Governor Rick Perry Must Halt Medellin Execution Immediately,

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Amnesty International

Governor Rick Perry Must Halt Medellin Execution Immediately,
Says Amnesty International
Texas Goes 'Beyond the Pale if it Insists on Going Forward' With Execution

WASHINGTON - August 4 - Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) today urged Texas Governor Rick Perry to stay the execution of José Medellin to comply with a recent ruling from the International Court of Justice, or World Court. Medellin, a Mexican national who was never informed of his right to request consular assistance, is scheduled to be put to death tomorrow.

"It is imperative that Texas officials stay the execution of José Medellin not only because of the pending World Court decision, but also to take into account recent Congressional action on this issue," said Larry Cox, executive director for AIUSA. "Even President Bush, who signed scores of death warrants as Texas governor, concurred some time ago that the United States must honor its international obligations in this case. There will be no clearer sign that Texas will have gone beyond the pale than if José Medellin's execution goes forward."

The World Court last month ordered the U.S. government to "take all measures necessary" to halt the upcoming execution of five Mexican nationals in Texas until it makes a final judgment in a dispute over their consular rights. Medellin is the first of those scheduled to be put to death.

Texas officials acknowledge that Medellin was never told he could speak with a consular official from Mexico when he was arrested, but U.S. courts have ruled that this treaty right, which is enshrined in the Vienna Convention on Consular Rights (VCCR), cannot be invoked because Medellin never raised the issue during his original trial or sentencing. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this procedural bar trumped U.S. obligations under the Vienna Convention, because Congress had not passed implementing legislation to give the VCCR domestic effect. Such implementing legislation has now been introduced in Congress, but will not become law before Medellin's scheduled execution.


Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0804-08.htm

[Demeter]

1. I Will Be Following This Story

as much as I can with eyes tightly shut against the obscenity of US actions. God help us all.

[DangerDave921]

42. the obscenity of US actions?

I'm sorry, but you go too far. The guy raped and brutalized and killed two teenage girls. Where is your condemnation of that act? Is that not an obscenity? But no, you choose to call the US's response obscene. I just don't get that.

I am mostly against the death penalty, but I make exceptions for crimes against children.

I also don't believe the world court has any bearing on what a state court or the US does.

[bluesmail]

2. Any willing parties who engage in this revenge murder

if it does happen, and I believe it will, are themselves murderers.

[AllentownJake]

11. This is a soviergnty issue

and I hate the death penalty but on constitutional grounds I side with Texas on this one.

[Parche]

3. Jose

What did the guy do?
:shrug: :hi:

[MJJP21]

4. Double rape and murder

The man comitted double rape and murder. Sorry no slack for this guy. I don't care what the world court says.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Medell%C3%ADn

[Parche]

5. I Agree

Was he here illegaly?
They should have let him talk at least with the Mexican Consulate, but I agree with the sentence

you forfeit your own life if you commit murder

If you commit the crime, you take the punishment

[Igel]

7. Yes, he was here illegally.

SCOTUS has ruled the treaty's not enforceable on state courts. And Texas courts have said that it wouldn't make any difference--all the consular advice in the world wouldn't have changed the evidence.

Moreover, the story is also that he didn't say he was a Mexican national until 4 years or so after he was arrested.

If that's true, I have a more serious problem with the World Court: I get arrested, I get sentenced based on the evidence. Then, years later, I point out that I'm American and was deprived of my consular advice: Sorry, time to start the clock ticking because of a technicality that I'm responsible for.

Yes, it's possible to have legislation dictating that all police must be treaty-enforcing agents, and warn all arrestees of their rights under international law. Gee, doesn't that sound like fun: Esp. if the exclusionary rule is suddenly applied as it was to Miranda rights.

My personal bit of horror: Medellin reportedly bragged to his friends that the two girls were virgins before he and his buddies raped them.

[AlphaCentauri]

24. Then the southwest is part of Mexico, Indian Treaties are not enforceable in the states

[AllentownJake]

10. Death seems a little too kind

We really need a prison in the middle of Alaska for people like this. Shovel snow for the next 60 years asshole.

