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Texas urged to halt Mexican Humberto Leal's execution
BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14041953

The Obama administration has urged Texas to delay the execution of a Mexican man, saying it would put the US in breach of international obligations.

Humberto Leal Garcia, 38, faces lethal injection on Thursday for the **** and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1994.

He was not told he could have access to Mexican consular officials, in violation of the Vienna Convention.

The parole board refused to halt the sentence and Texas Governor Rick Perry has indicated he will not intervene.

A state department spokeswoman said that the federal government had filed a brief on Friday with the US Supreme Court, supporting Leal's argument for a stay of execution until the end of the year.

"The imminent execution of petitioner would place the United States in irreparable breach of its international law obligation," US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli wrote in the brief.

It would have "serious repercussions for United States foreign relations, law enforcement and other co-operation with Mexico, and the ability of American citizens travelling abroad to have the benefits of consular assistance in the event of detention".

The Obama administration wants a delay to allow Congress to consider legislation covering foreign nationals who were not given proper consular access before being tried for crimes that carry the death penalty.

'Heinous crime'

The Mexican government says it regards the planned execution as a violation of international law.

"This is about the right that each person has under the Vienna Convention to be able to enjoy the support of their country of origin when they face criminal proceedings in a foreign country," the Mexican Foreign Ministry said.

Leal, who moved to the US when he was a small child, is one of 51 Mexican nationals on death row who were the focus of a 2004 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The court said that their convictions should be reviewed because they were denied consular access.

President George W Bush told Texas officials they should comply with the ICJ order but the Supreme Court ruled that he had overstepped his authority.

In August 2008, Texas, which argued that its courts were not bound by the rulings of the ICJ, executed Mexican Jose Medellin.

With the Texas parole board's decision, Leal's fate now rests with Governor Rick Perry or the Supreme Court.

Mr Perry's office has said he has no plans to stop the execution.

"if you commit the most heinous of crimes in Texas, you can expect to face the ultimate penalty under our laws, as in this case," spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said.

What do you guys think should be done with this violent offender?  Should Texas proceed as planned, execute the convict and throw the US Government into conflict with international law, or should there be a retrial with proper access to consular services under risk of the defendant being found innocent?

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unless the scotus gets involved, i see no reason not to proceed. the **** has been in america since age 1.

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looks like it's too late.


Texas has executed a Mexican-born man after the US supreme court and the state's governor, Rick Perry, spurned appeals from Barack Obama to spare the convicted murderer's life in order to protect US interests abroad.

Humberto Leal Garcia was put to death by lethal injection for the **** and murder of a 16-year-old girl despite the appeals of senior diplomats, military officials and prominent politicians who said the execution could jeopardise the lives of Americans.

Shortly before Leal was led in to the death chamber in Huntsville the supreme court rejected by 5-4 an appeal from the White House to block the execution on the grounds it was in breach of an international convention governing the treatment of foreigners who are arrested and would therefore do "irreparable harm" to America's interests. Perry also declined to exercise his power to delay the execution by 30 days. His office argued that Leal was guilty of a heinous crime and deserved to die for it.

Perry's decision followed a rejection by the Texas board of pardons and paroles of Leal's request for a reprieve or commutation of his sentence.

Leal, a 38-year-old former mechanic, was convicted in 1994 of the **** and killing of Adria Sauceda, whose battered naked body was found hours after the pair left a street party together. Her skull had been smashed in with a piece of asphalt.

After his arrest, the Texas police failed to tell Leal, who was born in Mexico but has lived in the US since the age of two, that under the Vienna convention he was entitled to contact the Mexican consulate.

Leal's lawyers have argued that had a material effect on whether he received the death penalty because he did not have swift access to legal representation which Mexican diplomats would have offered.

"There can be little doubt that if the government of Mexico had been allowed access to Mr Leal in a timely manner, he would not now be facing execution for a capital murder he did not commit," Leal's lawyers said in their appeal to the pardons board.

That position has been backed by an international court of justice ruling which said that Leal and about 50 other Mexicans on death row in the US were not given their full legal rights.

The White House asked the supreme court to put the execution on hold while Congress passes a law that would prevent Leal from being put to death along with dozens of other foreign nationals who were denied proper access to diplomatic representation before trials for capital crimes.

guess congress should have acted sooner.

