Former U.S. Army recruiter to be executed Jan. 11

Cleve "Sarge" Foster

 
By Elizabeth Ann Stein
Producer, Execution Watch

Tomorrow, the state controller will announce Texas' deficit, estimated by others at $15 billion to $25 billion. The following day, Jan. 11, Texas will put to death former Army recruiter Cleve "Sarge" Foster at a total cost of $2.3 million over life in prison.

Execution Watch will broadcast live coverage and analysis of Foster's execution.

Last year, Texas's highest-in-the-nation 17 executions represented a death-penalty surtax of nearly $40 million. What the cost to taxpayers will be for 2011, only time will tell.

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RADIO PROGRAM PREVIEW

EXECUTION WATCH

Jan. 11, 2011, Tues., 6-7 pm CT

Tune in on KPFT's HD-2 channel, 90.1 FM Houston, or

Listen online: Go to www.executionwatch. org at 6 p.m. CT, click on “Listen.”

TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE:

  CLEVE “SARGE” FOSTER, 47, a former Army recruiter condemned in the 2002 slaying of a Sudanese woman in Fort Worth. Foster has maintained his innocence. Co-defendant Sheldon Ward, who claimed sole responsibility for the murder, cheated the executioner by dying of a brain tumor May 13, 2010, while on death row. Foster’s attempts to appeal his conviction reached as far as the U.S. Supreme Court. News reports indicate his sister and mother, who live in his native Kentucky, plan to witness Foster’s death-by-lethal-injection. His execution will be the first in Texas since Oct. 21. More background is at

http://executionwatch.org > Backpage on Cleve ‘Sarge’ Foster.

SHOW LINEUP

  Host: RAY HILL, an ex-convict who has lost a dozen friends to the death chamber. Ray’s civil rights activism has included shepherding several cases to the U.S. Supreme Court. He founded, and hosted for 30 years, KPFT’s Prison Show, http://www.theprisonshow.org .

  Legal Analyst: ROBERT ROSENBERG, a Houston attorney who has been handling death row cases since the 1980s. As a civil rights lawyer, he has represented clients on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union.

  Featured Interview: ROBIN M. MAHER, Director of the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Representation Project, which seeks to educate attorneys about the shortage of representation for death row inmates and to recruit and train volunteer attorneys to fill the need. The project also promotes systemic changes to ensure that defendants in capital cases are represented at all stages by competent counsel. http://www.abanet.org/deathpenalty/.

  Reporter, Death House, Huntsville: GLORIA RUBAC, leader of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement and long-time activist against the death penalty, http://abolitionmovement.org/ .

   Reporter, Vigil, Houston: DAVID ATWOOD, board member of Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. http://tcadp.org.

NEXT SCHEDULED EXECTION

  On, Feb. 15, Texas plans to execute MICHAEL WAYNE HALL. If that happens, Execution Watch will broadcast. Details: www.executionwatch.org

  PRODUCER: Elizabeth Ann Stein, eliza.tx.usa @gmail.com.

  TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: Otis Maclay, omaclay @gmail.com.

  THEME: “Death by Texas,” Victoria Panetti, http://www.myspace.com/shemonster