[Snarkturian Clone]

16. Funny how the article doesn't mention what he did...NT

[Stewie]

37. And he was bragging about the victims being virgins when he raped them

I believe he was also the one who boasted about having "virgin blood" all over his genitals.

[JeanGrey]

6. Hold your breath on that one

[Judi Lynn]

8. Federal officials try to block Texas execution to allow review of case

Federal officials try to block Texas execution to allow review of case

01:26 AM CDT on Monday, July 28, 2008
By DIANE JENNINGS / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]

Fourteen years and numerous judicial reviews have passed since José Medellin was sentenced to die after confessing to the brutal gang rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston.

But defense attorneys, and an unusual coalition of federal officials, including no less than the attorney general and secretary of state, say if his Aug. 5 execution is not stayed, so Mr. Medellin's case can be reviewed one more time at the behest of the International Court of Justice, Texas will be rushing to judgment and endangering Americans abroad.

"Put simply, the United States seeks the help of the State of Texas," Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote Texas Gov. Rick Perry in a letter released by defense attorneys.

Federal authorities are scrambling to bring the U.S. into compliance with the Vienna Convention, a treaty signed decades ago giving jurisdiction to the world court in cases concerning consular access. The world court first called for additional review for dozens of Mexican citizens condemned to die without access to their consular officials in 2004 and repeated the call in another decision July 16.

~snip~
But two weeks ago, a bill was introduced in Congress by Reps. Howard Berman, D-California, and Zoe Lofgren, D-California, to require states to come into compliance with the International Court order. Defense attorneys and officials are pushing to delay Mr. Medellin's execution until that bill can be considered.

More:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/crime/stories/072808dntexmedellin.43a6f20.html

[CrazyDude]

13. The Supreme Court was clear that Congress had to act here

They did not and thus Medellin is going to die today.

Even though Bush was surprisingly against Medellin's execution, his position was clearly an overreach of executive power and the Supreme Court rightfully said, Mr. President, you do not speak for the United States, the United States Congress does.

[AllentownJake]

9. I don't support the Death Penalty

However if you come to the US and commit an atrocity like this guy your under our justice system.

This does hurt our chances of getting extradition of criminals who cross the border though so maybe Texas should take a longer term view on this asshole. If it was up to me he'd be sent to Alaska to shovel snow till the end of his natural life. Death seems a little too easy in a case like this.

[endarkenment]

12. Well that is the problem with the case - they did not follow the rules.

If he was 'under our justice system', that means the entire system with all of its rights rules and obligations, not just the rules the state of texas decides it likes. Arbitrary justice is not justice at all. The state of texas deliberately ignored federal law with respect to their obligations toward foreign nationals. This was not an isolated case.

[gratuitous]

14. Shhhh!

The Death Train is rolling and the acolytes of the High Church of Redemptive Violence have the fires stoked. Blood must be shed.

[Seeking Serenity]

15. How did Texas "deliberately" ingore federal law?

It's been said many times by many people that Medellin did not tell the Harris County authorities that he was a Mexican national, either in the interragation/discovery phase, nor at trial, nor at his sentencing.

It seems to me that the burden should be on him to state his nationality, and then the state gives him consular access. If the state doesn't know he's a foreigner, how is that the state's fault?

[endarkenment]

17. In order to believe your position I would have to

also believe that the state of texas made no effort to identify the person they were holding. Even they are not making that claim. Instead their position is that as he did not request consulation with Mexican authorities they were not obliged to provide him with such consulation nor to inform him of his rights. When we are in the business of taking somebody's life away, we most certainly have an obligation to make sure that person's rights are respected to a fault. When we fail to do that, arguments in favor of the death penalty can be dismissed out of hand. There is simply no justification for behaving this way. And again, this was not an isolated case, it was texas policy to deny prisoners consular access.

[Seeking Serenity]

19. How much more ID did the Harris County authorities need than his name

and his address and his lawyer?

Does Houston PD have to check every arrestee with an Hispanic or otherwise "foreign-sounding" name to see if he is a citizen or permanent resident?

