Texas kills Mexican against World Courts wishes
Late Tuesday evening the state of Texas executed convicted rapist and murderer Jose Medellin. Medellin, 33 had been on death row for the rape and killing of two teenage girls in 1993. Medellin was convicted of participating in the gang rape, beating and strangling of Elizabeth Pena, 16, and Jennifer Ertman, 14. Prosecutors said he and five fellow gang members attacked the girls as they were walking home on a June night, raped and tortured them for an hour, then kicked and stomped them before using a belt and shoelaces to strangle them.
An international court ruled in 2004 that the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row around the United States violated the Vienna Convention, which calls for people arrested abroad to 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. President Bush asked states to review the cases, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year neither the president nor the international court can force Texas to wait.
Texas authorities argued Medellin, who came to the United States when he was 3 and grew up in Houston, never sought Mexican consular protections until four years after he was arrested. By then, he already had been tried for capital murder, convicted and condemned. In their appeal, Medellin’s lawyers warned his execution could endanger Americans abroad if they get into legal trouble and said Congress or the Texas Legislature should be given a chance to pass a law setting up procedures for new hearings before he was executed.
The appeal to the nation’s highest court focused on whether Medellin was denied treaty-guaranteed help from the Mexican consulate when he was arrested. The court rejected his request for a reprieve, with the majority opinion noting that the Justice Department had not sought the court’s intervention. “Its silence is no surprise,” the court said, adding that prosecutors never wavered from their position that Medellin “was not prejudiced by his lack of consular access.”
Medellin, who was 18 at the time, was one of five to get the death penalty for the girls’ deaths. One companion, Derrick O’Brien, was executed two years ago. Another, Peter Cantu, described as the ringleader of the group, is awaiting execution but a date has not been set. Two others, Efrain Perez and Raul Villarreal, had their death sentences commuted to life in prison when the Supreme Court barred executions for those who were 17 at the time of their crimes. The sixth person convicted, Medellin’s brother, Vernancio, was 14 at the time and is serving a 40-year prison term. At least six other Mexican nationals have been executed in Texas since 1982, when the state resumed carrying out capital punishment.
While there will continue to be debate about values of the death penalty as a punishment for murder, the more important issues that this event highlights is the United States sovereignty and states rights. The debate centers not just on the tenth amendment but more importantly on Article VI OF the U.S. Constitution. It is because of this part of the constitution that political leaders such as Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan and Dennis Kuchinich have called for us to get out of the United Nations. By the literal interpretation of Article VI our courts must obey the rulings of the world court. The United Nations and other organizations are treaties we have signed and when signed they become the supreme law of the land. Thankfully the Supreme Court ruled on the side of Americans instead of the world.
...This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
Filed under: Freedom and Liberty, Uncategorized
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