AUSTIN, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry Thursday commuted the death sentence of Kenneth Foster, who drove a getaway car for a killer, hours before Foster was to be executed.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had voted 6-1 in favor of sparing Foster’s life, The Dallas Morning News reported. Foster now has a sentence of life in prison.
“After carefully considering the facts of this case, along with the recommendations from the Board of Pardons and Paroles, I believe the right and just decision is to commute Foster’s sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment,” Perry said. “I am concerned about Texas law that allows capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously, and it is an issue I think the legislature should examine.”
Legal experts say Foster might have received a life sentence if he had not been tried with Mauriceo Brown, who shot Michael LaHood dead during a robbery spree in San Antonio. Brown was executed last year.
Foster and two other men were in their car 90 feet away at the time of the shooting.
