Free Republic

HUNTSVILLE — An illegal immigrant from Honduras who claimed his treaty rights were violated when he was arrested for a robbery-murder near Dallas was executed Thursday evening. "God forgive them, receive my spirit," Heliberto Chi said in English. In Spanish, he told a friend watching through a window that he loved him and appreciated his hard work. He appeared to be whispering a prayer in Spanish with a tear at the corner of his right eye as the lethal drugs began to take effect. One of Chi's cousins, who was among the witnesses, sobbed uncontrollably. Two sons of his victims...

An illegal immigrant from Honduras who claimed his treaty rights were violated when he was arrested for a robbery-murder near Dallas lost his appeal ... at the U.S. Supreme Court, clearing the way for his execution. In the second case of its kind this week in Texas, lawyers for condemned killer Heliberto Chi went to the nation's highest court claiming Chi should have been told he could get legal assistance from the Honduran consulate when he was arrested in California and extradited to Texas to face charges for killing his former boss at a men's clothing store during a robbery...

Heliberto Chi, a Honduran native...moved one step closer to execution Wednesday when [Texas"] highest criminal court rejected his bid for a stay. Chi, condemned for killing Armand Paliotta during an after-hours robbery ...will be put to death tonight in Huntsville unless his lawyers can persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to spare his life. Arlington attorney Wes Ball said the odds are against Chi because Ball’s argument is similar to the one the justices rejected Tuesday when they allowed the execution of Mexican national Jose Ernesto Medellin to go forward.