I place much more of the blame for this mess on a) Medellin, who should not have committed the heinous crime he did and who did not speak up when he had the chance, and b) his attorney, who also did not raise this issue at any time during the guilt or penalty phase of the trial.

[endarkenment]

20. Again - even the state of texas is not making this absurd claim

They claim instead that they were under no obligation to inform him of his consular rights. If you are happy with the state sneaking around their obligations while going about the business of taking your life away, at least be honest about it. After all, everyone on death row is guilty as charged, right?

[Seeking Serenity]

21. How did they know he even had any consular rights if he didn't inform them

that he was a Mexican national? I am not aware of any criminal procedure law, statutory or case law, that states that the arresting authorities, along with reading the suspects of their Miranda rights that they also have to state that, if they are foreign nationals, they have the right to speak with their consulate.

If there is an American case that says such, please cite it so I can read it.

And the courts have said that, even if he had had consultation with his home country's emissaries, it would not have altered the result at trial. He confessed, and was found guilty by a jury. He was not about to be deported back to Mexico, not after what he did, just because he is a foreign national.

[AlphaCentauri]

25. How come investigator couldn't determine citizenship of detainee

isn't it obvious that in a case like this they have to reveal the true identity of a convict.

[Seeking Serenity]

26. They had his true identity.

He was Jose Medellin (there has been no claim that he's not Jose Medellin but someone else), and he resided at (his street address), Houston, Texas.

How are they to know he's a foreign national if he doesn't tell them? Are they to assume that every Hispanic or other "foreign" sounding person is not a citizen or permanent resident, especially in a city like Houston?

[AlphaCentauri]

39. Birth certificate

in case like this there should be a identity verification

[Seeking Serenity]

45. Driver's license is the standard measure of ID

Why check a birth certificate if he had a driver's license (I don't know that he did or didn't; I'm just saying that's the standard ID measure). Besides, he'd been in this country since he was three, so it seems plausible that he wouldn't have had a thick accent or spoke halting English that might lead one to believe that he wasn't a citizen.

Fact of the matter is, he should have raised this issue long before trying to seek post-conviction relief.

[AlphaCentauri]

47. so authorities base their assertions on "what they see is what they get"

[Seeking Serenity]

22. You never responded to my earlier question.

What federal law did the State of Texas deliberately ignore?

[littlebit]

38. No Tx didn't ignore anything.

This man never said he was an illegal before during or after his trial. This didn't come up until years later when he found out he could get his death sentence over turned. He man needs to take his punishment and shut the hell up. Why should anyone feel sorry for him? He didn't give the same courtesy to his victims.

[wvbygod]

18. The DP is wrong and will always be wrong

This evil waste of a human should not be given an easy way out of this world after what he
did to ruin so many other peoples lives. A lifetime of anal tazering 3 times a day
and the most uncomfortable living conditions for the rest of his miserable life would
be a better deterrent to future rapists and murderers.

And shame on commondreams for not mentioning the absolute horror of what this piece of trash did to his victims.

[AnneD]

23. As I said before...

I can't speak for the other cases, but in the case of Jose Medellin, they can't pull the switch fast enough. Death by injection is more mercy than he showed Jessica and Elizabeth. Check out this post for further info.....


www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3726975


This is a bad case to use as an example to support your argument. The Pena and Eartman families have gone through hell for far too many years over this scum and have been forced to relive this hell every time some one decides to 'save' this slime bag. Where were these folks when Jessica and Elizabeth were crying out for mercy........crickets.

[endarkenment]

27. Fine. You are a big fan of state executions. Got it.

I disagree entirely and find your argument "Where were these folks when Jessica and Elizabeth were crying out for mercy" to be rightwing bullshit. Where were you? Did you intervene? Am I somehow against intervening in somebody's torture and execution by being against the death penalty? That argument is not only rightwing bullshit, it is just plain stupid.

[AnneD]

28. No, I really am not....

this case is an exception. I think they pull the switch far too often down here. I opposed many execution that have been done here, but not this one. It showed a deliberate and callous regard for the lives of the victims. Not everyone in this case received the death penalty-just the leaders.

