Posted on 05/14/2004 3:26:57 PM PDT by DumpsterDiver
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Vicente Fox claimed victory Friday in his campaign against the U.S. death penalty after Oklahoma's governor spared a Mexican death row prisoner, and called on other U.S. states to follow suit.
Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry commuted the death sentence of Mexican Osvaldo Torres Thursday, saying there were violations of international law in the case. Torres, 29, whose cause was taken up around the world, was scheduled to be executed Tuesday for his role in the 1993 murder of an Oklahoma couple.
"We are pleased that this occurred and now we can take care of the cases of other Mexicans in the same situation," Fox told reporters in Poland as he ended a European tour. "It looks like it sets a precedent in the right direction."
Fox won World Court backing in his stand against the U.S. death penalty. In March, the U.N. International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands, ordered the United States to review the cases of 51 Mexican nationals on death row, including Torres, because it had not informed them of their right to talk to consular officers shortly after their arrests.
Oklahoma defied that decision in setting an execution date. But hours before Henry's decision, an Oklahoma criminal appeals court granted an indefinite stay in order to hold a hearing on the question of whether the state had violated Torres' rights.
This week, Fox asked Henry in a letter to suspend the execution for 30 days so Mexico could present its legal case. Texas, home to President Bush and the state with the largest number of executions, also snubbed the World Court, rejecting its order to review its cases.
Sixteen of the Mexican nationals on death row are in Texas. Fox has pressed the White House to comply with the World Court ruling. In 2002, Fox angrily canceled a planned meeting with Bush in Texas after the state executed a Mexican prisoner.
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[American] Suspect in Mexican Torture Dispute Stabbed to Death
Fri May 14, 2004
NOTE FROM ME: Mario Medina was born in the U.S. but had dual citizenship. He was living in Mexico when he was arrested and convicted of murder. He claimed he was tortured into signing a confession. His case was appealed four different times with each judge ruling that confessions obtained via torture were admissable as evidence.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - An American murder suspect whose complaints of torture in Mexico prompted a diplomatic brawl has been stabbed to death in a Mexican jail, judicial officials said on Friday. Texan Mario Medina, held on suspicion of killing a newspaper editor in the violent border city of Nuevo Laredo, was murdered by a fellow prisoner in the city's Cerezo II jail on Thursday night.
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I hope the voters of Oklahoma remember this.
This is a terrible precedent, right in line with the SCOTUS sodomy decision. What in hell is international law? What does it have to do with our constitution, our laws, natural law, or common law, the only precedents our courts have ever recognized?
"What in hell is international law?"
International law requires passports for legal entry from one country to another, but I guess they it is amended so that countries can just pick and choose which part of the law they want to follow when committing crimes.
Why, they are idiots for electing a moron.
From the U.S. Constitution, Article VI, Clause 2:
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.
My emphases.
The U.S. and Mexico are signatories to a treaty that states that if a foreign national of a signatory country is arrested in another signatory country, that person shall have access to legal aid from the embassy of his home country. That is believed to have been denied to the defendant, a Mexican national, in this case. According to the clause of the U. S. Constitution quoted above, that would be a violation of Federal law and State authorities are bound to abide by it.
Now: was he truly denied such access? Maybe. Maybe not. I have been told that he did not assert his citizenship until after his trial was over, but I don't assert that as a fact. In any case, it's worth a hearing. And if his rights under this treaty were violated, and nothing was done, then Americans could hardly be expected to retain this right in Mexico.
Voters in that state have long memories. The Governor had better show them a very strong case for this commutation.
Now, you are correct that "international law" passed by whatever body without our participation, or without our assent, should have no effect in the U.S. But that's not the case here; we signed the treaty.
How about when Mexican Military vehicles and personnel make armed incursions into the USA running security for drug smugglers and illegal alien smugglers...
Is that covered under the same Intl law Fox is so adamanant about applying?
About the only thing that would be strong enough for me is that the murdering SOB has testicular cancer and has six months to live in pain and agony.
The Governor did not simply delay the execution. That would have at least made some sense. But he commuted the sentence and that decision will stand no matter what the outcome of the hearing.
Now that would be inhumane. Paging Dr. Kevorkian!
Inhuman (as in beheading) is okay...as long as we don't humiliate him (no clown shoes).
Meanwhile, America is over in Iraq fighting terror while here at home our politicians are busy surrendering America to the Mexicans. And as ever, our conservative talk show hosts remain silent on the issue.
Why did the World Court have to get involved in this however. Couldn't Fox have simply said that since the US isn't honoring their side of the treaty (if they indeed aren't) Mexico won't honor theirs, and that is that? And let international politics solve the issue as Americans begin to be denied embassy provided counsel for criminal defense in Mexico?
Put him in the general population, spread rumor he is a pedophile Islamist terrorist. Ergo, death sentence carried out in short order.
In order to be denied something, doesn't that something have to be requested first? Did the defendant ever request to speak to someone from the Mexican consulate? If so, was his request turned down by American officials? Or was he simply never informed that he had that right under international law?
"International Law" is a joke, only the U.S. is expected to abide by it.
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