Texas executes Mexican after court rejects White House appea

Texas executes Mexican after court rejects White House appeal

By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press July 7, 2011 6:46PM

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A Mexican national was executed Thursday for the rape-slaying of a San Antonio teenager after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down a White House-supported appeal to spare him in a death penalty case where Texas justice triumphed over international treaty concerns.

Humberto Leal, 38, received lethal injection for the 1994 murder of Adria Sauceda. She was fatally bludgeoned with a piece of asphalt.

Leal was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.

Leal moved with his family from Monterrey, Mexico, to the U.S. as a toddler. Police never told Leal following his arrest that he could seek legal assistance from the Mexican government under an international treaty and his case had prompted appeals on what it could mean for other foreigners arrested in the U.S. and for Americans detained in other countries. His appeals lawyers said such assistance would have helped his defense.

The argument was not new. Texas, the nation’s most active death penalty state, has executed other condemned foreign nationals who raised similar challenges, most recently in 2008.

Leal’s appeals, however, focused on legislation introduced last month in the U.S. Senate by Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy. Leahy’s measure would bring the U.S. into compliance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations provision regarding the arrests of foreign nationals and ensure court reviews for condemned foreigners to determine if the lack of consular help made a significant difference in the outcome of their cases.

President Barack Obama’s administration took the unusual step of intervening in a state murder case when Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. last week joined Leal’s appeal in asking the high court halt the execution and give Congress at least six months to consider Leahy’s bill.

“The legislation would give Mr. Leal an opportunity to demonstrate that with consular assistance, he likely would not have been convicted, let alone sentenced to death,â€

Texas has 8 more executions scheduled in the next 12 weeks.
Some of them have Hispanic last names.

Unfortunately, our country won't survive if we have to wait 17 years to get rid of a single murderer.

Texas Scheduled Executions

Execution Date

Last Name

First Name

TDCJ Number

Date of Birth

Race

Date Received

County
==================

07/07/2011

Offender Information

Leal

Humberto

999162

01/16/1973

H

09/01/1995

Bexar
================

07/20/2011

Offender Information

Stroman

Mark

999409

10/13/1969

W

04/05/2002

Tarrant
=====================

08/10/2011

Offender Information

Robles

Martin

999457

05/12/1978

H

09/23/2003

Nueces
================

08/18/2011

Offender Information

Swearingen

Larry

999361

05/21/1971

W

08/18/2011

Montgomery
=================

08/30/2011

Offender Information

Cantu

Ivan

999399

06/14/1973

H

11/08/2001

Collin
=====================

09/13/2011

Offender Information

Woods

Steven

999427

04/17/1980

W

08/27/2002

Denton
=======================

09/15/2011

Offender Information

Buck

Duane

999231

07/05/1963

B

06/25/1997

Harris
======================

09/20/2011

Offender Information

Foster

Cleve

999470

10/24/1963

W

03/01/2004

Tarrant
====================

09/21/2011

Offender Information

Brewer

Lawrence

999327

03/13/1967

W

09/23/1999

Brazos
=======================

Q. How is it determined what date a death row offender will be scheduled for execution?

A. The judge presiding over a capital punishment case sets the date of execution for a death row offender when it appears that appeals in the case have been exhausted. When TDCJ receives a warrant of execution from the court, we add the offender's name to the list of scheduled executions, scheduling the execution on the date ordered by the court.

Last Updated: July 5, 2011

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/schedu ... utions.htm

Quote:

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Originally Posted by antisocialist08

Unfortunately, our country won't survive if we have to wait 17 years to get rid of a single murderer.

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Texas has 8 more executions scheduled in the next 12 weeks.

Welcome to ALIPAC antisocialist08

This was NOT "Texas justice" this was "American Justice" and all these traitors writing Associated Press articles had better remember that!

W

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ALIPAC

This was NOT "Texas justice" this was "American Justice" and all these traitors writing Associated Press articles had better remember that!

W

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I have to wonder if Perry were not considering a White House run would he have granted a stay.

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. :x

Let this be a lesson to any illegal or foreign national who comes here and commits a crime. We the American people will seek and have justice. Your immigration status will not save you and yes you will meet your fate that you deserve. Well done Texas. We need more states to do the same.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BillCunnane

Let this be a lesson to any illegal or foreign national who comes here and commits a crime. We the American people will seek and have justice. Your immigration status will not save you and yes you will meet your fate that you deserve. Well done Texas. We need more states to do the same.

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THE MURDEROUS MEXICAN INVASION
http://www.newnation.org/Archives/invasion-101229.html

The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants in the United States
http://www.drdsk.com/articles.html#Illegals

The Human Cost of Illegal Immigration - CRIME VICTIMS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS
http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/te ... ims_2.html

THE TERRIBLE HUMAN COST OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/

Texas executes Mexican after court stay rejected

7/7/2011 11:17:10 PM ET 2011-07-08T03:17:10

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A Mexican national was executed Thursday for the rape-slaying of a teenager after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down an appeal to spare him that was supported by Mexico and the White House.

