Cleve Foster, a former Army recruiter convicted of murder, was scheduled to be executed earlier this week in Huntsville, Tex., when the Supreme Court rightly granted a stay pending a review of his case.
There are so many reasons why the death penalty should be repealed everywhere. It is barbaric, and a terrifyingly high number of innocent defendants have been placed on death row or executed. Mr. Foster’s petition makes a strong case that, but for his ineffective state-appointed trial lawyer, he would not have been sentenced to death and that the evidence against him leaves conspicuous room for doubt about his guilt. It also makes a strong case that, but for the weakness of a second state-appointed lawyer who filed a writ of habeas corpus, he would have been granted a new trial.