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Well, Rick Perry was not about to allow this man to escape his sentence.  (Wish he'd run for Prez).

I used to be against the death penalty, but have since changed my view based on Exodus 21:12.

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Originally Posted by Dennis Young:
Well, Rick Perry was not about to allow this man to escape his sentence.  (Wish he'd run for Prez).

I used to be against the death penalty, but have since changed my view based on Exodus 21:12.

I don't think anyone was in favor of letting the guy off the hook, just providing him justice in accord with one of our most important international obligations-the Geneva Convention.

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:

Originally Posted by Dennis Young:
Well, Rick Perry was not about to allow this man to escape his sentence.  (Wish he'd run for Prez).

I used to be against the death penalty, but have since changed my view based on Exodus 21:12.

I don't think anyone was in favor of letting the guy off the hook, just providing him justice in accord with one of our most important international obligations-the Geneva Convention.

well then congress should have acted sooner.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:

Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:

Originally Posted by Dennis Young:
Well, Rick Perry was not about to allow this man to escape his sentence.  (Wish he'd run for Prez).

I used to be against the death penalty, but have since changed my view based on Exodus 21:12.

I don't think anyone was in favor of letting the guy off the hook, just providing him justice in accord with one of our most important international obligations-the Geneva Convention.

well then congress should have acted sooner.

Thats certainly an agreeable statement.  As for what Dennis said, if this is what Perry thinks about the Geneva Convention, he doesn't belong anywhere near the oval office.

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:

Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:

Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:

Originally Posted by Dennis Young:
Well, Rick Perry was not about to allow this man to escape his sentence.  (Wish he'd run for Prez).

I used to be against the death penalty, but have since changed my view based on Exodus 21:12.

I don't think anyone was in favor of letting the guy off the hook, just providing him justice in accord with one of our most important international obligations-the Geneva Convention.

well then congress should have acted sooner.

Thats certainly an agreeable statement.  As for what Dennis said, if this is what Perry thinks about the Geneva Convention, he doesn't belong anywhere near the oval office.

well, in general (and i mean in general) i oppose international accords that butt in on the american system.

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I dunno fellas, if someone from another country rapes and kills a US citizen (or anyone for that matter) and we catch em...they should be under our jurisdiction.  That guy that gunned down the Pakistanis....if Pakistan had decided to keep him, I wouldnt have too much a problem with that.  You have to obey the law of the country you are in.

Least that's how I feel.

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Originally Posted by Dennis Young:
I dunno fellas, if someone from another country rapes and kills a US citizen (or anyone for that matter) and we catch em...they should be under our jurisdiction.  That guy that gunned down the Pakistanis....if Pakistan had decided to keep him, I wouldnt have too much a problem with that.  You have to obey the law of the country you are in.

Least that's how I feel.

Thats not what this is about.  By all means, if this guy is guilty of doing that to a 16 year old girl he doesn't deserve to be free.  The Geneva Convention dictates that when a forgiven national is arrested in a country 1) the country to which the defendant is from must be notified of his/her incarceration and 2) the defendant must be given access to consulate services to aid in their defense. Its alleged that Texas neither 1) formally contacted Mexico to inform them of the arrest or 2) allowed the defendant access to consulate services.  Its not that foreigners become exempt to American law, but rather that additional steps must be taken during prosecution.

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Oh i did hear about that.  Ok. YEah, they probably shoulda done all that.

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:

Originally Posted by Dennis Young:
I dunno fellas, if someone from another country rapes and kills a US citizen (or anyone for that matter) and we catch em...they should be under our jurisdiction.  That guy that gunned down the Pakistanis....if Pakistan had decided to keep him, I wouldnt have too much a problem with that.  You have to obey the law of the country you are in.

Least that's how I feel.

Thats not what this is about.  By all means, if this guy is guilty of doing that to a 16 year old girl he doesn't deserve to be free.  The Geneva Convention dictates that when a forgiven national is arrested in a country 1) the country to which the defendant is from must be notified of his/her incarceration and 2) the defendant must be given access to consulate services to aid in their defense. Its alleged that Texas neither 1) formally contacted Mexico to inform them of the arrest or 2) allowed the defendant access to consulate services.  Its not that foreigners become exempt to American law, but rather that additional steps must be taken during prosecution.

