist Worker, CounterPunch and MR
Zine. His blog Rebel Frequencies can be viewed at
http://www.rebelfrequencies.blogspot.com, and he may be reached at:
alexbillet@hotmail.com Read other articles by Alexander, or visit
Alexander's website.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/08/kenneth-foster’s-songs-of-freedom/

Please Join W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio Live Sept. 30, Sun. @ 4PM CST/5PM EST~Jena 6 Update And Identifying Other Jena 6s Of The 21st Century

September's Theme Is "We Are Bridge Builders..."

Please Join Us Once Again As We Take A Look At The 'Just Us' System As Well As At The Power Of The Internet To Empower the Masses By Disseminating The Information That The Mainstream Corporate Media Doesn't Want You To Have On This Upcoming Sunday's Edition Of Tha Artivist Presents...W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio...

1.) We Will Be Having Another Jena 6 Update


Our Guests For That Segment Includes...

Last Week Mychal Bell (Pictured Above) Was Denied Bail...

A.) Bro. Marcus Jones , the father of Bro. Mychal Bell, the only Jena 6 member who is still in prison and was denied bail last week after a successful Jena 6 Rally.

B.) Bro. Dell Hickman, the attorney for Jena 6 Member Bryant Ray Purvis

2.) Internet Campaigning And Grassroots Organizing Gets A Wrongly Convicted Black Man Off Death Row In TEXAS!!!

Learn how the internet and grassroots organizing helped save a wrongfully convicted Black man, Kenneth Foster, from getting executed by the State of Texas on August 30, 2007...

Kenneth And His Daughter

Learn More About The Kenneth Foster Case On W.E. A.L.L. B.E.:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/search?q=kenneth+foster

Visit http://www.FreeKenneth.com To Find Out What's Happening Now With The Kenneth Foster Case...

Our Special Guest For This Segment Will Be...

A.) Bro. Alex Billet~ A journalist who was active in writing articles about the Kenneth Foster case...He is also a music journalist and activist living in
Washington D.C. He is a frequent contributor to Dissident Voice and
Znet, and has also appeared in Socialist Worker, CounterPunch and MR
Zine. His blog Rebel Frequencies can be viewed at http://www.rebelfrequencies.blogspot.com, and he may be reached at:
alexbillet@hotmail.com

Read other articles by Alexander, or visit
Alexander's website.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/08/kenneth-foster’s-songs-of-freedom/

3.) Mississippi Burning Again...This Time It's Voter Fraud...

It's 2007 But It Seems Like 1957!!! On August 10, 2007 Sis. Louise Linzy, the first Black woman police officer in Tunica County, Ms. (home of the second largest gambling mecca in the country behind Las Vegas) was denied another historic achievement when the county refused to count votes that would have made her the first Black as well as woman judge in Tunica County...

Our Special Guest Will Be...

A.) Sis. Louise Linzy

Please read more about this courageous sister's story through the following links and show your support by spreading the word:
http://tri-statedefenderonline.com/articlelive/articles/1696/1/Investigators-probe-for-fraud-in-Tunica-election/Page1.html
http://www.tunicatimes.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=1&twindow=&mad=No&sdetail=3710&wpage=&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1018&hn=tunicatimes&he=.com
http://www.wreg.com/Global/story.asp?S=6932861

GET INVOLVED!!!
Please Listen To The Show Live Every Sunday @ 4PM CST/ 5PM EST By Accessing The Following Link:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hostpage.aspx?host_id=1952

Please Be Our Invited Guest By Calling Us Live @ 646-652-4593 Or E-mailing Us Your Questions And Comments @ r2c2h2@gmail.com

*Please Read The Latest R2C2H2 Newsletter And See How You Can Support The First Annual Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival Oct. 19-21, 2007:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2007/09/r2c2h2-late-summer-early-fall-2007.html

*Important~Please Vote For The Following 2 R2C2H2 Websites To Win The 2008 Black Web Awards...Just Follow The Links And Vote As Many Times As You Want!!!

The Official R2C2H2 Tha Artivist Website (http://www.r2c2h2.com/r2c2h2.html):
http://blackwebawards.com/2008/index.php?option=com_performs&formid=7&Itemid=195

The Official James Reese Europe: Jazz Lieutenant Book Site(http://www.jazzlieutenant.blogspot.com/):
http://blackwebawards.com/2008/index.php?option=com_performs&formid=16&Itemid=204

