Texas Executes 9th in 9 Months
By
Cleve Foster
Courtesy Texas Department of Criminal Justice
48-year-old Cleve Foster was pronounced dead at 6:43 pm on Tuesday, becoming the ninth inmate this year to be executed by lethal injection in Texas. Foster was convicted of murder in 2002, and had received three stays of execution from the United States Supreme Court. His attempt at a fourth stay was rejected by the high court, 6 to 3.
Before the lethal chemicals flowed into his body, Foster was allowed to make a final statement to the witnesses, including relatives of his victim. “When I close my eyes, I’ll be with the father,” he said. “God is everything. He’s my life. Tonight I’ll be with him.”
Texas, like most jurisdictions with the death penalty, has a tradition of allowing the condemned to address a final statement to those gathered to watch him die. Colleen Curry has gathered some of the more colorful Last Words from Texas executions in an interesting post at abcnews.com. My favorite is from Robert Wayne Harris, who was put to death last week after crying out, “God Bless the Texas Rangers.” Presumably he was talking about the football team, not the law enforcement agency.
Colleen’s piece can be found at http://abcnews.go.com/US/words-texas-death-row-inmates-9th-prisoner-set/story?id=17310565#1
Texas is scheduled to pick up the pace next month: the Department of Criminal Justice has scheduled four executions in October.
