I was directed this evening to this article about Kenneth Foster, who’s about to be executed in Texas within the next three weeks. Michael LaHood was shot and killed not by Foster, but by Mauriceo Brown, who was a passenger in Foster’s car.
Section 7.02 of the Texas Penal Code outlines the following:
A person is criminally responsible for an offense committed by the conduct of another if “acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense he solicits, encourages, directs, aids or attempts to aid the other persons to commit the offense” or “If, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it, if the offense was committed in furtherance of the unlawful purpose and was one that should have been anticipated as a result of the carrying out of the conspiracy.”
Article 37.071(b)(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedures permits the infliction of the death penalty only if the jury believes beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant “intended to kill the deceased or another or anticipated that a human life would be taken.”
I’ve not seen the evidence presented at trial, but I know that Foster has claimed that he did not know that a crime would take place after giving his friends a ride. Mauriceo Brown stated that Foster did not know.
Since it’s the sort of thing which is damn near impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt — multiple corroborating witnesses would seem to be the minimum — I can’t see how one could reasonably convict the man of capital murder.
I’d assume that something like “accessory after the fact” would be trivial to prove, and if driving around people with illegal weapons was a no-brainer (and I don’t know the legal status of the gun or its possession), I would fully support punishment… but I cannot see that what this man did is worthy of execution.
I may be wrong, feel free to comment.
View Comments ↓
“I’ve not seen the evidence presented at trial, but I know that Foster has claimed that he did not know that a crime would take place after giving his friends a ride. ”
I suggest you go read the evidence then. They followed a woman home to rob her after robbing 2 other groups of people. Foster acted as getaway driver and split the loot from the earlier robbery. He wasn’t “just giving them a ride”.
I suggest you actually get some information before posting opinions.
I could.
I still haven’t changed my mind after researching.
The judge who overturned the conviction in 2005 said:
“There was no evidence before Foster’s sentencing jury which would have supported a finding that Foster either actually killed LaHood or that Foster intended to kill LaHood or another person. Therein lays the fundamental constitutional defect in Foster’s sentence …. Therefore, Foster’s death sentence is not supported by the necessary factual finding mandated [by the U.S. Supreme Court] and, for that reason, cannot withstand Eighth Amendment scrutiny.”
I can’t see the death penalty as a legitimate punishment in this case.
Leave a Comment