In his last minutes, Humberto Leal repeatedly said he was sorry and accepted responsibility.

"I have hurt a lot of people. ... I take full blame for everything. I am sorry for what I did," he said in the death chamber.

"One more thing," he said as the drugs began taking effect. Then he shouted twice, "Viva Mexico!"
"Ready warden," he said. "Let's get this show on the road."

The 38-year-old mechanic was pronounced dead 10 minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing into his arms.

He was sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda, whose brutalized nude body was found hours after he left a San Antonio street party with her. She was bludgeoned with a chunk of asphalt.

Leal was just a toddler when he and his family moved to the U.S. from Monterrey, Mexico, but his citizenship became a key element of his attorneys' efforts to win a stay. They said police never told him following his arrest that he could seek legal assistance from the Mexican government under an international treaty.

Mexico, the Obama administration and others had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay Leal's execution so Congress could consider a law that would require court reviews in cases where condemned foreign nationals did not receive help from their consulates. They said the case could affect not only foreigners in the U.S. but Americans detained in other countries.

The court rejected the request 5-4. Its five more conservative justices doubted that executing Leal would cause grave international consequences, and doubted "that it is ever appropriate to stay a lower court judgment in light of unenacted legislation."

"Our task is to rule on what the law is, not what it might eventually be," the majority said.

The court's four liberal-leaning justices said they would have granted the stay.

Leal's attorney Sandra L. Babcock said that with consular help her client could have shown that he was not guilty. But she added, "This case was not just about one Mexican national on death row in Texas. The execution of Mr. Leal violates the United States' treaty commitments, threatens the nation's foreign policy interests, and undermines the safety of all Americans abroad."

Prosecutors, however, said Congress was unlikely to pass the legislation sought and that Leal's appeals were simply an attempt to evade justice for a gruesome murder.

Mexico's foreign ministry said in a statement that the government condemned Leal's execution and sent a note of protest to the U.S. State Department. The ministry also said Mexican ambassador Arturo Sarukhan attempted to contact Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who refused to speak on the phone.

The governor's office declined to comment on the execution Thursday.

Leal's argument that he should have received consular legal aid that could have helped his case was not new. Texas has executed other condemned foreign nationals who raised similar challenges, most recently in 2008.

Leal's appeals, however, focused on legislation introduced last month in the U.S. Senate by Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy. Leahy's measure would bring the U.S. into compliance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations provision regarding the arrests of foreign nationals, and ensure court reviews for condemned foreigners to determine if a lack of consular help made a significant difference in the outcome of their cases.

"Americans detained overseas rely on their access to U.S. consulates every day," Leahy said after the Supreme Court decision was announced. "If we expect other countries to abide by the treaties they join, the United States must also honor its obligations."

The Obama administration took the unusual step of intervening in a state murder case last week when Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. joined Leal's appeal, asking the high court to halt the execution and give Congress at least six months to consider Leahy's bill.

The Mexican government and other diplomats also contended that the execution should be delayed so Leal's case could be thoroughly reviewed. Some also warned his execution would violate the treaty provision and could endanger Americans in countries that deny them consular help.

Measures similar to Leahy's have failed at least twice in recent U.S. congressional sessions. The Texas Attorney General's office, opposing the appeals, pointed to those failures in its Supreme Court arguments and said "legislative relief was not likely to be forthcoming."

After his execution, relatives of Leal who had gathered in Guadalupe, Mexico, burned a T-shirt with an image of the American flag in protest. Leal's uncle Alberto Leal criticized the U.S. justice system and the Mexican government and said, "There is a God who makes us all pay."

In 2005, President George W. Bush agreed with an International Court of Justice ruling that Leal and 50 other Mexican-born inmates nationwide should be entitled to new hearings in U.S. courts to determine if their consular rights were violated. The Supreme Court later overruled Bush.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43665942

And on Thursday, the EPA imposed "surprise" regulations on Texas. Repraisal??


Texas fight with EPA grows with power-plant rule

By Eileen O'Grady

HOUSTON | Thu Jul 7, 2011 7:26pm EDT

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Texas Governor Rick Perry and two top state regulators on Thursday blasted the U.S. environmental agency for including Texas in a rule to slash sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants, warning that the last-minute action could threaten the state's electric supply.
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule to reduce air pollution from coal-fired power plants in states east of the Rocky Mountains.

"Today's EPA announcement is another example of heavy-handed and misguided action from Washington, D.C., that threatens Texas jobs and families and puts at risk the reliable and affordable electricity our state needs to succeed," said Perry, a potential Republican presidential contender, in a statement.

The state's environmental agency and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson have been battling over air quality rules related to Texas refineries for more than a year.

Thursday, the battle shifted to the electric sector. Owners of coal-fired power plants in Texas have invested billions to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide in recent years, said officials with Luminant and NRG Energy Inc, the two largest power producers in the state.

The challenge from the new rule, known as the Cross State Air Pollution Rule, is that stricter limits take effect next year, giving power-plant owners little time to comply.

Texas was not included in the EPA's draft rule related to sulfur dioxide cuts because EPA modeling had shown little downwind impact from Texas power plants on other states.

