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Title: Mexican on Texas death row set to die amid controversy
Source:
CNN
URL Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/05/scotus.execution/
Published: Aug 5, 2008
Author: Not named
Post Date: 2008-08-05 13:38:59 by CAPPSMADNESS
Keywords: None
Views: 124
Comments: 6
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Mexican national on Texas' death row is awaiting possible last-minute intervention from the Supreme Court, just hours before he is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday for two brutal slayings. Jose Ernesto Medellin's execution by lethal injection could be the final act in an unusual capital appeal that pitted President Bush against his home state in a dispute over federal authority, local sovereignty and foreign treaties. The high court in March ruled for Texas, allowing the execution to proceed, but Medellin's lawyers have filed a flurry of emergency appeals in state and federal courts requesting a stay. They argue Congress and the Texas legislature should be given a chance to pass legislation that would give their client a new hearing before any punishment is carried out. Such a bill is pending in Congress, but no recent action has been taken in either chamber. In an August 1 letter, three Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee urged Texas Gov. Rick Perry to postpone upcoming executions "in order to provide Congress with the time needed to consider this situation." Texas lawmakers will not gather in session until January.At issue is whether the state has to give in to the president's demand that the prisoner be allowed new hearings and sentencing. Bush made that demand reluctantly after an international court concluded Medellin and about 50 other Mexicans on American death rows were improperly denied access to their consulate upon arrest, a violation of a treaty signed by the United States decades ago. Medellin's execution would be the first of what promises to be a busy month at the state's death chamber in Huntsville. Five other men are scheduled to die by lethal injection in the next four weeks, including inmate Heliberto Chi Acheituno on Thursday. Medellin was 18 when he took part in the June 1993 gang rape and murder of two Harris County girls, Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16. He was convicted of the crimes and sentenced to death. The prisoner's lawyers argued Mexican consular officials were not able to meet with the man until after his conviction. Thirteen Texas death row inmates from Mexico will be affected by the high court ruling. Only Oklahoma has commuted a capital inmate's sentence to life in prison in response to the international judgment. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 the United States had violated the rights of those prisoners, in part because officials and prosecutors failed to notify their home country, from which the men could have received legal and other assistance. Those judges ordered the United States to provide "review and reconsideration" of the sentences and convictions of the Mexican prisoners. That world court again last month ordered the United States to do everything within its federal authority to stop Medellin's execution until his case can be further reviewed. Based in The Hague, Netherlands, the world court resolves disputes between nations over treaty obligations. The United States is one of the signatories to the 1963 Vienna Convention, laying out rights of people detained in other nations. The Supreme Court appeal turned on what role each branch of government plays to give force to international treaty obligations. Chief Justice John G. Roberts wrote for a 6-3 majority that international court judgments cannot be forced upon individual states. The president also cannot "establish binding rules of decision that pre-empt contrary state law," he said, and the treaty itself does not specifically require states to remedy any treaty violations. The 58-year-old chief justice added that the world court "is not domestic law," thereby restricting the president's power over states. "The executive's narrow and strictly limited authority to settle international claims disputes pursuant to an executive agreement cannot stretch so far as to support the current presidential memorandum" that would force Texas to conduct a new state trial, he wrote. The Mexican government had filed an appeal with the International Court of Justice against the United States in January 2003, alleging violations of international law. Medellin filed his own federal and state appeals based on similar complaints, as well as a claim of ineffective counsel. Medellin has the support of the European Union and several international human rights groups. Bush said he disagreed with the world court's conclusions but agreed to comply with them. In a February 28, 2005, executive order, he said, "The United States will discharge its international obligations ... by having state courts give effect to the decision in accordance with general principles of comity in cases filed by the 51 Mexican nationals addressed in that decision." The Bush White House typically backs states in their power to carry out executions, but Justice Department officials said that in these instances, the president's power to conduct foreign policy outweighed states' interests. The Supreme Court originally heard the Medellin case in 2005 but did not rule on its merits. It waited instead for lower courts to resolve the federalism angle before rehearing the appeal in October.
