Foster's had become one of the more notorious deathrow cases of recent times. The campaign to save him was led by hiphop artists including Foster's wife, Jav'lin, while Jimmy Carter and archbishop Desmond Tutu were among the luminaries who came to his defence.

It's easy to see why. For one thing, Foster is an articulate, handsome young poet and musician. For another, he didn't kill anyone. He was on deathrow because of Texas's controversial 'law of parties', which allows the execution of people who are guilty by association. Foster was convicted of being an accomplice to the murder of Michael LaHood in August 1996, when he was 19. Foster drove the getaway car, but LaHood was shot by Foster's fellow gang member, Mauriceo Brown. (Brown was executed for the murder last year. ) On 22 August, Foster and another deathrow inmate, John Joe Amador, began refusing food in protest against their executions. In a published letter, they wrote: "In any other country when people are lined up and slaughtered, it's called genocide. They said Saddam Hussein committed mass genocide. It has happened in Darfur and Rwanda and presidents of Cuba and North Korea have been accused of it. But when America does it, it is called justice?"

In the end, Foster was spared by a 6-1 recommendation of the state parole board and an uncharacteristic about-turn by Perry; Amador, however, was put to death on Wednesday evening, the 23rd prisoner executed in Texas this year and the second this week. Amador had been convicted of the murder of a taxi driver 13 years ago. In a brief statement from the gurney in his last minutes, he said: "God forgive them for they know not what they do. After all these years our people are still lost in hatred and anger."

The Houston Chronicle reported the comments of Amir Ayari, the victim's son, who was six when his father was killed and who watched Amador die. They were instructive in what they revealed about so-called "victims' rights". "I think they should have burned him, or something else. He looked too happy. I'm happy about what happened, seeing him going like that. . . I'm happy because he got executed."

The previous week, on 21 August, the EU issued a declaration deploring the 400th execution in Texas since the death penalty was reinstated there in 1976. It urged Perry "to halt all upcoming executions and to consider the introduction of a moratorium in the state of Texas".

This was in protest at the execution of Johnny Ray Conner, who had spent eight years on death row protesting his innocence. In response, a spokesman for Perry smirked: "While we respect our friends in Europe, Texans are doing just fine governing Texas."

The US is one of 67 countries that retain the death penalty, along with some of its favourite enemies (Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Cuba, Syria), as well as some of the countries with which it maintains more cordial relations (China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Zimbabwe). This year, Albania and Rwanda (both famous human rights sanctuaries, if you can forgive the sarcasm) abolished the death penalty.

Thirty-eight of the 50 US states provide for the death penalty, though none can compare with Texas. As governor of Texas, George Bush signed more than 150 execution orders. And in recent weeks, as president, he has devised a plan to speed up the execution process, reducing the amount of time deathrow inmates can be allowed to file their pesky appeals.

Amnesty International's latest annual report gives dishonourable mentions to some of the more barbaric executions in the US last year, including these two: "Clarence Allen, a Native American, was executed in California on 17 January, a day after his 76th birthday. He had been on deathrow for 23 years, was confined to a wheelchair and nearly blind; he had suffered a major heart attack in 2005.

"Angel Nieves Diaz was executed by lethal injection in Florida on 13 December, proclaiming his innocence after two decades on death row. The execution went ahead despite the fact that a key prosecution witness from the trial had recanted his testimony. The execution required 34 minutes and two doses of the drugs to kill Angel Diaz. Witnesses described Angel Diaz grimacing in pain and gasping for air during the execution."

It hardly needs to be pointed out, too, that few white people languish on America's deathrows.

Only in the century of routine lynchings that led up to the 1960s did the southern states do away with young black men in greater numbers.

There has been some progress, though. In 2002, the US supreme court decreed that states could no longer execute the mentally disabled. And in 2005 it ordered an end to the execution of juveniles. So a child can no longer be executed, and neither can an adult with the IQ of a child. This is progress.

Foster's case offers grounds for optimism too, even though others were not so lucky this week. Granting clemency, Perry stated he was "concerned about Texas law that allowed capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously and it is an issue I think the legislature should examine". Maybe the American judicial system is inching its way down the road to civilisation, where the demands of justice are superior to those of a pitiless mob.