Texas Will Execute Just Another Rapist/Murderer

[Accountable]

:yh_clap :yh_clap WOOT WOOT!! :yh_clap :yh_clap



I know it's hard to gleen facts from this story, since the authors buried them and dressed them up in euphamism, but my governor and Texas courts are doing the right thing this time.



Texas set to defy Bush and Court of Justice to execute Mexican

Texas was set to defy the International Court of Justice and George W Bush today by executing a Mexican national convicted of the 1993 rape and murder of a teenager.





By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles

Last Updated: 10:18PM BST 04 Aug 2008

Medellin is one of 51 Mexicans on death row across the US Photo: AP





Jose Medellin is one of 51 Mexicans on death row across the US who contend they were denied prompt access to their home country's consular officials after their arrest, a right guaranteed by the Vienna Convention.



The International Court of Justice in 2004 ordered that all the prisoners should have new hearings to determine if the 1963 treaty was violated during their arrests.



President Bush asked states to review their cases in line with the order. But Texas has refused, arguing that its state courts are not bound by the ICJ treaty.



On July 16 the ICJ granted an urgent request by Mexico that the US try to halt the imminent execution of five Mexicans, including Medellin, who is the first of the 51 set to die.



Medellin, now 33, was scheduled to die by lethal injection today for his part in the gang rape and deaths of two Houston teenage girls.



Lawyers for Medellin, who moved to the US aged three, returned to the US Supreme Court last week seeking a last minute reprieve after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, rejected Medellin's arguments.



In March, the nation's highest court ruled that neither the President nor the international court could force Texas' hand.



Officials in Texas, which carries out more executions than any other state, acknowledge Medellin was not told he could ask for help from Mexican diplomats but argue he forfeited the right because he did not raise the issue until four years after his conviction. They also say any involvement by diplomats would not have made a difference to the outcome.



If executed, Medellin would be the 410th condemned prisoner to die in Texas since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1982.

[chonsigirl]

So this is a state rights issue, that Texas is not bound by the International Court.

Have any similar cases been overturned? (just wondering)

[Accountable]

chonsigirl;941827 wrote: So this is a state rights issue, that Texas is not bound by the International Court.



Have any similar cases been overturned? (just wondering)
I'm not sure a state has ever had the stones to assert it's authority like this before, at least not since the 19th century.

[Accountable]

fuzzy butt;941894 wrote: So forget international laws ? Texas is a law unto itself?



So if I'm arrested in Texas authorities can prevent me from contacting my consulate? My god that going to open up a can of worms. Even the most babaric countries in the world wouldn't try a stunt like that.:-5
He lived in the US since he was 3. He used the ploy four years after conviction as a hail Mary because nothing else had worked. Tell ya what, Fuzz. Don't rape & murder in Texas and we won't treat you barbarically. How's that?

[YZGI]

fuzzy butt;941918 wrote: It doesn't matter what particular crime this is or how long he has been in the US, and for that matter how long he's been using excuses for getting out of so called punishment. If he is still a citizen of another country then he has rights under International laws of those citizens.



What is Texas excuse for splitting from a sovereign country? Like i said this is going to open up a can of worms.
Oh crap, I now gotta choose sides between Texas and the rest of the USA?



How bout we split East coast, West coast , and the good ole Middle America?

[Accountable]

fuzzy butt;941918 wrote: It doesn't matter what particular crime this is or how long he has been in the US, and for that matter how long he's been using excuses for getting out of so called punishment. If he is still a citizen of another country then he has rights under International laws of those citizens.



What is Texas excuse for splitting from a sovereign country? Like i said this is going to open up a can of worms.
"So called punishment" :wah: That's cute. Why not call the rape and murder a so called crime? I wonder if he let those girls contact their consolate before, er, taking part in their deaths.

[Accountable]

fuzzy butt;941969 wrote: You're still doing it .......you're being emotive. Look at the ramifications for all Americans.



I would dare say that's a bigger issue.



What amuses me is the next time an American travels and is coaght up in something just like this .........I bet all Texans are going to rely on the fact that no other country uses the same kind of laws against you. Christ that'll be funny.
If any Texan rapes and murders in Australia, feed 'em to the crocs with my blessing.

[Bryn Mawr]

fuzzy butt;941962 wrote: What all this essentially means is the next time your national Government signs anything ...........absolutely anything ..............to do with international policies or international laws or relations ............including trade!!!! It won't be worth the paper it's written on.

And I do agree with the statment that Americans are now in more danger when they travel .....................You know what everyone is going to think the next time a American complains about their rights are being violated overseas.


How's about the hacker the US are trying to extradite and bang up for life?

Going on this case we'd be quite entitled to refuse on the grounds that international law will not be observed.

The Senior Law Lords just overturned a government decision to extradite a suspected terrorist to Jordan on the grounds that it was suspected that they might not observe international law on treatment of prisoners - this is directly equivalent.

[Accountable]

I don't know about the hacker case. I only know that I never had a chance to vote for a global gov't. USA is a sovereign nation, and our Constitution does not place the States (who put the S in USA) subordinate to the federation.

