Supreme Court halts ex-Army recruiter’s Texas execution for 3rd time in rape-slaying of woman
By Associated Press, Published: September 20 | Updated: Wednesday, September 21, 7:51 AM
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A former Army recruiter who for the third time this year was hours away from his scheduled execution for the rape-slaying of a woman in Fort Worth nearly 10 years ago was granted yet another reprieve by the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The high court twice earlier this year stopped Foster’s scheduled lethal injection. The latest court ruling came about 2½ hours before Foster could have been taken to the Texas death chamber.
Foster was meeting with one of his lawyers in a small holding cell a few feet from the death chamber when a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman delivered the news.
“He thanked God and pointed to his attorney, saying this woman helped save his life,” prison spokesman Jason Clark said.
He also said Foster repeated his insistence that he was innocent.
“I did not do this crime,” Foster told him. “I know there are those out there who have hard feelings against me, but I did not do this.”
Unlike his previous trips to the death house in Huntsville, the reprieve came before he was served his requested final meal, which included two fried chickens and a five-gallon bucket of peaches.
Instead, he immediately was returned to death row, at a prison about 45 miles to the east.
Foster was one of two men convicted and sent to death row for fatally shooting a 30-year-old woman whose body was found in a ditch by pipeline workers in Fort Worth in February 2002. His partner died last year of cancer.
The court’s brief order said the reprieve would remain in effect pending the outcome of Foster’s request for a review, known as a petition for a writ of certiorari. If the writ is denied, the reprieve is lifted, clearing the way for a new execution date to be set.
“You’re always hoping for the best and fearing the worse,” Maurie Levin, the attorney who was with Foster when word of his reprieve was delivered to him. “I’m thrilled. It’s extremely unusual to get three stays from the Supreme Court in nine or 10 months.”
In January, just before the start of a six-hour window when Foster could be strapped to the death chamber gurney for injection, he won a reprieve so the justices could further review an appeal in his case. The court later denied a hearing, the reprieve was lifted and a new date was set. Then in April, the high court again halted his execution when lawyers sought a rehearing on arguments he was innocent and had poor legal help at his trial and in early stages of his appeal.
His lawyers returned to the court with similar arguments he was innocent and had previous deficient legal help, specifically asking the court to decide whether prisoners like Foster had a constitutional guarantee for a competent lawyer when he first raised claims in a state appeals court. State lawyers said the issues had been resolved by the courts, that the Supreme Court has ruled there’s no constitutional right to a competent state-provided lawyer for appeals, and the last-day appeal was just another attempt to delay Foster’s punishment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/supreme-court-halts-ex-army-recruiters-texas-execution-for-3rd-time-in-rape-slaying-of-woman/2011/09/20/gIQA7v80iK_story.html