Posted on 10/09/2007 9:46:25 AM PDT by uxbridge
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.
Exactly right
Bush is really turning out to be a turncoat...
The state of Texas should thank President Bush for his input, then pull the trigger on Medellin.
His actions seem like obstruction of justice to me.
Did he do it? If YES, fry him.
How many Americans are given “justice” in Mexico?
Texas has the right to do as it will, Bush is looking to make sure Mexico doesn’t get too friendly with the Caracas CaracPOT.
Mr. President stand up for the rights of the poor American girls who were raped and murdered.
One of the fathers was on FNC this morning, saying he had actually met Bush and that Bush made him some kind of promise. I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but it was along the lines of keeping the murderer in prison.
Bush has been a disappointment all around, especially in his second term. Don’t really know what the hell they are doing up there at the WH when it comes to things like this.
Mr President, neither you, nor any international court, has jurisdiction in this matter.
The reason that the power to commute a Death Sentence in Texas was taken from the Governor was so that no outside influence could affect the penalty from being enforced. Be that influence, money or Mexican presidents. The Mexican consulate should however, get a call. Come and pick up the bodies of your vermin and get their caracasses the hell out of the United States of America.
The IJC is the judicial body of the un. Bush has acquiesced our law for theirs. In doing this he has proclaimed “their” laws over ride ours. This is only the beginning.
Through the steady drip "we" have given them that right. Don't be shocked.
There’s our president, standing up for America again.
He not only admitted it, he laughed about it in court
The President has been a big disappointment on many issues in his second term.
I agree. Stay out of it Bush. You are stepping way over the line in something that is none of your business.
This guy should be fried.
I think Texas should remind Bush that they are not to be messed with and give Bush the choice of pulling the switch or just watching.
This is clearly politics getting in the way of justice.
“Maybe he’s fixin’ to run for president of Mexico next.”
He’s already the de facto president of much of it.
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