On Thursday, however, the EPA said Texas would be required to meet lower SO2 limits to avoid allowing the state to increase emissions.

Five states -- Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, along with the District of Columbia -- were dropped from the final EPA rule.

"The late decision to apply the rule to Texas and the modeling for the rule have resulted in wholly unreasonable mandates and unrealistic timelines," said Luminant, owner of Texas' largest generating fleet including a dozen coal plants with a capacity of 8,000 megawatts.

Dallas-based Luminant said it has cut SO2 emissions by 21 percent since 2005 while boosting electric output.

Luminant said the rule would have a "highly disproportionate impact on Texas" which will account for one-quarter of the total SO2 emission reductions under the rule.

Environmental groups hailed the EPA action as long overdue to protect the health of Texas residents and downplayed any possible threat to the state's electric grid.

"We are especially pleased with EPA's decision to include Texas in its proposal and to include SO2 as Texas coal plants are at the top of the list of worst polluters in the nation," said Neil Carman, director of the Sierra Club's clean-air program in Texas.

Texas Public Utility Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman said power plants could be forced to add pollution control equipment, adjust their fuel supply to include more costly coal, reduce output or "worse case, prematurely shut down."

Texas, which operates as an electric "island" with limited ability to import power from other states, is looking for ways to encourage power-plant construction given growing electric demand and shrinking power reserves.

Bryan Shaw, chairman of the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality, said EPA's move to include Texas was "not based on sound science" and will result in regulations "that are not necessary for public health protection."

Shaw said the federal agency also failed to give Texas adequate notice that it would be included in the final rule related to SO2 emissions.
(Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner; editing by Lisa Shumaker)


http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/ ... PM20110707

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Newmexican

"One more thing," he said as the drugs began taking effect. Then he shouted twice, "Viva Mexico!"
"Ready warden," he said. "Let's get this show on the road."

The 38-year-old mechanic was pronounced dead 10 minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing into his arms.

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http://otunderwear.com/mexican-white-house.jpg

Quote:

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"I have said that Mexico does not stop at its border, that wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico."

Mexican President Felipe Calderón

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Mexican National Shouts 'Viva Mexico!' as He's Executed in Texas


As the lethal injection began taking effect, the Mexican National convicted of the brutal rape and killing of a teenage girl in 1995 shouted, "Viva Mexico!" just before he died at a Texas prison.

Efforts by Humberto Leal's attorneys to halt the execution fell short, with the U.S. Supreme Court turning back a stay request and Texas Gov. Rick Perry refusing to grant a pardon. He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. local time.

In his last minutes, Leal repeatedly said he was sorry and accepted responsibility.

"I have hurt a lot of people. ... I take full blame for everything. I am sorry for what I did," he said in the death chamber.

"One more thing," he said as the drugs began taking effect. Then he shouted twice, "Viva Mexico!" at a Texas prison.

President Obama, the State Department and Mexican authorities asked Texas for a last-minute reprieve, citing the U.N.-enforced 1963 Vienna Treaty, which requires foreign nationals who are arrested in foreign countries the right to access their consulates.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Leal's request, calling his argument meritless.

In a 5-4 decision an hour before the execution, the majority wrote, “We have no authority to stay an execution in light of an 'appeal of the President,' presenting free-ranging assertions of foreign policy consequences, when those assertions come unaccompanied by a persuasive legal claim.â€

Related Thread Here

Texas executes Mexican after court rejects White House appeal


http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-242839.html

Terrorist Dohrn Linked to Mexican Killer Case

Crime reporter and blogger Tina Trent says that President Obama’s intervention on behalf of an illegal alien killer can be traced back to a 2003 conference that featured Bernardine Dohrn, Van Jones, and representatives of the Soros-funded Open Society Institute. “The purpose of the conference was to find ways to insinuate international (read: United Nations) laws and resolutions in American legal arenas, as Sandra Babcock is attempting to do to free her client, Humberto Leal,â€

The One World Government with the UN in control keeps rearing its ugly head and the same players seem to be involved every time. I think they are all guilty of sedition. JMO

GOOD RIDDONS!!!!!8 more to go in Texas.

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He will be executed tonight," she writes."Despite the fact that his right to consular assistance was violated

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I am sorry but that does not make one LESS GULITY. And why does he need special counsel when he KNOWS FULL WELL what he did, IS NOT RIGHT!

http://search.rr.com/?q=victims%20of%20 ... on=toolbar

Go here for a list of sites giving faces and names of victims of illegal aliens. We have our own criminals so why should we want to import more of the same ,thank you very much.

Americans Executed In Mexico: http://tinyurl.com/6f6js34

Sounds like the typical Mexican interest defenders hoped that the murderer could have been set free/deported or just spent life in jail for his brutal murder and rape of a 16-year-old girl. If he was a Mexican national and came to the U.S. as a toddler, was he also an illegal alien? Who paid for his incarceration and legal defense costs? Will there always be a fuss when a death row inmate happens to be a Mexican national? If so, why is that?