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ATLANTA (AP) — Yet another appeal denied, Troy Davis was left with little to do Tuesday but wait to be executed for a murder he insists he did not commit. He lost his most realistic chance to avoid lethal injection on Tuesday, when Georgia's pardons board rejected his appeal for clemency. As his scheduled 7 p.m. Wednesday execution neared, his backers resorted to far-fetched measures. They asked prisons officials to let him to take a polygraph test; urged prison workers to strike or call in sick; asked prosecutors to block the execution and they even considered a desperate appeal for...

A chilling look inside the minds of female prisoners unfolds on Thursday with the première of the new TLC show, Prison Diaries. The first episode of the series focuses on Emilia Carr, one of just 63 women on death row in the U.S. Carr is seen in ankle chains and handcuffs, led by a burly, fully-armed female guard as she leaves her cell. She wears bright orange overalls and trainers, her long, dark hair allowed to fall around her hunched shoulders.

US Supreme Court halts Texas execution MICHAEL GRACZYK September 15, 2011 HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution Thursday of a black man convicted of a double murder in Texas 16 years ago after his lawyers contended his sentence was unfair because of a question asked about race during his trial.

When Rick Perry threw his hat into the ring for the Republican presidential nomination, it set off such a collective cringe among liberal Texans that it likely scored on the Richter scale. Being a native Texan with basic respect for modern civilisation means living in a constant state of low-grade humiliation, as the state's size provides an interrupted stream of news stories highlighting the cranks and Bible-thumpers who win state and local offices – but a presidential campaign means exponentially expanding the amount of national and international attention paid to the streak of mean-spirited ignorance that rules Texas politics. With...

The 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham in Texas remains one of the most controversial death penalty cases in modern U.S. history, with forensic evidence that indicates an innocent man was put to death. Now, activists in Austin would like to make Mr. Willingham Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s running mate. With Mr. Perry surging to front-runner status in the Republican primary race, a slew of activities are planned to raise the profile of the Willingham case, and the aftermath that directly involved Mr. Perry. Anti-death penalty activists that run Cameron Todd Willingham website are recruiting activists in Iowa and New...

Rick Perry says he doesn't lose sleep over the possibility that his state has executed an innocent man. At Wednesday night's Republican Presidential debate in California, moderator Brian Williams noted to Perry that his state "has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times." As Williams tried to continue asking his question, the crowd broke into applause, prompting Williams to pause. The moderator then continued: "Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent?" Perry responded, "no, sir." "I've never struggled with that at all,"...

[snip] Williams: Governor Perry...Your state has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times. (APPLAUSE) Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent? Perry answered: "No sir," pointed out that death-row convicts are entitled to extensive appeals, and crisply declared: "In the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you're involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice." [snip] [E.D.]Kain implies...

Thumbing his nose at President Obama, Texas's Republican Governor Rick Perry allowed the Thursday evening execution of a Mexican national, even though the action violated U.S. treaty obligations under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to U.S. states. The Vienna Convention stipulates, among other things, that citizens of one country arrested in another have the right to consult, "without delay," with their own country's consulate, and to be so informed of that right by the arresting authority. If the arrested person so requests, the police must take the initiative by, for example, faxing pertinent information to the prisoner's consulate....

..THE RAPING AND BLUDGEONING THAT AMERICANS WON'T DO Obama bizarrely decided to intervene in a death penalty case in Texas on behalf of a rapist and murderer, also international law. In 1994, he kidnapped 16-year-old Adria Sauceda, raped her with a large stick, and bludgeoned her to death with a piece of asphalt. Just remember. Obama will not pay your mortgage. But if you rape and bludgeon a 16 year old girl to death... he'll be there for you. The San Francisco Chronicle asks, "Is Rick Perry Killing His Way To The White House?". Here's a better headline. "Is Obama...

