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  1. #1
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Texas Plan to Execute Mexican May Harm U.S. Ties Abroad, Kerry Says

    Kerry has time for this Mexican National murderer but not the American pastor in IRan......
    Texas Plan to Execute Mexican May Harm U.S. Ties Abroad, Kerry Says


    By MANNY FERNANDEZ

    Published: December 11, 2013

    HOUSTON — The scheduled execution next month of a Mexican national by the State of Texas threatens to damage relations between the United States and Mexico and complicate the ability of the United States to help Americans detained overseas, Secretary of State John F. Kerry has warned Texas officials.

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    Texas State Department of Corrections

    Edgar Arias Tamayo

    The Mexican, Edgar Arias Tamayo, 46, was convicted of shooting and killing a Houston police officer who was taking him to jail after a robbery in 1994. Mr. Tamayo, who was in the nation illegally, was not notified of his right to contact the Mexican Consulate, in violation of an international treaty known as the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. That violation, an international tribunal’s order for his case to be reviewed and a judge’s recent decision to set Mr. Tamayo’s execution for Jan. 22, are now at the center of a controversy that has attracted the attention of the State Department and the Mexican government.

    Despite Mr. Kerry’s involvement, there has been no sign that Texas officials plan to delay the execution. On Wednesday, Mr. Tamayo’s lawyers asked Gov. Rick Perryto grant him a 30-day reprieve and petitioned the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute his death sentence to life in prison. They are using Mr. Kerry’s letter, sent to Texas officials in September, to highlight the international issues at stake.

    In 2004, the top judicial body of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, ordered the United States to review the convictions of Mr. Tamayo and 50 other Mexican nationals whose Vienna Convention rights, it said, were violated and who were sentenced to death in the United States. The international court, also known as the World Court, found that United States courts had to determine in each case whether the violation of consular rights harmed the defendant. In the nine years since the World Court’s decision, no United States court has reviewed the Vienna Convention issues in Mr. Tamayo’s case, said Maurie Levin, one of his lawyers.

    In a letter sent to Mr. Perry and the Texas attorney general, Mr. Kerry took the unusual step of weighing in on a state death-penalty case, arguing that Mr. Tamayo’s execution would affect the ability of the United States to comply with the international court’s order in what is known as the Avena case. The World Court’s judgment is binding on the United States, Mr. Kerry wrote, and complying with it ensures that the federal government can rely on Vienna Convention protections when aiding Americans detained abroad.

    “I have no reason to doubt the facts of Mr. Tamayo’s conviction, and as a former prosecutor, I have no sympathy for anyone who would murder a police officer,” Mr. Kerry wrote, describing his concern as a “process issue” that could impact the way Americans are treated overseas. “Our consular visits help ensure U.S. citizens detained overseas have access to food and appropriate medical care, if needed, as well as access to legal representation.”

    Mr. Kerry also shared with Mr. Perry and the Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott, a letter sent to him earlier this year by Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Eduardo Medina Mora, who wrote that “this issue has become and could continue to be a significant irritant in the relations between our two countries.”

    Texas officials, including Mr. Perry, have argued that the state is not directly bound by the World Court’s decision and that it is a matter best handled by federal officials and Congress, where legislation ordering the states to comply with the tribunal’s judgment is pending. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from — if you commit a despicable crime like this in Texas, you are subject to our state laws, including a fair trial by jury and the ultimate penalty,” Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for Mr. Perry, said when asked to respond to Mr. Kerry’s letter.

    In 2008, Texas executed another Mexican national, José E. Medellín, who was part of the Avena case and was convicted in the rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston. Before Mr. Medellín’s execution, President Bush ordered Texas and other states to review the convictions of Mr. Medellín and the other Mexican nationals whose consular rights were violated. But the Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the president had no authority to order state courts to abide by the World Court’s decision, agreeing with the arguments made by Texas’s then-solicitor general, Ted Cruz, now one of its senators in Washington.

