NO Justice No Peace: Kenneth Foster must be released! : Houston Indymedia

The case of Kenneth Foster is extremely important and folks should read up on it. I'm not an expert so please <a href"http://houston.indymedia.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=915&category_id=1">check out past coverage Houston Indymedia has done.

We did not know what to expect a this event billed as rally and march from the Capitol to the Governor's Mansion. Spending the previous day in Austin, we saw saw flyers for this all over the place, bookstores, restaurants, telephone poles etc. We arrived a little bit late, just in time to catch the end of a rally on the steps to the capitol building and join a march that took all of the southbound lanes on Congress, and snaking through downtown.

The march was largely composed of the African American family and friends of Kenneth Foster, Rodney Reed and former death row prisoners, the lilly white UT student based Coalition to end the death penalty/ International Socialist Organization, and a smattering of others; Puero Rican Rappers from New York, Anarchists from Corpus Christi, Houston's Texas Death Penalty abolition Movement, some folks from faith communities and many others.

The march was way more energetic than I was expecting, it moved very quickly with constant rythm of really catchy chants: "They say Death Row, We say Hell No" "No Justice No Peace - Kenneth Foster must be released" and others I cant remember.

We looped though downtown and ended up very close to where we started across the street from Rick Perry's Mansion in a parking lot where a rally took place with music, from hip-hop to blues, poetry, messages sent from other people incarcerated and speakers from Kenneth's family, other death row survivors and death penalty abolition activists.

It was a powerful event and I hope that it will serve to stop the execution of a man who was convicted under an anarconistic and barbaric law, and allow him to return to his family and community to continue the struggle for justice.

Leaving the Capitol
by RoB - Rambles / Gislaine - Photos Tuesday, Jul. 24, 2007 at 12:17 AM

Death Row - Hell No
by RoB - Rambles / Gislaine - Photos Tuesday, Jul. 24, 2007 at 12:17 AM

Nydesha was amazingly composed and active for a 11 year old, especially having as that the state has taken away and is planning to kill her father. She read really fantastic poetry about visiting and strugling with her father and performed an afrincan dance at the conclusion of the rally

This man spoke about spending a number of years on death row and how the dedication of young activists were crucial in freeing him. I regretfully did not catch this elders name, we spoke emotionaly and eloquently about the profundly destructive nature of capitol punishment and how we have got to struggle to shut it down

Darby Tillis spent nearly 10 years on Illinois death row before being released for a crime he di not commit.