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay accused the United States of breaking international law when Texas executed Mexican citizen Humberto Leal Garcia Jr. Thursday night. The execution sparked controversy after the International Court of Justice in the Hague determined in 2004 that the U.S. had violated the Vienna Convention when officials failed to tell foreign inmates about their right to visit their consular officials. But the U.S. Supreme Court voted yesterday that Texas could go ahead with the execution, even over the objection of President Barack Obama. Pillay said today the execution "raises particular legal concerns" about the...

UNITED NATIONS, July 8 (UPI) -- The Texas execution of a Mexican national puts the United States in violation of international law, the U.N. human rights chief said Friday. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said federations like the United States have a responsibility to ensure that individual states "respect the international responsibilities assumed by the country as a whole." ...."I am very disappointed that neither the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles nor the governor took steps open to them to prevent this breach of the U.S. obligations under international law from occurring," Pillay said.

Texas has executed a Mexican national for the kidnapping and rape of a 16-year-old San Antonio girl. Garcia, 38, was put to death less than two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-to-4 vote, rejected pleas from the Obama administration for a delay to avoid what it called serious international repercussions…. Before Garcia's trial, Texas authorities failed to inform him of his right to speak with officers from the Mexican consulate and failed to inform the consulate that a Mexican national had been arrested.

WASHINGTON — In a 5-to-4 decision that split along ideological lines, the Supreme Court on Thursday evening rebuffed a request from the Obama administration that it stay the execution of a Mexican citizen on death row in Texas. The inmate, Humberto Leal Garcia Jr., was executed about an hour later. ……On Thursday, in an unsigned majority opinion, the Supreme Court said that Congress had had plenty of time to act and that the court would not now “prohibit a state from carrying out a lawful judgment in light of unenacted legislation.” “Our task,” the majority wrote, “is to rule on...

Humberto Leal , a Mexican illegal alien was finally executed Thursday evening for the 1994 rape-slaying of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda, whose brutalized nude body was found hours after he left a San Antonio street party with her. She was bludgeoned with a chunk of asphalt. Leal was executed after the U.S. Supreme Court (by a 5-4 vote) turned down a appeal by President Barack Obama to stop the execution due to complaints by the Mexican Government and the U.N. justice court that he had not properly received “consular access” before his trial. As with his lawsuit against Arizona over its...

A Mexican national was executed Thursday for the rape-slaying of a teenager after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down a White House-supported appeal to spare him in a death penalty case where Texas justice triumphed over international treaty concerns. Humberto Leal, 38, received lethal injection for the 1994 murder of Adria Sauceda. She was fatally bludgeoned with a piece of asphalt. Leal was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. EDT (2221 GMT).

Texas is set to execute on Thursday Mexican national Humberto Leal Garcia for the rape and murder of a teenage girl, defying pleas by the Mexican government and President Barack Obama to delay it because his consular rights were violated

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a last-minute stay of execution in a Texas case involving a Mexican national who was not told of his right to diplomatic counsel when arrested.

The case of a Mexican man scheduled to be executed on Thursday in Texas threatens to disrupt U.S. diplomatic relations abroad and creates a politically volatile dilemma for Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is considering a run for president. Unless Perry or the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes to stay the execution, Texas plans to execute Humberto Leal Jr. at 6 p.m. Central Time for the 1994 murder of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that the United States violated the rights of Leal and more than three dozen other Mexican nationals on death row because...

<p>The Obama administration is taking the unusual step of asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop Texas from executing a Mexican citizen who was convicted and sentenced to die for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl.</p> <p>The administration is asking the court to delay the July 7 execution of Humberto Leal, 38, for as long as six months to give Congress time to consider legislation that would directly affect Leal's case.</p>

Barack Obama Asks For Texas And Rick Perry To Spare Mexican The Death Penalty Texas is preparing to execute a Mexican citizen for a gruesome 1994 murder on Thursday despite an appeal by Barack Obama to spare him because he was not granted the consular help required by international law. By Toby Harnden 05 Jul 2011 Humberto Leal, 38, a native of Monterrey, Mexico was convicted of the 1994 rape and murder of Adria Sauceda, 16, whose naked body was found with a large stick protruding from her. She had been bitten and her head crushed by a lump of...