Not A Killer But Still Facing A Date With The Executioner (MSM Template Of The Day Alert)

New York Times ^ | 08/30/2007 | Ralph Blumenthal

[Rummyfan]

But unlike most others condemned to death in this state, Mr. Foster, a former gang member and aspiring musician and now a prison poet from San Antonio, is not a murderer in the usual sense.

Of course they make him out to be a saint now: poet and musician.

Bad friends bring bad luck.

[Dixie Yooper]

Here in Raleigh during the last week, we have had 3 murder arrests, two fathers and one boy friend who killed their infants while left alone with them. We also have a problem carrying out our executions because of a hangup with the State Medical Review Board not wanting doctors to participate in executions and threatening to pull the license of any doctor who does. Did I mention that North Carolina is run by a bunch of crooked democrats?

[mak5]

Yes, this is basic criminal law and would be true in most states. The Times, being the Times, has minimized the crime as well as the likelihood of receiving the death penalty in other states.

This guy could have stopped this crime spree at any time by driving the car back to his home. He was out driving a gang of thugs, who he knew were armed, while they were robbing people. He is clearly and quite plainly a conspirator and fully liable for their acts.

I say this as a former criminal defense attorney, but this guy would be in big trouble in most states and there wouldn’t have been much I could have done for him other than have him make a deal to help convict the shooter.

[Rummyfan]

Ensnared in a Texas law that makes accomplices subject to the death penalty, Mr. Foster, 30, is to become the third death row inmate this week, and the 403rd since capital punishment resumed in Texas in 1982, to give his life for a life taken.

They write that like it's a bad thing!

[goldstategop]

The felony murder rule isn't controversial. I think the MSM is running this story because the killer is black and the victim is white. Now try reversing their identity. Would the MSM still get exercised about felony murder? I don't think so. Its liberal guilt here plus the fact Texas is a Southern state with conservative cultural values that makes it a target for the kind of template that is running in the national media this morning.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[dooltotheend]

But, but he’s a poet and aspiring musician. Aiding and abeting a crime that occured years ago is no longer relevant.

[Arrowhead1952]

KLBJ has talking about this all morning. Lisa Fritsch is on in SGT Sam's place and she is letting Ed have it today. One caller even called her "Ms. Coulter".

[dooltotheend]

Now, just a minute here. We all know if the person that was killed was not there he would not have been killed. It’s his fault the murderers killed him. Furthermore, I think the innocent killer’s families should sue the guy that was killed. This all makes perfectly good sense.

[socal_parrot]

And no other state executes anybody on the scale of Texas.

Something to shoot for.

[rock_lobsta]

Mr. Foster can go tell Tookie I said “Hot enough for ya?”

[ichabod1]

In any murder, the deceased is not the only victim. Nobody wins in murder.

[Grunthor]

“He was convicted and sentenced to die for abetting a killing — 80 feet away — that he might, or might not, have had reason to anticipate.”

Broke the law, pay the piper. New York Slimes doesn’t like Texas law? Shocker.

[Grunthor]

“Way to go, Texas!”

They are setting that bar pretty high, aren’t they? Screw Fla. I want to retired in Texas.

[bimbo]

... Mr. Foster ...

What incredible respect the MSM has for scum!

[Grunthor]

“We also have a problem carrying out our executions because of a hangup with the State Medical Review Board not wanting doctors to participate in executions and threatening to pull the license of any doctor who does.

I’ll do it. I don’t have much of a conscience OR a medical license they can pull.

[tioga]

“Other state’s are trying to abolish the death penalty… mine’s putting in an express lane."...Ron White

[Froufrou]

CCG, you are exactly right. I give some credit to at least one station mentioning that ‘by law, in TX, under certain circumstances’ you don’t have to be the shooter to be sentenced to death in a murder.

This murder had malice and forethought, IIRC.

[Teacher317]

I've got nothing against the felony murder rule... but handing out capital punishment for those so convicted seems like a bit much to me. Decades in jail seems far more just, to me.

Sadly, there are far too many Americans who relish the idea of killing someone who commits a crime... any crime... that raises any risk to others. Look for capital sentences to be handed out for DUIs soon, too. There will be plenty of otherwise intelligent folks here on FR who will cheer for it.

The felony murder is meant to appropriately punish those who chose to be involved in a felonious situation, and a death occurred. This can include the get-away driver who never enters the store... his cohort toting an unloaded .38... but the store clerk fires first, misses the perp, and kills an innocent customer. Personally, I don't see how dealing death to the driver makes any sense whatsoever... yet Texas' felony murder rule would allow for just such a result.

[Teacher317]

I say this as a former criminal defense attorney, but this guy would be in big trouble in most states and there wouldn’t have been much I could have done for him other than have him make a deal to help convict the shooter

But in most states, and in the cases you did handle, did the driver ever get a death sentence? Yes, he's up the creek and facing many years of hard time... but extermination? Sorry, that very special punishment should only be put in the hands of government for very select group of people... those who took lives, usually multiple lives, in particularly horrid ways. I don't see where that applies in this case.

[ltc8k6]

“Personally, I don’t see how dealing death to the driver makes any sense whatsoever”

In your scenario the driver directly caused the death of the customer by robbing the store with his partners. By robbing the store at gunpoint, they forced the owner to defend himself.

Had there been a shootout, the results would be the fault of the robbers. They caused the shootout by robbing the place at gunpoint.