Comments on: Meet Kenneth Foster (Alive!)

By: Margy

Margy — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 10:08:00 +0000

I actually was under the impression it was his African name…

At least thats what I was told .

By: Margy

Margy — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 09:59:38 +0000

Wasent it was another non white colored man, a social outcast a dude accused convicted and put to death for crimes he didnt commit some 2000 years ago who say the following while defending a prostitute who was about to be stoned to death by her own hypocritical contermoraries for her crimes…..

He without sin…cast the first stone!!!

Oh yes…how brave people are to call others “chickenshit” and throw stones at everyone else around them but whom cant face their own reflections in the mirror.

What utter hypocracy!

By: Greekgyal

Greekgyal — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 19:35:00 +0000

Can you all just Free Kenneth Foster!!!!!Also free all of the innocent prisoners all together.

By: Chris Purcell

Chris Purcell — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 18:05:05 +0000

It’s always been a mystery to me that the same people who are pro death penalty are anti-abortion. There are many right to life issues. I would like to see a permanent ban on the death penalty in this country. I would have a problem living next door to a person who would, as their job, be the one to push the button, flip the switch, or whatever would be necessary to carry out the deliberate execution of anyone. It is a job that I could not and would not do myself for moral reasons, and would therefore not ever expect that anyone else would. Personally, I don’t think that Kenneth Foster even deserves life in prison, though I believe there are some who do. We have to have a sensible way of dealing with crime in this country.

Chris Purcell

By: Lloyd Rowsey

Lloyd Rowsey — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 13:25:42 +0000

A pessimist would say, biology isn’t even science, it’s just an almost infinite collection of unique examples. I busted my teeth on the line between writing and activism in the extremely brutal political discussion groups at the NYT, maybe four years ago. I’m still a recovering writer-activist, and I hope I always will be; but most of the reactions like these — to Dave’s obviously from-the-heart notice to everyone — still shoot me in-the-heart, if you know the crazy, white, honky killer whose brother’s book I so lightly refer to.

Can ANYONE imagine that the Chipmunk and his Eichmann Gonzales would have spared Kenneth Foster’s life?

An optimist would say, it’s all chance although we do make choices. Keep writing my friends and being active my friends and doing both my friends. As long as you can. We’re our only hope. Not to mention the world’s.

lloydrowsey@hotmail.com

By: bunny bampton

bunny bampton — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 02:40:11 +0000

noone does ugly venegeance q as well as angry white guys in america, do they? i’m pleased that this guy wasn’t executed but i’m q amazed he’s still in jail. in any other western country he’d be home free since he didn’t actually DO ANYTHING!

love
bunny

By: makes_me_wonder

makes_me_wonder — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 01:27:56 +0000

I guess through all this, what about the consideration of the victim and his family. In my personal opinion people can cry and moan all they want about how he didnt perform the act but they were there within a few feet. He is just as guilty as the person that was put away a year ago.

By: Deadbeat

Deadbeat — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:12:52 +0000

The struggle continues.

By: Desiree' Atkins

Desiree' Atkins — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 23:05:18 +0000

I mean come on now i am a student who is 17 years of age, also an African American and I know people are dying everyday and yet we continue to sit here and play the rascist card.. I mean for people to say “blacks” are pyscho-paths must have a really hard time of waking up in the morning and seeing color and hating it. There is so much goin on here and yet they wanna jump on the next person in line… I am truly happy that a man who was innocent went free of dying in a horrible manner. If only they had did the same thing for Stanley Tookie Williams. Down here in Texas the are many killings and most of the people are white, and no i am not throwin the race card in there…I mean so we (human beings) need to come on and grow up and stop playing childish games and just deal with life as it comes to us..

By: Michael Rappaport

Michael Rappaport — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:21:38 +0000

I believe the commutation of Foster’s sentence was wonderful — he should never have been subject to execution — but I have to admit being a little disappointed to see that the way he has been able to survive in prison has been by adopting a Muslim name.

By: JE

JE — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:57:36 +0000

Wow some racist posing a black guy to make people feel bad for standing against the injustice of capital murder. That’s sad and amusing at the same time.

Anyway, my reaction was precisely the same as Mr. Zirin’s. Pure Joy. There actually is a smudge of justice in this world.

