Thread: TX-Lawyers for Mexican say execution violates treaty

Lawyers for Mexican say execution violates treaty
By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press
Aug. 5, 2008, 12:02AM
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Condemned prisoner Jose Medellin looked to the federal courts to keep him from the Texas death chamber Tuesday evening for his part in the gang rape, beating and strangling of two Houston teenage girls 15 years ago.

The Mexican-born Medellin, 33, faced lethal injection in a case that has drawn international attention after he raised arguments he wasn't allowed to consult the Mexican consulate for legal help after he was arrested for the horrific slayings of 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena and her friend, 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman.

Medellin was one of six members of a street gang drinking after initiating a new member. They intercepted the two girls who were taking a shortcut home across a railroad bridge in Houston, attacking them for an hour before strangling them and letting their bodies decompose in a field. The girls' remains were found four days later.

Late Monday, Medellin was moved from death row at a prison outside Livingston in East Texas to the Huntsville Unit, about 45 miles to the west, where he would be the fifth Texas inmate executed this year and the first of two scheduled to die this week. His transfer came after he spent time Monday visiting with his parents and his grandmother and after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected requests for clemency and a reprieve.

"The board's action is against the interests of the nation and risks the safety of thousands of American traveling and living abroad," Donald Donovan, one of Medellin's lawyers, said of the parole board decisions. "We must now rely on the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent Texas from breaking a commitment made by the president and Senate on behalf of the country as a whole."

The International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, has said Medellin and some 50 other Mexicans on death rows around the nation should have new hearings in U.S. courts to determine whether a 1963 treaty was violated during their arrests. Medellin is the first among them set to die. His attorneys contend he was denied the protections of the Vienna Convention, which calls for people arrested to have access to their home country's consular officials.

President Bush has asked states to review the cases, but the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year neither the president nor the international court can force Texas to wait. Medellin's supporters say either Congress or the Texas Legislature should be given a chance to pass a law setting up procedures for new hearings before he should be executed.

Gov. Rick Perry, the Texas courts and the state attorney general have said the execution should be carried out. The Texas Attorney General's Office urged the Supreme Court to reject the appeals, saying the execution "fully complies with international law" and noting that the justices already have ruled that the International Court of Justice's decisions are not U.S. law and not binding on American courts.

Medellin's lawyers Monday asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a reprieve and for permission to file new appeals on his behalf. They also awaited word from the Supreme Court, which they asked Friday to stop the execution until legislation can be passed to formalize the case reviews.

Testimony at his murder trial showed Medellin was the first of the gang to start the attack, grabbing Pena, who then cried out for help from her friend.

By the time it ended an hour later, Medellin, then 18, and five fellow gang members had raped the girls and forced them to perform sex acts before beating and then strangling them with a belt and shoelaces. Medellin subsequently boasted to friends about having "virgin's blood" on his underpants.

Medellin contends he never was advised by prosecutors or police of his right as a detained foreign national to seek consular assistance as required by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, depriving him of legal assistance that Mexico could have provided.

"That's a last-stop measure they're trying to use," Mark Vinson, a now-retired former Harris County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Medellin, said Monday. "Mr. Medellin raised that issue before the trial. In pre-trial he didn't raise the issue. And he didn't raise the issue during the trial.

"If he had raised the issue at his probable cause hearing, the court would have complied. And it was never raised."

In the Supreme Court filings, Medellin's lawyers never mention the crime.

"They don't care about Jennifer. They don't care about Elizabeth," said Randy Ertman, whose daughter was murdered.

Ertman planned to be in the death chamber Tuesday to see Medellin die. He made a similar trip in 2006 when Derrick O'Brien became the first of the gang members executed.

Two others, Efrain Perez and Raul Villarreal, had their death sentences commuted to life in prison when the Supreme Court barred executions for those who were 17 at the time of their crimes.

Peter Cantu, described by authorities as ringleader, remains on death row. He does not have an execution date.

The sixth person convicted, Medellin's brother, Vernancio, was 14 at the time and is serving a 40-year prison term.

At least six other Mexican nationals have been executed in Texas since 1982.

On Thursday, a Honduran man, Heliberto Chi, 29, is set to die for the slaying of a suburban Dallas clothing store manager during the robbery of a clothing store seven years ago
Its time to rock and roll ....

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5924517.html

Texas needs to hang the sadistic illegal SOB! Period.

This story just makes me sick every time it's brought up.

This guy cannot even be considered a human being.

It just shows you where these scumbags priorities are when they fight harder for the so called human rights of a raping, murdering thug piece of garbage then they do for the human rights of the victims of this lowlife. Pretty sad our president is trying to get this guy off while Ramos and Compean continue to rot in prison for doing their jobs.

Those who are trying to get this guy off on a technicality can go rot in hell. What's Mexico going to do if we execute him like we should? They going to stop sending their criminal thugs our way? Oh darn!!!

Another sad thing is if our borders had been secured, this guy wouldn't be on death row wasting more of our tax dollars waiting and appealing the death penalty he so richly deserves because he wouldn't have been able to come here and rape and kill those people in the first place.

Throw the switch already so we have one less of Bush's willing workers to deal with.

Do it and do it now . Eye for an Eye . Please gag his Attorneys

If ANYONE stops this execution, there should be a RIOT. This murderer has had 15 years to talk to the consulate. It is not like they are barred from visiting him in prison.
All death row inmates get an automatic appeal. It failed, because the guy is guilty. Even if Mexico wanted to pay for a new hearing, the result would be the same.
And if Jorge Bush stops this thing while keeping our Border Patrol agents in prison for doing their job, there must be justified outrage by America's people.

Those who are trying to get this guy off on a technicality can go rot in hell. What's Mexico going to do if we execute him like we should? They going to stop sending their criminal thugs our way? Oh darn!!!

LOL......like Mexico is such a peace loving society while they murder, decapitate, rape and do whatever they want.......I see their way works so well.

[quote="dman1200"]. What's Mexico going to do if we execute him like we should?




My thoughts exactly......what IS Mexico going to do about this? About anything.

They're real good with the saber rattling......well, what's keeping them from putting up or shutting up? We're all standing here......bring it.

.

600PM Houston time tonight. Let the chemicals flow!

Funny how Bush told the UN where to put their treaty, when he was Gov. of the great state of Texas, as he executed murderers. What a wimpy sell-out he's become.

GO TEXAS, YOU ROCK!

Originally Posted by miguelina

600PM Houston time tonight. Let the chemicals flow!

Funny how Bush told the UN where to put their treaty, when he was Gov. of the great state of Texas, as he executed murderers. What a wimpy sell-out he's become.

GO TEXAS, YOU ROCK!

SIX ? i thought i had read it was at 2000 which would be EIGHT
either way, hes dead tonight and thats all THIS TEXAN CARES