I oppose the death penalty in cases of insanity temporary or otherwise, mental retardation, and offenders under the age of 18. Because legal representation is so important, I oppose any attempt to 'streamline' the legal process. Taking human life should be a careful, deliberate, and thoughtful process. However, there are crimes that are so egregious that they do need to be addressed.

This is far from a right wing view.

[endarkenment]

29. Your words.

"Where were these folks when Jessica and Elizabeth were crying out for mercy........crickets."

That is a rightwing bullshit argument.

[AnneD]

33. Well,

why are folks so quick to speak up for these murderers, but not for the victims or their families? Blowing this question off as a right wing bull shit argument shows an unwillingness to explore anything that differs from a preconceived notion.

We wrestled with this case in 1993 and this was what was decided after looking at all the facts. If I am angry, it is because this has been delayed justice for the family and their dead children. He has now lived longer after his crime than his victims did their entire lives. The Pena's and Ertmans are the only folks in this sad tale that deserve sympathy.

[endarkenment]

35. Where were you?

Go ahead and try and rewrite your words and rephrase your argument, but what you wrote was bullshit. Where were you when these kids were brutally raped and murdered? That was the question you asked, and for which you responded for 'us people': 'crickets'. So where were you? crickets?

How much better off are those poor kids going to be after all the people involved are executed? How does increasing the body count make things better?

I am not 'speaking up for murderers'. Another rightwing bullshit argument. I am speaking up against the death penalty, and specifically in this case against the state of texas for yet again failing to even bother with following the rules when going about the sordid business of putting people to death.

[AnneD]

36. I happened to live ....

several miles from there. Walked that area alot. Took the shortcut too. Took my baby daughter out there to play. Took night class at the community college at Waltrip High where they went to school.It was a safe place and a decent working class neighbourhood.

The dead will still be dead, but the family will have justice. Anyone that heard the families address the convicted have no doubt or remorse.

What did I personally do.....donated money to help bury the kids and pay for a headstone!

Edited to add that the other crime that was just as bad ways the robbery and execution slaying of 4 high school kids at the local bowling alley. At that time, the Corrections unit was under court order to relieve overcrowding. These folks were not released to their hometowns, but a disproportionate number came to Houston for the anonymity of the large city. It was so bad that I left with my daughter in tow for 4 years for our own safety. We moved back in 2003. Even with the up tic in 2004-5, it still is safer than it was at the time of the murder of Jennifer and Elizabeth.

[GeniusLib]

30. The Death Penalty is Here to Stay

A solid majority of Americans support it and it has been the law of the land since the inception of this country.

Depicting it as "murder" or "bloodlust" is just as persuasive as when right wing nutjobs use the same terms to describe abortions.

As for this case, these animals were afforded all their Constitutional rights to due process and now justice will be served today.

[endarkenment]

34. It is bloodlust. Technically not murder, in most cases.

Sorry if you have a problem with the accurate depiction of state executions as bloodlust, not that I actually used that term. This thread itself contains several examples of people lusting after the blood of this soon to be executed idiot, despite the fact that they have no direct connection at all to the victims of his crime. Not only is it bloodlust, it is abstract bloodlust. At least in more primitive societies this sort of activity was restricted to the actual kinfolk of the victims.

Vengence is not a civilized form of justice. We recognize that when we are horrified by Saudi 'justice' or Iranian 'justice'. But we hide our brutality and bloodlust away and make it all sanitary and hospital like. No beheadings or stonings or public hangings for us. We like our butchery kept behind closed doors, just like we keep our war-dead off the tv.

Slavery was the law of the land when this country was founded, but somehow we managed to evolve beyond that abomination.

[DangerDave921]

48. I hear you

but i disagree. I imagine my own 8-year-old daughter in that situation and imagine her unimaginable suffering at the hands of these vicious animals. And I would want those men dead dead dead.

This is not Dem versus Repub. Or right versus left. This is bigger than that. For a man to do that to two teenage girls, he should be gone from this earth.

[DangerDave921]

44. right wing BS?

So it is right-wing to believe that a double rapist/murderer who brutalized and killed two teenage girls should forfeit his life?

