Bjargið lífi Kenneth Foster

Til stendur að taka af lífi í Texas 30. ágúst ungan mann, Kenneth Foster. Foster var 19 ára fyrir 11 árum þegar vinur hans skaut mann. Þeir voru afbrotaunglingar. Foster var með þremur vinum sínum þegar einn þeirra skaut mann, en samkvæmt vitnisburði hafði Foster ekkert með það að gera, hann gat ekki einu sinni vitað hvað þessi vinur hans hafði í hyggju.  Sá var sjálfur tekinn af lífi fyrir einu ári, en blóðþyrstum yfirvöldum Texas er það ekki nóg.

 Ég fékk í dag meðfylgjandi skeyti með tilvísanir í nánari upplýsingar og hvernig hægt er að senda yfirvöldum í Texas áskorun um að þyrma lífi Kenneth Fosters. Jafnframt er hægt að nálgast  upplýsingar hjá Amnesty International í Bandaríkjunum.

 

Urgent: Stop the execution of Kenneth Foster

Texas, the state that has executed 400 people, has three executions scheduled for this week. One of these men, Kenneth Foster, is innocent based on indisputable evidence. Even the state of Texas admits that he killed no one.

Kenneth was convicted because of Texas' law of parties, although what happened doesn't even fall under this law since Kenneth did not plan or conspire to commit the murder that took place. And he could not have foreseen what happened. Under the Texas Law of Parties a person can be found responsible for a crime committed by another person if they encouraged, aided or conspired to commit the crime or if they could have anticipated the crime was to be committed. Texas is the ONLY state that a person can be sentenced to death if they intended to kill or anticipated that someone would be killed.

So on August 30 Texas wants to execute a man who never touched the gun, who killed no one, and who was 80 feet away in a car with the windows rolled up and the radio blaring while a man was shot by another young man who has already been executed.

Kenneth Foster's case is important not just because he is innocent; not just because the death penalty targets people of color and the poor. Kenneth is also an activist and a leader on death row. He help found the DRIVE Movement which has held numerous hunger strikes and protests on death row. Right now he and Johnny Amador, who is also scheduled to be executed this week, are both on a hunger strike. Neither will go willingly to their death and neither will cooperate with the executioners.

Please go to www.freekenneth.com  and click on the third "HERE" where it says:
"Write Governor Perry, Members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles and Members of the Texas Legislature to Stop the Execution of Kenneth  HERE"

Make phone/fax calls to Gov. Rick Perry’s Office: Call 800-252-9600 (Texas callers) or 512-463-1782 (Austin and out of state), and send faxes to 512-463-1849. Governor's Citizen's Assistance and Opinion Hotline: [phone] Office of the Governor Main Switchboard: [phone] [office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST]

Contact the Texas Board of Pardons & Paroles and tell them to grant Kenneth Foster clemency: Phone [phone] Fax [phone]