[Bryn Mawr]

fuzzy butt;942066 wrote: I don't know what you're talking about Bryn elaberate please


Details of the hacker can be found at :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4721183.stm



Whilst the failed extradition is give in lurid detail here :-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... efits.html

[Bryn Mawr]

fuzzy butt;942271 wrote: I dont' understand how Extradiction corrolates to consular representation and or advice?

Crime committed in England is tried in England. I think who ever was able to be such a dunce to have theri computer systems so open and acsessable needs to be tried for treason. :wah::wah:

Abu Qatada? Hmmmmm well you can't extradite someone if they are already being punished within the realms of another jurisdiction. (I believe)


With the Americans that does not work - crime committed in England is likely to be tried in the US with a multiple life sentence already being discussed. This has happened a couple of times before and I cannot understand why we allow it.

Abu Quatada's persona non grata but we cannot send him home because the Jordanians do not respect international law and we have no mechanism for sending him anywhere else.

[flopstock]

Has anyone at all ever said the guy didn't do it?

No?

Bye bye:guitarist

[RedGlitter]

Well it's done:

Texas executes Mexican-born killer

By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer 19 minutes ago



A Mexican-born condemned prisoner was executed Tuesday night for the rape and murder of two teenage girls 15 years ago after a divided U.S. Supreme Court rejected his request for a reprieve.

"I'm sorry my actions caused you pain. I hope this brings you the closure that you seek. Never harbor hate," Jose Medellin said to those gathered to watch him die. Nine minutes later, at 9:57 p.m., he was pronounced dead.

Medellin's execution, the fifth this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state, attracted international attention after he raised claims he wasn't allowed to consult the Mexican consulate for legal help following his arrest. State officials say he didn't ask to do so until well after he was convicted of capital murder.

Medellin, 33, was condemned for participating in the 1993 gang rape, beating and strangling of Elizabeth Pena, 16, and Jennifer Ertman, 14. He and five fellow gang members attacked the Houston girls as they were walking home on a June night, raped and tortured them for an hour, then kicked and stomped them before using a belt and shoelaces to strangle them.

Their remains were found four days later. By then, Medellin already had bragged to friends about the killings.

Pena's father, who was among the witnesses, gently tapped the glass that separated him from Medellin as he turned to leave the witness chamber after the execution.

"We feel relieved," Adolfo Pena said after leaving the prison. "Fifteen years is a long time coming."

Several dozen demonstrators, about evenly divided between favoring and opposing capital punishment, stood outside on opposite sides of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit.

Medellin's attorneys contended he was denied the protections of the Vienna Convention, which calls for people arrested to have access to their home country's consular officials.

"Under the circumstances, it's hard to talk about what comes next," lawyer Sandra Babcock said, noting her thoughts were with Medellin's family and the family of his victims. "But now more than ever, it's important to recall this is a case not just about one Mexican national on death row in Texas. It's also about ordinary Americans who count on the protection of the consulate when they travel abroad to strange lands. It's about the reputation of the United States as a nation that adheres to the rule of law."

In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where Medellin was born, a small group of his relatives condemned his execution.

"Only God has the right to take a life," cousin Reyna Armendariz said.

Six of his relatives, including Armendariz, and several activists gathered earlier Tuesday in a working-class neighborhood to await word on Medellin's fate.

A large black bow and a banner that read "No to the death penalty ... may God forgive you," hung from an iron fence in front of the house where Medellin lived until moving to the United States at the age of 3. He grew up in Houston, where he learned English and attended school.

The International Court of Justice said Medellin and some 50 other Mexicans on death row around the U.S. should have new hearings in U.S. courts to determine whether the 1963 treaty was violated during their arrests. Medellin was the first among them to die.

President Bush asked states to review the cases, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year neither the president nor the international court can force Texas to wait.

Gov. Rick Perry, Texas courts and the Texas attorney general's office all said the execution should go forward and that Medellin has had multiple legal reviews. State officials noted Medellin never invoked his consular rights under the Vienna Convention until some four years after he was convicted.

His lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to stop the execution until legislation could be passed to formalize case reviews ordered by the International Court of Justice.

The high court said in its ruling that that possibility was too remote to justify a stay. Justice Stephen Breyer, one of four justices who issued dissenting opinions, wrote that to permit the execution would place the United States "irremediably in violation of international law and breaks our treaty promises."

Medellin's supporters said either Congress or the Texas Legislature should have been given a chance to pass a law setting up procedures for new hearings. A bill to implement the international court's ruling wasn't introduced in Congress until last month. The Texas Legislature doesn't meet until January.

On Monday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request for a reprieve and denied his lawyers permission to file new appeals. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also rejected requests for clemency and a 240-day reprieve.

One of Medellin's fellow gang members, Derrick O'Brien, was executed two years ago. Another, Peter Cantu, described as the ringleader of the group, is on death row. He does not have a death date.

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

[pantsonfire321@aol.com]

Bryn Mawr;942287 wrote: With the Americans that does not work - crime committed in England is likely to be tried in the US with a multiple life sentence already being discussed. This has happened a couple of times before and I cannot understand why we allow it.

