Juvenile Death Penalty Ronald Chris Foster

Death penalty opponents want clemency
WBLT-TV News January 3, 2003

In less than a week, death row inmate Ron Chris Foster is scheduled to die.

Foster was convicted in the 1989 killing of a convenience store clerk in Lowndes county, but questions have arisen in Foster's case. He was 17 years old when he committed the crime and a group opposing the death penalty says Mississippi should join other states in banning the execution of juveniles.

Lawmakers, religious leaders, and educators are among those who've formed the "Coalition for Clemency." They've asked Governor Ronnie Musgrove to spare Foster's life.

Dr. Steve Smith is a philosophy and religious studies professor. "A case like this where the offender was very young, very inexperienced, very disadvantaged, it was a very unfortunate circumstance in that case...pretty much the sort of case where the Governor could use his authority to intervene in and stop the execution."

Governor Musgrove denied clemency in a pair of 2002 executions. The coalition says Foster's case is different. He was 17 at the time of the crime and they say he had the mental capacity of a 13 year old.

Andrew Yoder who is with the open door Mennonite Church. "This state has received a lot of negative publicity and this would only exhacerbate that. This is definitely not a good sign of the state's justice system." But some say the U.S. Supreme Court has clearly defined who can be executed.

Assistant Attorney General Sonny White said, "since 1989, in the decision of Stanford v. Kentucky, the U.S. Supreme court held that there was no constitutional prohibition to the execution of 16 and 17 year olds."

Still, the coalition says the execution puts Mississippi and America in a negative light. Don Fortenberry, who is a United Methodist minister said, "it is no service to our moral authority that we join nations such as Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen in executing juveniles."

By law, Mississippi is one of 22 states that can execute a juvenile. The coalition says it'll fight until that number is reduced to 21.

Meanwhile, Foster has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block his January 8th execution date. Silas McCharen, Foster's attorney, says the Supreme Court has received new petitions regarding the issue of executing a juvenile and that should warrant a delay.

The Supreme Court rejected Foster's last appeal in December.

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