Board advises governor to spare prisoner’s life

THE Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles yesterday voted to recommend that the governor spare a condemned prisoner who was present at a murder but did not fire the gun.

The board recommended six to one that Governor Rick Perry commute Kenneth Foster’s sentence to life in prison. Foster was facing lethal injection last night.

Mr Perry does not have to accept the recommendation from the board whose members he appoints. There was no immediate response from his office.

Foster was the getaway driver in a Texas robbery spree that ended in murder, but critics have argued that he should not be put to death because he was not the shooter.

If he is executed, he would join a number of other condemned prisoners executed under a state statute that makes non-triggermen equally accountable for their crimes.

Foster acknowledges that he and his “knucklehead” friends were up to no good as they drove around San Antonio in a rental car and robbed at least four people.

The spree turned deadly when one of Foster’s passengers, Mauriceo Brown, jumped out of the car, walked up to Michael LaHood, demanded his wallet and car keys, then opened fire when he could not produce them. Foster said he was 24m away.

Brown and Foster were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.

Brown, 31, was executed last year.