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#2. To: CAPPSMADNESS (#0)
Notice the presence of children at this hanging. This is as it should be for all condemned men: let the public see justice carried out. To hell with Bush, he has shown his repeated deference to mexico above America in all matters.
Texas defies Hague and executes José MedellínMexican - man at centre of international legal dispute is executed in Texas for rape and murder in 1993 A Mexican man at the centre of an international legal dispute has been executed in Texas for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1993. While protestors both for and against the death penalty demonstrated outside the Huntsville Unit near Houston last night, José Medellín, 33, died after being given a lethal injection. The execution came just before 10pm shortly after the US supreme court denied a last request for a reprieve. Pleas for a stay came from Washington, Mexico and the international court of justice (ICJ). They had all urged Texas not to execute Medellín until a hearing had been held to determine whether or not his original trial was sound. The state's Republican governor, Rick Perry, rebutted attempts to delay off the execution arguing that the state's courts were not bound by the rulings of the ICJ. The ICJ in the Hague had ordered Medellín's case and those of 50 other Mexicans on death row be reviewed because none had been informed of their right to consular assistance. The US state department said it was powerless to delay the execution, noting that the country's supreme court had ruled in March that president Bush did not have the authority to intervene in the case. The Mexican government has now sent a note of protest to the US state department, expressing "its concern for the precedent that (the execution) may create for the rights of Mexican nationals who may be detained in that country." Medellín and five other teenage boys in his Houston street gang took part in the rape and murder of two girls, Elizabeth Pena, 16, and Jennifer Ertman, 14, in 1993. Medellín, who was born in Mexico but moved to the US as a child, was convicted of Pena's murder and has never contested the conviction. Two other members of the gang were also sentenced to die. Two had their sentences commuted to life in prison. The sixth, Medellín's brother, Vernacio, is serving a 40-year sentence. Medellín's case has become the focal point of the dispute between Mexico, which does not have the death penalty, and the US over whether or not some Mexicans on death row were denied fair trials because of the lack of consular access. The 1963 Vienna Convention, which both Mexico and the US signed, requires foreigners accused of crimes to be given that opportunity. Over the last five days, Medellín's lawyers tried to stop the execution by arguing to the Supreme Court that it should be put off until Congress had a chance to pass pending legislation that would require a review of similar cases. They argued that Medellín would be deprived of life without due process if he died before Congress acted. But the court decided 5-4 that the possibility of congressional action was too remote to justify a stay. One member of the supreme court, justice Stephen Breyer wrote however, that to permit the execution would place the US "irremediably in violation of international law and breaks our treaty promises." Mexico, which opposes the death penalty, has used the Vienna convention on consular relations to try to block the executions of Medellín and 50 other Mexicans in the US. Twice in the last five years, the ICJ has said hearings should be held to determine if the 51 trials were fair.
Good riddance to a filthy mexicon dirtbag, and maybe the rest of the mexicons in Texas will start heading back to their shit-hole-of-a-nation when they realize that we'll kill them if they kill us.
Her 14 year old best friend was also murdered in this very sickening case.
Crime-weary Mexico muted at US execution SNIP: *MEXICO CITY — Mexicans struggling with increasingly gruesome crimes at home gave the most muted reactions in recent memory to the execution of one of their own citizens in Texas. With Mexican news dominated by the kidnap-killing of 14-year-old Fernando Marti, the execution of Mexican Jose Medellin for the 1993 rape-murder of two girls in Texas appears to have sparked far less outrage than people here have shown in previous death penalty cases. Some Mexicans are even calling for the death penalty here.... END SNIP
There are no replies to Comment # 6. End Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestMedellin was 18 when he took part in the June 1993 gang rape and murder of two Harris County girls, Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16. He was convicted of the crimes and sentenced to death.
#3. To: X-15 (#2)
From: The Guardian.UK
#4. To: CAPPSMADNESS (#3)
A Mexican man at the centre of an international legal dispute has been executed in Texas for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1993.
#5. To: X-15 (#4)
A Mexican man at the centre of an international legal dispute has been executed in Texas for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1993
#6. To: All (#5)
Replies to Comment # 6.