Le Monde supports U.S. death-row prisoner Kenneth Foster

Le Monde, a major capitalist French newspaper, ran a prominent page 3, full-page story Aug. 4 on the case of Texas death row activist Kenneth Foster. The article analyzed Foster’s conviction for “having seen a crime but not having done anything to stop it” and warmly portrayed the courage and fortitude he has demonstrated in facing the death penalty.

Le Monde also covered the broader use of the death penalty in the United States and that Texas carried out 139 executions while now-President George W. Bush was governor of the state. This focus on Bush might have been inspired by a desire to tarnish French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s vacation in New England and his lunch with Bush around the date of the article.

Other major French papers, including “Marianne,” picked up the story after the Le Monde coverage.

No country in the European Union has the death penalty. Public opinion in France is dead set against it and it is a nonissue in French elections. Just a few far right, racist and xenophobic politicians openly support executions.

After two centuries of debate that began during the French Revolution in the late 18th century, the French parliament abolished the death penalty in 1981. This year a constitutional prohibition was established, even under a right-wing government, against ever sentencing anyone to death.

In the U.S., however, the Bush administration has gotten new power over states’ use of the death penalty from the revised Patriot Act.

Once the Justice Department finishes writing the regulations, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will have the authority to decide if federal litigation of prisoners’ appeals—which are the main source of delays in death penalty cases— will be put on a fast track. This “fast track,” according to lawyers, will substantially increase the difficulty of reversing an unjust verdict.

Gonzales was the Texas State Attorney General during Bush’s term as governor and supervised all 139 capital cases.