Abu Quatada's persona non grata but we cannot send him home because the Jordanians do not respect international law and we have no mechanism for sending him anywhere else.

So just stick a couple of caps in him ...simple, no more problem and no more paying to keep scum alive .



### that was not directed at Bryn it's just my own thoughts ..ok .

[pantsonfire321@aol.com]

RedGlitter;942564 wrote: Well it's done:

Texas executes Mexican-born killer

By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer 19 minutes ago



A Mexican-born condemned prisoner was executed Tuesday night for the rape and murder of two teenage girls 15 years ago after a divided U.S. Supreme Court rejected his request for a reprieve.

"I'm sorry my actions caused you pain. I hope this brings you the closure that you seek. Never harbor hate," Jose Medellin said to those gathered to watch him die. Nine minutes later, at 9:57 p.m., he was pronounced dead.

Medellin's execution, the fifth this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state, attracted international attention after he raised claims he wasn't allowed to consult the Mexican consulate for legal help following his arrest. State officials say he didn't ask to do so until well after he was convicted of capital murder.

Medellin, 33, was condemned for participating in the 1993 gang rape, beating and strangling of Elizabeth Pena, 16, and Jennifer Ertman, 14. He and five fellow gang members attacked the Houston girls as they were walking home on a June night, raped and tortured them for an hour, then kicked and stomped them before using a belt and shoelaces to strangle them.

Their remains were found four days later. By then, Medellin already had bragged to friends about the killings.

Pena's father, who was among the witnesses, gently tapped the glass that separated him from Medellin as he turned to leave the witness chamber after the execution.

"We feel relieved," Adolfo Pena said after leaving the prison. "Fifteen years is a long time coming."

Several dozen demonstrators, about evenly divided between favoring and opposing capital punishment, stood outside on opposite sides of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit.

Medellin's attorneys contended he was denied the protections of the Vienna Convention, which calls for people arrested to have access to their home country's consular officials.

"Under the circumstances, it's hard to talk about what comes next," lawyer Sandra Babcock said, noting her thoughts were with Medellin's family and the family of his victims. "But now more than ever, it's important to recall this is a case not just about one Mexican national on death row in Texas. It's also about ordinary Americans who count on the protection of the consulate when they travel abroad to strange lands. It's about the reputation of the United States as a nation that adheres to the rule of law."

In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where Medellin was born, a small group of his relatives condemned his execution.

"Only God has the right to take a life," cousin Reyna Armendariz said.

Six of his relatives, including Armendariz, and several activists gathered earlier Tuesday in a working-class neighborhood to await word on Medellin's fate.

A large black bow and a banner that read "No to the death penalty ... may God forgive you," hung from an iron fence in front of the house where Medellin lived until moving to the United States at the age of 3. He grew up in Houston, where he learned English and attended school.

The International Court of Justice said Medellin and some 50 other Mexicans on death row around the U.S. should have new hearings in U.S. courts to determine whether the 1963 treaty was violated during their arrests. Medellin was the first among them to die.

President Bush asked states to review the cases, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year neither the president nor the international court can force Texas to wait.

Gov. Rick Perry, Texas courts and the Texas attorney general's office all said the execution should go forward and that Medellin has had multiple legal reviews. State officials noted Medellin never invoked his consular rights under the Vienna Convention until some four years after he was convicted.

His lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to stop the execution until legislation could be passed to formalize case reviews ordered by the International Court of Justice.

The high court said in its ruling that that possibility was too remote to justify a stay. Justice Stephen Breyer, one of four justices who issued dissenting opinions, wrote that to permit the execution would place the United States "irremediably in violation of international law and breaks our treaty promises."

Medellin's supporters said either Congress or the Texas Legislature should have been given a chance to pass a law setting up procedures for new hearings. A bill to implement the international court's ruling wasn't introduced in Congress until last month. The Texas Legislature doesn't meet until January.

On Monday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request for a reprieve and denied his lawyers permission to file new appeals. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also rejected requests for clemency and a 240-day reprieve.

One of Medellin's fellow gang members, Derrick O'Brien, was executed two years ago. Another, Peter Cantu, described as the ringleader of the group, is on death row. He does not have a death date.

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


Sorry posted before i got to the end .

[Accountable]

RedGlitter's Source;942564 wrote: "I'm sorry my actions caused you pain. I hope this brings you the closure that you seek. Never harbor hate," Jose Medellin said to those gathered to watch him die. Nine minutes later, at 9:57 p.m., he was pronounced dead.At least he went out with more class than he lived.

Medellin's attorneys contended he was denied the protections of the Vienna Convention, which calls for people arrested to have access to their home country's consular officials.He moved here at age three. I'd be surprised if he even spoke Spanish well. I'll bet the people who want to give criminal aliens US citizenship would also scream about him being denied communicating with his "home country."

The sixth person convicted, Medellin's brother, Vernancio, was 14 at the time and is serving a 40-year prison term.There's a fine example big brother set, eh?