Posted on 10/07/2007 5:32:32 AM PDT by Clear Rivers
WASHINGTON - To put it bluntly, Texas wants President Bush to get out of the way of the state's plan to execute a Mexican for the brutal killing of two teenage girls.
Bush, who presided over 152 executions as governor of Texas, wants to halt the execution of Jose Ernesto Medellin in what has become a confusing test of presidential power that the Supreme Court, which hears the case this week, ultimately will sort out.
The president wants to enforce a decision by the International Court of Justice that found the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexican-born prisoners violated their rights to legal help as outlined in the 1963 Vienna Convention.
That is the same court Bush has since said he plans to ignore if it makes similar decisions affecting state criminal laws.
"The president does not agree with the ICJ's interpretation of the Vienna Convention," the administration said in arguments filed with the court. This time, though, the U.S. agreed to abide by the international court's decision because ignoring it would harm American interests abroad, the government said.
Texas argues that neither the international court nor Bush has any say in Medellin's case.
Medellin was born in Mexico but spent much of his childhood in the United States. He was 18 in June 1993, when he and other members of the Black and Whites gang in Houston encountered two teenage girls on a railroad trestle.
The girls were gang-raped and strangled. Their bodies were found four days later.
Medellin was arrested a few days later. He was told he had a right to remain silent and have a lawyer present, but the police did not tell him that he could request assistance from the Mexican consulate.
Medellin gave a written confession. He was convicted of murder in the course of a sexual assault, a capital offense in Texas. A judge sentenced him to death in October 1994.
Medellin did not raise the lack of assistance from Mexican diplomats during his trial or sentencing. When he did claim his rights had been violated, Texas and federal courts turned him down because he had not objected at his trial. Mexico later sued the United States in the International Court of Justice in The Hague on behalf of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row in the U.S.
I guess we owe the Dixie Chicks an apology???
Damn!! I am now ashamed of him too..
My view is if any official, court or executive even mentions International courts or law, they need to face impeachment. They took an oath to uphold and defend American law. If they even give a whit about Intl law, they have abandoned their oath.
Anymouse, that’s the best idea I’ve heard yet. What difference does it make that Mexico has no death penalty? The crimes were committed here.
What are they going to do about it, if the slimeball gets no reprieve? Take him back, dead or alive, and keep him thee. And the rest of the scum with him.
3 times??? He's only been in two elections. How'd you do that??
He was elected Governor of Texas.....before he became King George. Do you know that you are on a three day old thread? There are at least two more current, one yesterday and one today.
You guys realize that you’re posting to a 3- day old duplicate thread, right?
Wait, has xcamel been notified? ;o)
You should post the link to the original thread then. Some of us just responded to the one that was at the top.
Can someone please explain to me how a treaty that was *not* ratified by 2/3 of the US Senate is binding upon the state of Texas?
They’re owed nothing. They didn’t want the fans they had. They said so. They got their wish. Now they can live with it.
That said, a LOT of us are ashamed of him too. He’s showing us where his true loyalty lies.
But he can give clemency.
Yeah - after I sent my remark, I looked at the date. Silly me!
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