Posted on 10/07/2007 5:32:32 AM PDT by Clear Rivers
WASHINGTON - To put it bluntly, Texas wants President Bush to get out of the way of the state's plan to execute a Mexican for the brutal killing of two teenage girls.
Bush, who presided over 152 executions as governor of Texas, wants to halt the execution of Jose Ernesto Medellin in what has become a confusing test of presidential power that the Supreme Court, which hears the case this week, ultimately will sort out.
The president wants to enforce a decision by the International Court of Justice that found the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexican-born prisoners violated their rights to legal help as outlined in the 1963 Vienna Convention.
That is the same court Bush has since said he plans to ignore if it makes similar decisions affecting state criminal laws.
"The president does not agree with the ICJ's interpretation of the Vienna Convention," the administration said in arguments filed with the court. This time, though, the U.S. agreed to abide by the international court's decision because ignoring it would harm American interests abroad, the government said.
Texas argues that neither the international court nor Bush has any say in Medellin's case.
Medellin was born in Mexico but spent much of his childhood in the United States. He was 18 in June 1993, when he and other members of the Black and Whites gang in Houston encountered two teenage girls on a railroad trestle.
The girls were gang-raped and strangled. Their bodies were found four days later.
Medellin was arrested a few days later. He was told he had a right to remain silent and have a lawyer present, but the police did not tell him that he could request assistance from the Mexican consulate.
Medellin gave a written confession. He was convicted of murder in the course of a sexual assault, a capital offense in Texas. A judge sentenced him to death in October 1994.
Medellin did not raise the lack of assistance from Mexican diplomats during his trial or sentencing. When he did claim his rights had been violated, Texas and federal courts turned him down because he had not objected at his trial. Mexico later sued the United States in the International Court of Justice in The Hague on behalf of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row in the U.S.
Willie Horton all over again?
The great state of Texas needs to tell Bush to go pound sand, in no uncertain words.
There is a lot of info here.
Wow, thank you.
The Bush-Mexican connection is blatantly obvious. His attempts to roll the USA under the NAU with Mexico and Canada are blatantly obvious. Instead of confronting him for his blatant disloyalty, many people bury their heads under the carpet in fear of hillary, rather than to deal with both problems. The only question is how long can a country survive when most of its leadership has no fear of personal accountability.
I have long pondered that, and just what does the mexican secret service have on Bush. His motivation for how he has dealt with mexico has always been a mystery to me.
Jorge once again, doing what’s WRONG for americans....imagine how the families of these girls must feel?
Could the president read of the girl’s gang rape and murder and then look their parents in the eye and still defend the murderer?
I'm thinking,,,,,hell yeah.
how come he didn’t step in where the other executions were taking place in Texas? Move out of the way President Bush. You have done so much against us this year.
‘His motivation for dealing with Mexico’ — I always think the missing pieces are: We get oil from them; We do NOT want a revolution/ Marxist government happening down there.
President Bush considers himself a Christian, let him emulate Christ and take Medellin’s place in the death chamber, if he feels so strongly about sparing the life of this rapist and murderer.
Hello President Dick Cheney.
I could live with it.
His brother Jeb is married into one of the wealthiest Mexican families and hobnobs with the Mexican elite. There is much more, but if you understand Mexico and the Bushes blatant support of all things Mexico, then their tie to the Mexican leadership should answer more than does speculation about the Mexican secret service files on Bush. It is not illogical for one to speculate that the Bushes have direct relationships with that secret service. However, this is of no interest because they are wagging the dog with hillary (In this case, its wagging the hag who is a dog).
If this international law crap gets into the system, every psychopath on the planet will head this way.
Easy pickings and no death penalty.
Do the country a favor and resign!
A new low for president Jorge as he leads a race to the bottom.
Bush’s true colors are showing brightly -— he is a traitor. His whole WOT is a front to hid his connections to international interests. His failure to take any meaningful action to close our borders to illegal invaders, and now this... it is blatantly obvious.
I think I am about ready to buy one of those “Goodbye Bush” calendars I saw in WalMart the other day - it gloriously celebrates the countdown GW’s departure from office.
And the way things are starting to look with the GOP nomination, I am ready to tell the Republican Party to go pound sand with GW.
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