Thread: Texas executes immigrant after winning court fight

Texas executes immigrant after winning court fight
8/7/2008, 8:10 p.m. ET
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
The Associated Press


HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — An illegal immigrant from Honduras who claimed his treaty rights were violated when he was arrested for a robbery-murder near Dallas was executed Thursday evening.

"God forgive them, receive my spirit," Heliberto Chi said in English. In Spanish, he told a friend watching through a window that he loved him and appreciated his hard work. He appeared to be whispering a prayer in Spanish with a tear at the corner of his right eye as the lethal drugs began to take effect.

One of Chi's cousins, who was among the witnesses, sobbed uncontrollably. Two sons of his victims watched through another window and Chi glanced at them briefly but didn't appear to acknowledge them.

Chi was pronounced dead nine minutes later at 6:25 p.m. CDT.

He murdered his former boss, Armand Paliotta, during a 2001 robbery at an Arlington men's clothing store where Chi had once worked. An employee was wounded trying to run away and another hid among clothing racks and called 911 for help.

Chi went on the run with his 18-year-old pregnant girlfriend. She turned him in California about six weeks later for assaulting her and told authorities he was wanted for murder in Texas.

Lawyers for Chi had claimed in appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court that he should have been told he could get legal assistance from the Honduran consulate when he was extradited to Texas to face charges.

The Supreme Court, ruling about 2 1/2 hours before his scheduled execution time, rejected his appeal without dissent. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, rejected a similar appeal late Wednesday.

The arguments in Chi's case, focusing on rights of foreigners under international treaty, were similar to those used unsuccessfully Tuesday by lawyers for condemned Texas prisoner Jose Medellin. In that case, the Supreme Court, with four of the nine justices dissenting, rejected his appeal and the Mexican-born Medellin was executed for participating in the gruesome gang rape and murders of two teenage Houston girls 15 years ago.

Unlike Medellin, Chi was not among some 50 death row inmates around the country, all Mexican-born, who the International Court of Justice said should have new hearings in U.S. courts to determine whether the 1963 Vienna Convention treaty was violated during their arrests. Mexico had sued in the court on behalf of its citizens condemned in the U.S.

President Bush asked states to review those cases and legislation to implement the process was introduced recently in Congress, but the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year neither the president nor the international court could force Texas to wait.

Chi's attorneys argued that unlike the Vienna Convention obligations with Mexico, the 1927 U.S. Bilateral Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Rights with Honduras was specifically between the U.S. and Honduras and was self-executing, meaning it didn't require legislation to have effect. They said the treaty also conferred individual rights and incorporated international law into enforceable domestic law.

Terry O'Rourke, a lawyer on Chi's legal team who teaches international law at Houston's University of St. Thomas, said Chi's guilt wasn't the issue.

"Chi is a murderer, Medellin is a murderer," O'Rourke said. "But we don't kill all murderers. We don't execute all murderers. We do it according to the law.

"When your state violates international law to kill somebody, it has very negative consequences."

The getaway driver at the murder scene, Hugo Sierra, who is the brother of Chi's girlfriend, is serving a life prison term.

Chi would say little about the crime in an interview with The Associated Press shortly before his then-scheduled execution last year.

"My situation is not about being innocent or guilty," he said. "My rights were violated."

"If it's the Lord's will" and he was executed, Chi said he had "great peace in my mind and soul."

Four other Texas prisoners are set to die this month, including two more next week. They're among at least 15 Texas inmates with execution dates in the coming months.


Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
© 2008 Michigan Live. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/national ... t=national

My reaction:

1. Ok, you win.
2. See ya!

I don't really care if Chi's realatives are crying.

All I care about is the victims and the people that loved them. They didn't ask for this to be done to them and they had no control over it.

Dixie

The victims of these criminals deserve justice.The state of Texas is providing it.Good for them.

Originally Posted by ChromeDome

The victims of these criminals deserve justice.The state of Texas is providing it.Good for them.

I'm glad I live in Texas where some of us have the pair to get the job done!!! I'm glad we can also carry and are working on carrying them openly!

Hopefully some of the people governing the state will grow a pair and pass laws like in OK, GA, OK and AZ!

While I am opposed to the death penalty for a complex set of reasons, this execution and the Medellin execution were fair and right because they represent what we stand for in this country which is equal treatment under the laws of the United States and there is no greater civil right in the than that.

Well done, Texas.

About the victims
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-742464.html#742464

Wow I didn't know this one was coming right on the heels of the other one.

Honduras laments execution of man in US
© 2008 The Associated Press
Aug. 7, 2008, 11:09PM
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras' government protested Thursday's execution in Texas of a Honduran man that the Central American country says was arrested in violation of an international treaty.

Honduras lobbied to stop the execution of Heliberto Chi, saying he was not permitted to contact anyone from his government after he was arrested in California and extradited to Texas.

"We lament that in this case, the arrangements established by the Vienna Convention treaty were not followed," the Honduran government said in a statement.

The argument is similar to the one raised earlier this week by Mexican-born Jose Medellin, who was executed late Tuesday night for his part in a gruesome gang rape-slayings of two teenage Houston girls 15 years ago.

Chi was executed for the 2001 killing of Armand Paliotta at a men's clothing store in suburban Dallas during a robbery.

Unlike Medellin, however, Chi was not among some 50 death row inmates around the United States — all Mexican born — who the International Court of Justice ruled should get new hearings in U.S. courts to determine whether the 1963 Vienna Convention treaty was violated during their arrests. That ruling was prompted by Mexico suing the United States in the world court in 2003.

Honduras said it would take all necessary measures to protect the lives of the 12 U.S. prisoners in Honduran prisons after local media reported they could be attacked in revenge.

The U.S. citizens are serving time for murder and drug trafficking offenses, the statement said.

The Honduran government said it would repatriate Chi's remains next week.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5931505.html