Accomplice to be executed in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- A Texas man won’t know until two days before his execution date whether he will die for a killing all agree he didn’t commit, it was reported.

Kenneth Foster Jr. is scheduled to be executed on Aug. 30, two days after the Texas Board of Pardons issues a decision on commutation, ABC News reported Tuesday.

Foster and Mauriceo Brown were tried together in the death of Michael LaHood in 1997. Brown, who admitted shooting LaHood while Foster, then 19, sat in a nearby car, was executed last year.

Foster was charged under a state law that makes no distinction between the perpetrator of a crime and an accomplice, allowing Foster to be put to death for a shooting he did not commit, ABC reported.

"This type of case rarely, if ever, ends up with a death sentence imposed," said John H. Blume, a law professor, and director of Cornell University's Death Penalty Project.

Foster’s remaining hope relies on a recommendation of commutation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles to Gov. Rick Perry, who has presided over 159 executions -- more than any other U.S. governor in history, ABC said.