By: Hans Bennett

Hans Bennett — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:26:38 +0000

What a pleasant comment! For those of us who are not bitter, psychotic jerks like “some consolation” this is an amazing day. Most folks involved were not very optimistic. So, once again it is a testament to the power of organizing against injustice. Below here is an essay written by Walidah Imarisha (who I was coresponding with directly from the prison) last night.

http://indymedia.us/en/2007/08/27217.shtml

KiNassor/Foster Gets Commutation – And the Struggle Continues

By Walidah Imarisha

It is 6:05 p.m. on Aug. 30. Right now Haramia KiNassor/Kenneth Foster Jr., death row organizer and poet, was supposed to be strapped down to a gurney waiting for a shot of poison injected into his veins. Thanks to world wide outrage, attention and action, he no longer has the threat of death of hanging over his head.

Today at noon, Texas Governor Rick Perry commuted KiNassor’s death sentence to life in prison, after a 6-1 recommendation for clemency by the Perry-appointed Board of Pardons and Paroles The Board has only voted to stop an execution once before since the reinstitution of the death penalty in Texas in 1982.

Supporters attribute this almost unprecedented decision to the national and international support he has gotten. Last minute media this morning including The New York Times, The LA Times, the Chicago Tribune and several news stations only join with Court TV, BET News, NBC, ABC and hundreds of others, not only here but in Venezuela, Dubai, Italy, France, England and elsewhere.

“After carefully considering the facts of this case, along with the recommendation 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 in his written statement about the decision.
But Perry’s statement extended beyond KiNassor’s case: “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.”
KiNassor agreed that this issue extends beyond his case, and has insisted that from the beginning. Today, before the decision came down, he said in an interview, “Regardless of what happens today, you all have to keep up the struggle. I know this is bigger than one day. The Law of Parties is still on the books and this is going to continue to ruin lives until we stop it.”
KiNassor’s attorney Keith Hampton estimates there are at least a dozen prisoners on Texas’ death row who was convicted under the Law of Parties. KiNassor feels that’s a good place to begin work, but not to end.

KiNassor encouraged his supporters to work to free Rudy Medrano who is on death row for the Law of Parties. KiNassor says that Medrano was sentenced to die for loaning someone a gun that was used in a murder without his knowledge when he was at a different location.
He also encourages organizing against the death penalty. Five more lethal injections are scheduled for next month, the first one next week. This is just a break in a chain, and we must ensure that this chain stays broken.

In addition, supporters plan to continue supporting The DRIVE Movement, the death row organization KiNassor helped to found that is working to end the inhumanity of the death penalty.

And of course there is still the fight to get KiNassor free. “Life is better than a death sentence, but it still isn’t good enough and we will ride to the end,” says Adam Axel, a support coordinator.

KiNassor agreed, saying, “The struggle continues and I know we will win, with the people we have involved.”

But tonight, his supporters are tasting the sweetness of their victory, as KiNassor must be as well in his cell knowing so much love is with him, without the threat of death over him, knowing that he will finally be able to touch his 11-year-old daughter, that he hasn’t touched since she was three months old, knowing that he can have extended visits with his family without glass separating them or special schedules. And the thing with victory is once you get a taste, it makes you that much more dedicated to have more.

Homepage:: http://freekenneth.com

By: todd, a chickenshit (you coward)

todd, a chickenshit (you coward) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:42:54 +0000

How transparent and spiteful the alleged concern for “poor black people” the previous individual’s (white, pseudo-christian, elitist and cowardly male?) utterances appear, as though by the inclusion of the term “honkies” the reader will not mistake this ignorant hateful rabble as that of a white republican errand boy. Chickenshit, you say? Is that a public computer you are using, Mr. Bold and Brave? Have you been waiting around the libraries, or are you comfortably nested in your home? Is the leather in your lexus beginning to wear? It must have really angered you that your masters staved off the lynching of Kenneth Foster, who in the spirit of George Jackson, Assata Shakur, Geronimo Pratt, and the millions of other prisoners who resist the brutal tactics that woulk attempt to break them down as something less than human. What a coward you are, you anonymous hateful loaf. Respect to all who worked on Kenneth’s behalf. Respect to all who share the vision of freed political prisoners. Respect to those who demand a balanced justice system. And to the shameful few, such as the writer of this previous entry, whom in their trite and unsatisfying life finds consolation by reveling in anothers anguish; the lines are being drawn, and our time is coming.

By: some consolation

some consolation — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:02:03 +0000

It’s too bad that you honkies were played as patsies by yet another black punk. What a chickenshit Foster is, no pride, just whining and bogus excuses. It’s an insult to all the poor black people who manage to live their lives without becoming sociopaths

the only consolation is the thought that this little chickenshit will be stuck in a cage for the next 50 years — a much harsher punishment than death — and that his family and child will have to live the rest of their lives knowing that he is caged.