Thread: Bush Texas at Odds over Death of Mexican

Bush, Texas at Odds Over Death Case
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
60 minutes ago


This undated photo released by the Texas Department of ...
WASHINGTON - To put it bluntly, Texas wants President Bush to get out of the way of the state's plan to execute a Mexican for the brutal killing of two teenage girls.

Bush, who presided over 152 executions as governor of Texas, wants to halt the execution of Jose Ernesto Medellin in what has become a confusing test of presidential power that the Supreme Court, which hears the case this week, ultimately will sort out.

The president wants to enforce a decision by the International Court of Justice that found the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexican-born prisoners violated their rights to legal help as outlined in the 1963 Vienna Convention.

That is the same court Bush has since said he plans to ignore if it makes similar decisions affecting state criminal laws.

"The president does not agree with the ICJ's interpretation of the Vienna Convention," the administration said in arguments filed with the court. This time, though, the U.S. agreed to abide by the international court's decision because ignoring it would harm American interests abroad, the government said.

Texas argues that neither the international court nor Bush has any say in Medellin's case.

Medellin was born in Mexico but spent much of his childhood in the United States. He was 18 in June 1993, when he and other members of the Black and Whites gang in Houston encountered two teenage girls on a railroad trestle.

The girls were gang-raped and strangled. Their bodies were found four days later.

Medellin was arrested a few days later. He was told he had a right to remain silent and have a lawyer present, but the police did not tell him that he could request assistance from the Mexican consulate.Medellin gave a written confession. He was convicted of murder in the course of a sexual assault, a capital offense in Texas. A judge sentenced him to death in October 1994.

Medellin did not raise the lack of assistance from Mexican diplomats during his trial or sentencing. When he did claim his rights had been violated, Texas and federal courts turned him down because he had not objected at his trial. Mexico later sued the United States in the International Court of Justice in The Hague on behalf of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row in the U.S.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Do we need anymore reasons to DEPORT AS MANY ILLEGALS AS WE CAN FIND?

Ignorance of the law is not a defense. It's Medellin's responsibility to know the laws.

This article didn't say it but deduction reasons he is one of those ‘86 amnesty recipients. You know, a citizen of the US that is a citizen of Mexico. If he were here illegally, the moment he was arrested, the counsulate would have been notified.

Dixie

Originally Posted by Dixie

Ignorance of the law is not a defense. It's Medellin's responsibility to know the laws.

This article didn't say it but deduction reasons he is one of those ‘86 amnesty recipients. You know, a citizen of the US that is a citizen of Mexico. If he were here illegally, the moment he was arrested, the counsulate would have been notified.

Dixie

Exactly. If we ever get around the eliminating the loopholes in our immigration policy, denouncing dual citizenship should be a requirement, otherwise, citizenship should not be granted.

I am sick of Mexico's corrupt government thinking they have a say in how America is run.

This piece of human garbage deserves a little TEXAS JUSTICE, if you know what I mean!!!