To the state of Texas that sought to extinguish his life, his name is Kenneth Foster; to many of his friends and supporters, his name is Haramia KiNassor, an eloquent and outspoken activist. By whatever name that he may be known, he is now a past denizen of Texas Death Row, for, by a governor's order of commutation, he is on Death Row no more.
That he was ever on Death Row at all is due more to a quirk of Texas law, than anything else. For the judge, the defense and the DA agree that Foster hurt no one; he shot no one; he killed no one; nor did he rob anyone. He was a driver in a car full of guys, just rolling around one night, when, all of a sudden, one of them (unbeknownst to Kenneth) steps out, robs a guy, shoots him and kills him. In Texas , under what's called the Law of Parties, Foster's presence near a crime was enough; even though he didn't commit a crime, didn't participate in it, nor profited from it, he was convicted, and sent to Death Row. If that were not enough, when he still had less than a month to live the Texas Department of Corrections (TDC) banned the man from receiving or reading a book on sports! The book, titled What's My Name Fool?: Sports and Resistance in the U.S., penned by sportswriter, Dave Ziren (pronounced like 'siren'), was banned from Texas Death Row because, in the words of the Aug. 9th, 2007 memo from the TDC publication review committee, "It contains material that a reasonable person would construe as written solely for the purpose of communicating information designed to achieve the breakdown of prisons through offender disruption such as strikes or riots."' Wow. I never thought sports was so powerful. The author, sent the notice by Foster, was, understandably quite shocked. He checked out the objectionable pages, and was even more amazed. The pages cited by the TDC dealt with baseball icon, Jackie Robinson, and heavyweight boxing champ, Jack Johnson. Both dealt with their resistance to white repression; one, about 1/2 a century ago; the other, perhaps 80 years ago. Yeah. That'll start riots in prisons all over the country! For Kenneth Foster, at least, his Death Row days are behind him. Unfortunately, he's now doing a life bit in Texas gulags. His dozen years on Death Row politicized him, and gave him an historical perspective that he did not possess when he first arrived there. Thanks to supporters across the country, his last day of life wasn't August 30th, as the warrant decreed. Now, the struggle for his freedom begins. {*Source: Zirin, Dave, "In Texas , books are a danger to death row", Houston Chronicle, Sun., Aug. 28, 2007 , p. E5.} |