    Mr. Medellín was executed four months after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hunstville, Tex., site of the state’s death chamber, the busiest in the country. In his 2010 book, “Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington,” Mr. Perry wrote that three justices did not agree with the state’s position, “perhaps believing instead that international law should trump the laws of Texas.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/us...erry-says.html


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    HPD officer killed after traffic stop



    Bad news from southeast Houston yesterday evening: Rodney Johnson, a 12-year veteran of HPD, was apparently killed by a suspect sitting in the back seat of his patrol car. It started just after 5 p.m., when Johnson pulled over a pickup with two people inside; a female passenger fled the scene, but Johnson detained and handcuffed the male driver. Later, Johnson was found at Randolph and Braniff, on the southern edge of Hobby Airport, shot four times through the plastic shield separating the front and rear of the cruiser. The 32-year-old suspect, Juan Leonardo Quintero, was still handcuffed and sitting in the back of the car along with a pistol believed to have been used in the shooting; Johnson was pronounced dead at Ben Taub.
    http://www.alipac.us/f12/hpd-officer...ic-stop-38553/


    The suspect is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who has been deported in the past and sometimes expressed concern about immigration officials and worried that he should return, his wife, Theresa Quintero, said in an interview today at their home near Hobby Airport.

    Mrs. Quintero said the couple has been married since 1997.

    The HPD spokesman Cannon said the suspect gave "a full confession" to the shooting.

    A Harris County prosecutor said in court this morning that, while seated in the back seat, the suspect pulled a 9 mm handgun from his waistband and shot Johnson in the face. The officer was able to push an emergency response button, alerting dispatch of a problem.
    http://www.alipac.us/f9/illegal-immi...liceman-38552/

  3. #3
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    John Kerry Says Texas' Plan To Execute Mexican-Born Cop Killer Could Hurt U.S. Diplom

    John Kerry Says Texas' Plan To Execute Mexican-Born Cop Killer Could Hurt U.S. Diplomacy

    Published December 13, 2013
    Fox News Latino



    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned Texas officials earlier this week that the planned execution of a Mexican man convicted of killing a Houston police officer could do more harm than good, especially in regards to Americans detained overseas.

    Edgar Arias Tamayo, a 46-year old Mexican man, was in the country illegally when he killed Houston police officer Guy Gaddis. Tamayo was arrested by Gaddis outside a nightclub in 1994 for robbery. While being transported to jail, Tamayo pulled out a hidden gun and shot Gaddis fatally.

    Now his case has attracted the attention of the State Department because of a judge's September decision to set his execution for Jan. 22 and the revelation that Tamayo was not notified of his right to contact the Mexican consulate, in violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

    Tamayo’s case was one of 51 in the U.S. – 14 of them in Texas – that the International Court of Justice, the United Nation’s top judicial body, asked the United States to review the judgment in 2004 as part of an examination of possible violations of the Vienna Convention.

    While Kerry noted in a letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry and state Attorney General Greg Abbott that he didn't question Tamayo's conviction, the violation of an international convention could have grave repercussions for Americans who are locked up abroad.

    “I have no reason to doubt the facts of Mr. Tamayo’s conviction, and as a former prosecutor, I have no sympathy for anyone who would murder a police officer,” Kerry wrote, according to the New York Times. “Our consular visits help ensure U.S. citizens detained overseas have access to food and appropriate medical care, if needed, as well as access to legal representation.”

    Kerry also noted in his letter to the Texas lawmakers a note he received earlier this year from Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Eduardo Medina Mora, who wrote, “This issue has become and could continue to be a significant irritant in the relations between our two countries.”

    Emboldened by Kerry’s letter, Tamayo’s lawyers on Wednesday asked the state to grant him a 30-day reprieve and petitioned the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute his death sentence to life in prison.

    Despite the request from Kerry, Texas officials have given no indication that they plan to make any move in Tamayo’s case. State officials claim that the International Court's request needs to be handled in Congress, where legislation ordering states to comply is pending.

    “It doesn’t matter where you’re from – if you commit a despicable crime like this in Texas, you are subject to our state laws, including a fair trial by jury and the ultimate penalty,” Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for Perry, told the Dallas Morning News.

    Tamayo’s plight follows on the heels of the 2008 execution of José E. Medellín, another Mexican national who was convicted in the 1993 gang rape and murder of two Houston girls.

    In 2004, President George W. Bush ordered Texas and the other states to review the 51 cases. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, agreed with the arguments made by Texas’ then-solicitor general, Ted Cruz – now a U.S. Senator - that the president has no power to order state courts to abide by the International Court’s decision.

    Four months after the Supreme Court ruling, Medellín was executed in Texas’ Huntsville Unit – the busiest execution site in the United States.

    http://oneoldvet.com/

    http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/pol...could-hurt-us/
    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  4. #4
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Convicted cop killer Edgar Tamayo Arias executed

    By Gustavo Valdes, Bill Mears and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
    updated 7:47 AM EST, Thu January 23, 2014


    Huntsville, Texas (CNN) -- A last-ditch push to keep a convicted cop killer alive failed Wednesday night when the U.S. Supreme Court denied a motion to stay his execution.

