HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Governor Rick Perry says he'll spare Kenneth Foster from his scheduled execution Thursday and commute his sentence to life.
In doing so, Perry accepts a recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which voted 6-1 Thursday to urge the commutation.
Foster's had faced execution Thursday night in Huntsville for being the getaway driver in the 1996 attempted robbery and murder of Michael LaHood in San Antonio.
Perry didn't have to accept the highly unusual recommendation from the board, whose members he appoints.
But in a statement issued today, Perry said he believes "the right and just decision is to commute Foster's sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment."
Records show one of Foster's passenger, Mauriceo Brown, demanded LaHood's wallet and car keys, then opened fire when the victim couldn't produce them. Foster was tried with Brown and received the same sentence. Brown was executed last year.
In his statement, Perry said he's "concerned about Texas law that allowed capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously." He says he thinks the Legislature should examine that issue.