Voting Ends Oct. 19, 2007 So Please Help A Brother Out And Spread The Word...

~~~~~~

Check Out "The Empowerment Hour" Hosted By Bro. Kermit Eady Every Saturday @ 6 PM EST/ 5PM CST

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/EadyAssociates

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio Proves That Jena 6s Are Not Only A State Of Mind, But A Fact Of Life...

Listen To Actual Show By Clicking On The Following Link:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2007/09/30/tha-artivist-presentswe-all-be-radio

Artivist Says:

Marcus Jones the father of Mychal Bell, the only Jena 6 member to be sentenced for charges in this case, told us how he felt about the historic Jena 6 Rally, his son getting release from prison on bail (unfortunately is son is now under house arrest for "violation of his parole"...W.E. A.L.L B.E. Radio Will Be Providing Details Soon) and the problems that not only his family, but also we as a people still face when it comes to receiving fair treatment under the law of the land as well as from each other...

He also unfortunately talked about the exploitation of the Jena 6 by many opportunist groups (who he named in the interview) that are only trying to get media attention as well as money for their organizations...

He also stated how some of these groups were raising money for the Jena 6 Defense Fund, but he angrily added that the families and the young men known as The Jena 6 haven't received a dime from many organizations using their story and plight to make untold volumes of money...The True American Way: Make Money Off Of Other People's Misery Sounds Very Familiar...Strange And Familiar Fruit To Me...

If You Really Want To Make Sure That Your Money Donated Is Going Directly To Help The Young Men Known As The Jena 6 And Their Families Please Send Your Donations To The Following Mailing Address:

Jena 6 Defense Committee
PO BOX 2798
Jena, LA 71342
E-mail: jena6defense@gmail.com

The Other Guests Were Also Enjoyable And Informative As Well...I Urge You All To Listen To This Great Show And Disseminate This Show To Your E-mail List And Beyond...This Is Only The Beginning...

GET INVOLVED!!!
Please Listen To The Show Live Every Sunday @ 4PM CST/ 5PM EST By Accessing The Following Link:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hostpage.aspx?host_id=1952

Please Be Our Invited Guest By Calling Us Live @ 646-652-4593 Or E-mailing Us Your Questions And Comments @ r2c2h2@gmail.com

*Please Read The Latest R2C2H2 Newsletter And See How You Can Support The First Annual Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival Oct. 19-21, 2007:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2007/09/r2c2h2-late-summer-early-fall-2007.html

The Following Is A Summary Of The Guests That Were On Last Week's Show:

September's Theme Is "We Are Bridge Builders..."

Please Join Us Once Again As We Take A Look At The 'Just Us' System As Well As At The Power Of The Internet To Empower the Masses By Disseminating The Information That The Mainstream Corporate Media Doesn't Want You To Have On This Upcoming Sunday's Edition Of Tha Artivist Presents...W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio...

1.) We Will Be Having Another Jena 6 Update


Our Guests For That Segment Includes...

Last Week Mychal Bell (Pictured Above) Was Denied Bail...

A.) Bro. Marcus Jones , the father of Bro. Mychal Bell, the only Jena 6 member who is still in prison and was denied bail last week after a successful Jena 6 Rally.

B.) Bro. Dell Hickman, the attorney for Jena 6 Member Bryant Ray Purvis

2.) Internet Campaigning And Grassroots Organizing Gets A Wrongly Convicted Black Man Off Death Row In TEXAS!!!

Learn how the internet and grassroots organizing helped save a wrongfully convicted Black man, Kenneth Foster, from getting executed by the State of Texas on August 30, 2007...

Kenneth And His Daughter

Learn More About The Kenneth Foster Case On W.E. A.L.L. B.E.:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/search?q=kenneth+foster

Visit http://www.FreeKenneth.com To Find Out What's Happening Now With The Kenneth Foster Case...

Our Special Guest For This Segment Will Be...

A.) Bro. Alex Billet~ A journalist who was active in writing articles about the Kenneth Foster case...He is also a music journalist and activist living in
Washington D.C. He is a frequent contributor to Dissident Voice and
Znet, and has also appeared in Socialist Worker, CounterPunch and MR
Zine. His blog Rebel Frequencies can be viewed at http://www.rebelfrequencies.blogspot.com, and he may be reached at:
alexbillet@hotmail.com

Read other articles by Alexander, or visit
Alexander's website.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/08/kenneth-foster’s-songs-of-freedom/

3.) Mississippi Burning Again...This Time It's Voter Fraud...

It's 2007 But It Seems Like 1957!!! On August 10, 2007 Sis. Louise Linzy, the first Black woman police officer in Tunica County, Ms. (home of the second largest gambling mecca in the country behind Las Vegas) was denied another historic achievement when the county refused to count votes that would have made her the first Black as well as woman judge in Tunica County...

Our Special Guest Will Be...

A.) Sis. Louise Linzy

Please read more about this courageous sister's story through the following links and show your support by spreading the word:
http://tri-statedefenderonline.com/articlelive/articles/1696/1/Investigators-probe-for-fraud-in-Tunica-election/Page1.html
http://www.tunicatimes.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=1&twindow=&mad=No&sdetail=3710&wpage=&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1018&hn=tunicatimes&he=.com
http://www.wreg.com/Global/story.asp?S=6932861

*Important~Please Vote For The Following 2 R2C2H2 Websites To Win The 2008 Black Web Awards...Just Follow The Links And Vote As Many Times As You Want!!!

The Official R2C2H2 Tha Artivist Website (http://www.r2c2h2.com/r2c2h2.html):
http://blackwebawards.com/2008/index.php?option=com_performs&formid=7&Itemid=195

The Official James Reese Europe: Jazz Lieutenant Book Site(http://www.jazzlieutenant.blogspot.com/):
http://blackwebawards.com/2008/index.php?option=com_performs&formid=16&Itemid=204

Voting Ends Oct. 19, 2007 So Please Help A Brother Out And Spread The Word...

~~~~~~

Check Out "The Empowerment Hour" Hosted By Bro. Kermit Eady Every Saturday @ 6 PM EST/ 5PM CST

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/EadyAssociates