Posted on 03/25/2008 7:41:15 AM PDT by B Knotts
WASHINGTON — President Bush overstepped his authority when he ordered a Texas court to grant a new hearing to a Mexican on death row for rape and murder, the Supreme Court said Tuesday.
In a case that mixes presidential power, international relations and the death penalty, the court sided with Texas 6-3.
Bush was in the unusual position of siding with death row prisoner Jose Ernesto Medellin, a Mexican citizen whom police prevented from consulting with Mexican diplomats, as provided by international treaty.
An international court ruled in 2004 that the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row around the United States violated the 1963 Vienna Convention, which provides that people arrested abroad should have access to their home country's consular officials. The International Court of Justice, also known as the world court, said the Mexican prisoners should have new court hearings to determine whether the violation affected their cases.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Good.
I meant to say that Ginsburg, Breyer & Souter were the dissenters.
Chief Justice Roberts wrote the Opinion of the Court.
Bush siding here with Ginsburg, Breyer & Souter, also....
Presidential elections always matter folks.....
An international court ruled in 2004 that the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row around the United States violated the 1963 Vienna Convention
________________________________________________
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
This vicious rape and murder of 2 American teenagers did not happen “internationally”
It happened right here in our country...
The perps were illegal aliens who should never have been here in the first place...
WTH, Bush comes to aid of death row killers if they are Mexican!!
Thank God we now have Alito and Roberts...
Any time the CJ writes the opinion, it means the Court sees the case as especially important.
Was this the case that was delaying executions of death row inmates?
I disagree. Bush sided with the illegal in this case knowing that his decision would not hold up in court. This allowed him to play the diplomacy card while ensuring the illegal would not go free. I know there are a lot of Bush haters, but he has more smarts (and a better staff) than he is credited with.
The big three lose again, and take Mr. Bush along for the ride! When is Texas gonna’ fry this hombre’? Soon, I hope!
That's worth framing.
I think Fox got some of their facts wrong. The prisoner was not PREVENTED from contacting his embassy. He never ASKED to contact the embassy. The embassy issue did not come up until the appeals.
Wow. Good Bush put Roberts on the court. This is an important decision.
Sorry Bush, you lose this one.
Ginsburg, Breyer, Souter, the Three Amigos.
I couldn’t help thinking of this when I saw the name:
“The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of drug smugglers (drug cartel) originating in the city of Medellín in Colombia and operating through the 1970s and 1980s. It was built and run by Pablo Escobar. At its height, it was bringing in as much as $60 million per month, and was estimated by some to be worth as much as $28 billion in total. Other noted figures involved in, or connected with the cartel include the Ochoa family José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, Max Mermelstein, Jon Roberts, Mickey Munday, and Carlos Lehder.”
I’m sure it’s not related.
In sum, while treaties “may comprise international commitments . . . they are not domestic law unless Congress has either enacted implementing statutes or the treaty itself conveys an intention that it be ‘self-executing’ and is ratified on these terms.”
Having Kennedy as the key swing vote is proving to be much better when it was both Kennedy and O’Connor. Sandra swung the court much further to the left than Kennedy.
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