The District Clerk has misplaced Foster's case file

According to San Antonio current, the District Clerk has misplaced Foster's case file.

Losing the case, literally

The object of the Queque's ire this week is three-fold, and we'll start with the Bexar County District Clerk's Office by way of Kenneth Foster, innocent man on death row.

Regular Questers know that on August 30 the state plans to administer the lethal injection to Foster, an inmate from San Antonio who didn't actually murder anyone. Foster was convicted under the archaic "law of parties" for being in the same car, 80 feet away, from the guy who did shoot the son of a prominent local attorney. So far, the Austin American-Statesman has called for the governor to commute Foster's sentence, as has local blogger Sean-Paul Kelley, who names the victim as one of his best friends. Even Le Monde, the French newspaper of record, dispatched a reporter to interview Foster, who's still waiting for a visit from his hometown daily, the Express-News. In an interview two weeks ago, the Queque told Foster not to hold his breath; the daily, we've heard, has yet to replace their death-penalty reporter Maro Robbins, who departed last month to study law.

Even if they do set a last-minute newshound on the hunt, they're going to run into the same paper-trail obstacle the Queque faced at District Clerk Margaret Montemayor's office. The Queque filed a request to view Foster's case file a month ago, and we've yet to set our paws on it, despite the 10-day maximum wait. What's the hold-up? According to an assistant clerk in the criminal-records department, the archives department misplaced Foster's file and is currently checking each and every storage shelf to find it.

For those interested in hearing more about his case, the Campaign to End the Death Penalty is hosting a roundtable with Foster's family on Tuesday at the Carver Library in Austin. For more info, email
cedpaustin@gmail.com.