My, how far we have come. I guess I'm a RW'er then.

[WriteDown]

31. Kudos to Texas and Perry....

I remember reading about this case and cringing. I would actually rather they'd turn this guy over to the family of the victims so they can dispense justice, but this will have to do.

[S_B_Jackson]

32. OK, let's assume that Rick Perry DOES intervene....

What the hell is that going to do? It only puts this situation off for 30 days. And Perry will be prohibited by law from any other unilateral action without the aurhorization of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, which he will not receive.

Congress has the power to act, but they are on vacation for the next month, and when they return, they'll see other issues as more important...like passing pork legislation to assit themselves to stay in office...they will continue to abdicate their responsiblity to pass enabling legislation as they have ever single session since 1963.

At this point, the only thing that may delay Medellin's execution is Tropical Storm Eduard's arrival this morning. But it's a puppy of a storm and I don't think that it will. I do hope that Jose Medellin's gotten himself right with his maker, because they have an appointment to meet early this evening.

Still, it's hard to feel too much sympathy for this rapist and murderer...from the Jose Medellin on Wikipedia

While Jenny and Elizabeth were living the last few hours of their lives, Peter Cantu, Efrain Perez, Derrick Sean O'Brien, Joe Medellin and Joe's 14 year old brother were initiating a new member, Raul Villareal, into their gang, known as the Black and Whites. Raul was an acquaintance of Efrain and was not known to the other gang members. They had spent the evening drinking beer and then "jumping in" Raul. This means that the new member was required to fight every member of the gang until he passed out and then he would be accepted as a member. Testimony showed that Raul lasted through three of the members before briefly losing consciousness.

The gang continued drinking for some time and then decided to leave. Two brothers who had been with them but testified that they were not in the gang left first and passed Jenny and Elizabeth, who were unknowingly walking towards their deaths. When Peter Cantu saw Jenny and Elizabeth, he thought it was a man and a woman and told the other gang members that he wanted to jump him and beat him up. He was frustrated that he had been the one who was unable to fight Raul.

Medellin was the first of the gang to start the attack, grabbing Elizabeth, who then cried out for help from her friend. Testimony showed that Jenny had gotten free and could have run away but returned to Elizabeth when she cried out for Jenny to help her. The confessions of the gang members that were used at trial indicated that there was never less than 2 men on each of the girls at any one time and that the girls were repeatedly raped orally, anally and vaginally for the entire hour. One of the gang members later said during the brag session that by the time he got to one of the girls, "she was loose and sloppy." Medellin boasted of having "virgin blood" on on his underpants.<6>


The 14-year-old juvenile later testified that he had gone back and forth between his brother and Peter Cantu since they were the only ones there that he really knew and kept urging them to leave. He said he was told repeatedly by Peter Cantu to "get some". He raped Jennifer and was later sentenced to 40 years for aggravated sexual assault, which was the maximum sentence for a juvenile.

After the rapes, the gang members took Jenny and Elizabeth from the clearing into a wooded area, leaving the juvenile behind, saying he was "too little to watch". Jenny was strangled with the belt of Sean O'Brien, with two murderers pulling, one on each side, until the belt broke. Part of the belt was left at the murder scene, the rest was found in O'Brien's home. After the belt broke, the killers used her own shoelaces to finish their job. Medellin later complained that "the bitch wouldn't die" and that it would have been "easier with a gun". Elizabeth was also strangled with her shoelaces, after crying and begging the gang members not to kill them; she began bargaining, offering to give them her phone number so they could get together again.

The medical examiner testified that Elizabeth's two front teeth were knocked out of her brutalized mouth before she died and that two of Jennifer's ribs were broken after she had died. Testimony showed that the girls' bodies were kicked and their necks were stomped on after the strangulations in order to "make sure that they were really dead."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Medell%C3%ADn

[DS1]

40. Eh

One less dirtbag using up oxygen.

[spanone]

41. now that's sweet

[DS1]

43. I never suspsected I'd be arguing in favor of a backwards shithole like Texas

but this guy was filth. He got off easy.

[Zywiec]

46. Too late. n/t