    Edgar Tamayo Arias, a Mexican national, was executed at 9:32 p.m. CT, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.

    His execution marks the first of the year in Texas and the 509th in the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

    Tamayo did not make a statement before his death, department spokesman Jason Clark said.

    Mexico's government had been pushing to block Tamayo's execution, arguing that it would violate international law.

    Lawyers for Tamayo criticized the Supreme Court's ruling.

    "He will be executed tonight, despite the indisputable fact that his right to consular assistance was violated," attorneys Sandra L. Babcock and Maurie Levin said in a statement before Tamayo's lethal injection.

    Tamayo, 46, was convicted of the 1994 murder of a Houston police officer.
    Officer Guy Gaddis was fatally shot after arresting Tamayo and another man for robbery.

    Tamayo's supporters say he was denied access to his consulate when arrested, as required by an international treaty.

    In the past five years, Texas has executed two other Mexicans convicted of murder who raised similar claims. The Supreme Court refused to delay either of those executions, which took place in2008 and 2011.

    Tamayo's lawyers argued the consulate access violation was more than a technicality -- that Mexican officials would have ensured he had the most competent trial defense possible, if they had been able to speak with him right after his felony arrest.

    Earlier Wednesday, the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Tamayo's clemency request.

    The Bush and Obama administrations had urged Texas and other states to grant Tamayo and inmates in similar situations new hearings, fearing repercussions for Americans arrested overseas.

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has also weighed in on Tamayo's case, arguing that setting an execution date is "extremely detrimental to the interests of the United States."

    "I want to be clear: I have no reason to doubt the facts of Mr. Tamayo's conviction, and as a former prosecutor, I have no sympathy for anyone who would murder a police officer," Kerry wrote. "This is a process issue I am raising because it could impact the way American citizens are treated in other countries."

    Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, said the state was committed to enforcing its laws.

    "It doesn't matter where you're from — if you commit a despicable crime like this in Texas, you are subject to our state laws, including a fair trial by jury and the ultimate penalty," she said.

    Tamayo was one of 40 Mexican citizens awaiting the death penalty in U.S. prisons.

    http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/22/us/mex...ion/index.html


  5. #5
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Texas Executes Illegal Alien Cop Killer — Despite Pleas from Mexico and John Kerry

    by Top Right News on January 23, 2014
    by John Urban | Top Right News
    Thank you Texas!

    After a disgraceful wait of 20 years since Edgar Arias Tamayo murdered Houston police officer Guy P. Gaddis in 1994, and despite repeated pleas from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and demands from the Mexican government, Tamayo was finally executed minutes ago by lethal injection.

    Although his execution was originally scheduled for 6pm Texas time Wednesday evening, an Obama-appointed judge senselessly threw the case up to the U.S. Supreme Court to review his absurd “appeals” (based solely on the “consular” nonsense — Tamayo has never denied his guilt).

    Finally at 9pm EST, the Supreme Court denied his appeals, 6-3, and the execution was on. At 9:32 Tamayo was finally put down.
    If you’re one of the more than 100,000 people who have read our reports of theshameful attempts by Kerry, Mexico and the U.N. to browbeat Texas into sparing the life of this snake, then you will know how deserved was Tamayo’s punishment.

    What is truly sad is that Officer Gaddis’ family had to wait so long when the facts and guilt of Tamayo were never in dispute — only ridiculous international politics.


    Above: ‘Officer Down’ Memorial Page for Guy Gaddis. Tamayo shot Officer Gaddis, 24, three times in the back of the head.
    -
    Now let’s see if the Mexicans who so angrily demanded his release, will now give Tamayo a hero’s funeral, as they did with another cop killer, Javier Suarez Medina, who was executed in Texas in 2002. Medina’s funeral was attended by 6,000 people and his casket was respectfully covered with the Mexican flag. The service lasted over four and a half hours.


    Above: Protesters in Tamayo’s hometown in Mexico demanding his release Tuesday night.

    At last, he got his “justicia” tonight in Texas. Adios!
    UPDATE: The execution of Tamayo is dominating Twitter at this hour, with truly idiotic tweets like this one:

    A “very good person”? Remember Tamayo executed a Houston cop with three bullets to the back of the head and never denied it.

    On the other side of the range were tweets such as this one…



    [Editors note: Our apologies: we mistakenly reported the execution earlier, based upon an incorrect AP wire. They retracted the story and we held off...until now!]

    http://toprightnews.com/?p=907

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