Posted on 10/09/2007 9:46:25 AM PDT by uxbridge
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.
“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.”
Abiding by it hurts Americans here at home. Just ask the families of those two girls.
Bush WTF-#76. I’m sure there’s a perfectly acceptable legal explanation. You know...like with Ramos and Compean...
drip = don’t reelect incumbent politicians
State’s right issue and Bush knows it.
The worm just can’t stop turning!
Term limits should keep the pool refreshed. ;)
Hpefully it falls on it’s face.
We shall see.
If so, that's a direct violation of our constitution, and a violation of his oath of office, in which he swears to protect the constitution.
Strange that the RATS aren't screaming to have him impeached over this. It might actually have teeth.
“International Court of Justice”
If I were the governor of Texas I execute the SOB and tell Bush he can go be the ICJ’s President. What’s Bush going to do about it??
Why didn't Bush take up the cause when he was governor? While he couldn't unilaterally pardon the guy, he could have leaned on the board to make a recommendation and then issued the pardon. Of course, then he might have ended up with a Willie Horton on his hands.
It most definitely is.
Strange that the RATS aren't screaming to have him impeached over this. It might actually have teeth.
Not strange at all. The majority of the rats agree. If a stink arises over this and the American people start to ride them like we did on shamenesty, the dims will run for cover-then they will start attacking it. Until then, they have no problem with it.
Amen. May it fall flat on it's face.
“on the surface appears bad, but the big picture may be something else.”
If an American goes to a foreign country they do so at their own risk and agree to obey their laws and be subject to such laws. If an American decides to go to a bannana republic then they accept all responsibility if they are kangaroo’d. We should not project American justice into any other country least they expect to do the same.
ping
Supreme Court to rule whether international treaty trumps state law
Presidente Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Bush's action is bizarre. That he would support for this horrific rapist/pedophile/killer creates disturbing implications.
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