You know I am like Dod. I really don't like that many international treaties, but tGC is one that I do support. I do not however give a rats ass about this dude or what Mexico says about it. Seems to me that all Mexico has done lately is be ubercritical of tUSA. What for??? Are they really that embarrassed about how many of their country's citizens are willing to risk death to leave that stinkhole??? **** Mexico and anything it wants.

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Gov. Rick Perry rebuffed criticism Friday from the United Nations and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for Texas' execution of a Mexican man whose lawyers said he was not informed he could have sought legal help from the Mexican government after he was arrested for the murder of a San Antonio teenager.

"If you commit the most heinous of crimes in Texas, you can expect to face the ultimate penalty under our laws," Perry's spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said a day after convicted killer Humberto Leal was put to death in Huntsville.

In Geneva, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Leal's execution amounted to a breach of international law by the U.S.

The Texas governor has the authority in execution cases to issue a one-time 30-day reprieve, an authority Perry and other governors in the nation's most active capital punishment state rarely have invoked.

"After reviewing the totality of the issues that led to Leal's conviction, as well as the numerous court rulings surrounding the case, including the most recent Supreme Court ruling on Thursday, Gov. Perry agreed that Leal was guilty of raping and bludgeoning a 16-year-old girl to death," Cesinger said.

Adria Sauceda was killed in 1994 in a gruesome attack in which her head was bashed with a 30- to 40-pound piece of asphalt and she was raped, strangled, bit and then left **** on a dirt road with a piece of wood stuck in her.

From the Texas death chamber Thursday evening, Leal, 38, took responsibility for the slaying, asked for forgiveness and wrapped up his comments by twice shouting: "Viva Mexico!"

He was born in Monterrey, Mexico, and moved with his family to the U.S. when he was about 1½ years old.

Mexico's government, President Barack Obama's administration and the State Department were among those asking the Supreme Court to stop the execution of the former mechanic to allow Congress time to consider legislation that would require court reviews for condemned foreign nationals who weren't offered the help of their consulates.

The high court rejected the request 5-4.

"The secretary herself is quite disappointed in the outcome in this case," Clinton's spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said Friday. "You know that the U.S. government sought a stay of Leal's execution in order to give the Congress time to act on the Consular Notification Compliance Act, which would have provided Leal the judicial review required by international law.

"Frankly if we don't protect the rights of non-Americans in the United States, we seriously risk reciprocal lack of access to our own citizens overseas," Nuland said. "So this is why the secretary is concerned. ... We've got to treat non-Americans properly here if we expect to be able to help our citizens overseas."

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the punishment "raises particular legal concerns," including whether Leal had access to consular services and a fair trial.

Pillay also cited a 2004 International Court of Justice ruling saying the U.S. must review and reconsider the cases of 51 Mexican nationals sentenced to death, including Leal's. In 2005, President George W. Bush agreed with the ruling but the U.S. Supreme Court later overruled Bush.

"Texas is not bound by a foreign court's ruling," Cesinger said. "The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the treaty was not binding on the states and that the president does not have the authority to order states to review cases of the then 51 foreign nationals on death row in the U.S."

In its ruling Thursday about an hour before Leal's execution, the Supreme Court's majority opinion pointed to the IJC decision, saying it's been seven years since then and three years since the previous Texas death penalty case that raised similar consular legal access issues.

If a statute implementing the provisions of the international court ruling "had genuinely been a priority for the political branches, it would have been enacted by now," the majority ruling said.

Had the White House and dissenting justices been worried about "the grave international consequences that will follow from Leal's execution ... Congress evidently did not find these consequences sufficiently grave to prompt its enactment of implementing legislation, and we will follow the law as written by Congress," the ruling continued.

Leal's appeals lawyers had pinned their hopes on legislation introduced in the Senate last month that applied to the Vienna Convention provisions and said Leal should have a reprieve so the measure could make its way through the legislative process.

Similar bills have failed twice in recent congressional sessions.

"Our task is to rule on what the law is, not what it might eventually be," the court said.