The governor of Texas commuted the death sentence of Kenneth Foster yesterday six hours before Foster’s scheduled execution. Governor Rick Perry made the decision after the state’s parole board voted six to one in favor of sparing Foster’s life. This marked only the third time Perry has commuted a death sentence. Since he took office in 2000, Perry has overseen 162 executions. Anti-death penalty activists hailed the decision as a major victory. Dana Cloud of the Save Kenneth Foster campaign said, “This case demonstrated to the world just how arbitrary and capricious capital punishment is.” Foster had been sentenced to death for a crime the state of Texas admits he did not commit or plan. In a recent interview with Court TV, Kenneth Foster talked about how he wants to keep helping raise his 11-year-old daughter.

Kenneth Foster: “I’m trying to breed another little activist here. I’m trying to breed us maybe another Barbara Lee or another Barbara Jordan or a Maxine Waters or a Sheila Jackson Lee. … We need to actually raise our children more so to get involved with the system. You know, a lot of people like to point fingers: 'Well, this is what's wrong with this, and this is what’s wrong.’ And, well, we need to get our family involved with the system, raise our kids to go to school and be politicians and legislators and Senate members and House reps. We have to do that. And that’s something that I’ve been putting on her head, and I think I got her.”