Posted on 07/11/2011 8:30:08 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Thumbing his nose at President Obama, Texas's Republican Governor Rick Perry allowed the Thursday evening execution of a Mexican national, even though the action violated U.S. treaty obligations under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to U.S. states.
The Vienna Convention stipulates, among other things, that citizens of one country arrested in another have the right to consult, "without delay," with their own country's consulate, and to be so informed of that right by the arresting authority. If the arrested person so requests, the police must take the initiative by, for example, faxing pertinent information to the prisoner's consulate.
Yet for years, state governments, especially that of Texas, have simply ignored the Vienna Convention, and neither allowed arrested foreigners to contact their consulates nor informed them of their right to do so. In Texas currently, there are reportedly 11,400 citizens of Mexico awaiting execution in state prisons, who have been denied their rights under the Convention. One of them was Humberto Leal Garcia, the man executed by lethal injection on Thursday night. Leal, who was brought to the United States without papers as a baby, was convicted of assaulting and murdering a 16-year-old girl, Adria Sauceda, in 1994, while he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. He asserted, through attorneys, that he would not have been convicted, let alone sentenced to death, had he been informed of his rights, and had he been able to coordinate his defense with the Mexican consulate. However, before he was executed he took responsibility for the murder and apologized to the victim's family.
[snip]
The case during the Bush administration eventually ended up before the U.S. Supreme Court, which, reflecting its right-wing majority, ruled in 2008 in favor of Texas, i.e. that Texas authorities do not have to obey the Vienna Convention because Congress failed to pass legislation ordering them to do so. Likewise evidence obtained in cases in which consular contact was denied cannot be suppressed because of the violation of the Convention. By this logic, only federal prisoners have to be given their rights under Vienna, and they are a small minority of foreigners arrested in the United States each year. Other signatory countries do not assert such claim.
[snip]
11,400 Mexicans on death row in Texas whose rights an international court say have been denied!!! [the fiction writer of this story padded that number by 11,385]
Texas houses 15 of the more than 50 Mexican national death row inmates listed in an International Court of Justice opinion that determined the United States violated their rights when local law enforcement didn’t inform them of the right to call the Mexican consulate. Those on Texas death row included in the 2004 ruling
All Offenders on Texas Death row
BTW this was a big LIBERAL crocodile tears performance against Rick Perry and Texas to make brownie points with 2012 Democratic Party voters: "U.S. officials asked the Supreme Court to grant a delay to give Congress time to make the death penalty illegal [since 2008] for foreign nationals who were not given access to diplomatic representation after being arrested for capital crimes. The high court ruled in an unsigned majority opinion against the bid for a delay, arguing that Congress had enough time to pass legislation before the execution. "Our task is to rule on what the law is, not what it might eventually be," the majority wrote." source
On FOX, someone said this guy had been in the US since he was two years old.
woot! go RICK!
Dear People’s World;
Tell Mexico to keep it’s murdering rapists home and Texas won’t have to exterminate them. They tend to give rats a bad name.
That was reported by a local talk show host in Houston as well. He also made a great point--Lawmen are prohibited from asking hispanics their citizenship status. Now the feds are saying Texas *should have* asked about citizenship status.
They're asking the impossible of Texas, and they know it.
“In Texas currently, there are reportedly 11,400 citizens of Mexico awaiting execution in state prisons, who have been denied their rights under the Convention”
In Texas we would call that a GOOD START.:)
What a LIE, How could that be allowed to be printed?
Just another undocumented worker, doing the job Americans wouldn’t do, like rape and murder.
In other words asking the Republican congress to retroactively change the law. And if they did, they would be darned and if they didn't they would be darned. So I don't blame the Republicans for not taking it up, but I do blame the Liberal/Progressives for pushing such nonsense.
For US law is not subservient to foreign law. This is why many countries will not extradite murderers to the United States because they have crocodile tears for murderers.
No the Article is pushing for US law to be subservient to foreign laws in order to push socialism a bit faster.
But I'm happy when they won't extradite and keep them in the foreign jails. Then we don't have to pay for it nor the constant lawsuits these folks foist upon the system.
In this recession, I have no compassion for murderers and know the Progressives/Liberals are just trying to buy illegal votes.
IMHO: If we just deport them they will just come back and murder again. Rather than burden the system with an illegal situation, we should be done with them permanently.
I was going to say, if that's the real number, we need to put in a couple of express lanes and maybe a self-checkout lane.
/johnny
???????
Why not go for the REALLY BIG LIE:
11,400,000 Mexican nationals on Texas death row.
“The PW is known for its partisan coverage. We take sides - for truth and justice. We are partisan to the working class, racially and nationally oppressed peoples, women, youth, seniors, international solidarity, Marxism and socialism. We enjoy a special relationship with the Communist Party USA, founded in 1919, and publish its news and views.”
And I would take a commie rag serious, WHY?
“Rick Perry allowed the Thursday evening execution of a Mexican national, even though the action violated U.S. treaty obligations under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to U.S. states”
What an ignorant statement. The Vienna Convention has nothing to do with executions, it only deals with consular notification. In my experience, notification of the Mexican (and most other) Consulates would have resulted in precisely zero action on the part of Mexico: no attorney, no visit, no nothin’. Besides, this guy wouldn’t have contacted them anyway, as he grew up in the US.
This particular “bloody shirt” is being waved in the wrong direction.
Colonel, USAFR
There must be a whole lotta gullible readers at "Peoples World."
Funny how fast one of ‘God’s children just seeking his piece of the American Dream’ turns into a ‘Mexican National’ depending on how the spin goes.
reporting 11,400 more on TX death row]
*
Really?! let them all ride the lightning..
Obama, as POTUS, has the power to pardon or commute a sentence. His failure to do so must mean that he wanted Leal dead.
Gee whiz...you mean the Supreme Court ruled that the UN cannot dictate to the US the laws under which Americans must live??? Why how AWFUL!!!! EVERYBODY know the UN should be the BOSS, NOT the American people!!!!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.