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]
The amendment, added by Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, to the education funding bill legislators needed to balance the state budget had originally been included in Senate Bill 9, the so-called "sanctuary cities" bill that failed in the special session. It also had appeared in an omnibus homeland security bill by Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, that died in the regular session.
The new law approved last Tuesday makes some tweaks to a 2008 DPS policy that prevents illegal immigrants from getting a driver's license and created a special license for temporary visitors. The rules require Texans applying for or renewing their license to show they are citizens or are in the country legally.
By putting it into law the state potentially undermines an ongoing lawsuit that argues DPS doesn't have authority to check legal status."....
The joke is on his idiot attorney - who was loudly proclaiming his client's innocence 24 hours before he got fried.
If that is true then there is 11,400 more reasons to SHUT THE DAM BORDERS
Makes me proud to be Texan!
"Here you go Officer Smith...fax this information to the Mexican Consulate. Oh, look...it's midnight."
"Yo Henry, throw the switch!"
"...zzzzzttttt...."
U.N. official deplores Texas execution
A coincidence?
I don't think so.
New headline -
Mexico violates treaty, invades Texas
Well, the gun grabbers have always asked us what those high capacity magazines are good for.
There you go.
Oh Indeed
but it is NOT true. I wish it were. I am sure there are 11,400 illegal mexican criminals here in Texas
Yes close the border now. IF we’d actually built the wall when we said we were going to it would be finished by now
and then we could start allowing in people we know who they are and where they are going
Hey the feds say emigration is a only for the feds to do so how can the states check. Additionally the guy lied to police, so how can they trust him to tell the truth about his status.
Well.......
With the “reported” 11,400 Mexican national Texas death row inmates and the 1245 miles of TX-Mexico International border.....
1245 divided by 11,400 = head on pike almost every 1/10 of a mile.
That would be a statement.
No?
They last longer if dipped in tar.
I didn’t know that!
Question: Is there a consular service on earth that’s crazy enough to guarantee its citizens that it will or even can get them out of any criminal charges in another country (never mind capital crimes) just because they’re citizens under that service’s protection? The State Department can’t and doesn’t. The British FCO can’t and doesn’t. I’m guessing even the Mexican SRE can’t and doesn’t. And if our guest Humberto Humberto thought otherwise, either the SRE was remiss in not setting him straight...or I want some of what he was smoking.
¡Soy Spartacus!
I knew that number wasn't right when I read it, thanks for the correction.
And you are correct.
“Obama, as POTUS, has the power to pardon or commute a sentence. His failure to do so must mean that he wanted Leal dead.”
Only federal prisoners. He has no say so over state prisoners.
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