I've got mixed emotions about this decision by Governor Rick Perry.

Perry issued the commutation order on a parole board's rare recommendation about seven hours before Kenneth Foster was to have been put to death — the narrowest gap by which he has halted an execution in his more than eight years in office.

Thursday's vote marked only the second time since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982 that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles endorsed stopping an execution with so little time remaining. And in that 2004 case, Perry rejected the board's recommendation and the prisoner, who had been diagnosed as mentally ill, was executed.

This time, Perry agreed with the board's recommendation that Foster be saved from lethal injection.

Foster, 30, learned of Thursday's board vote during a morning visit with his father. A warden told him of the governor's commutation about an hour later.

On the one hand, I firmly believe that every participant in this crime ought to be executed -- and that the guy merely driving the getaway car deserves to go to his death for his part in the criminal rampage that resulted in a murder.

On the other hand, I am troubled by the fact that two other participants did not get the death penalty.

In the end, though, I believe that Rick Perry's decision was wrong, and denies justice to the victim and his family.

H/T Don Surber