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WASHINGTON — President Bush overstepped his authority when he ordered a Texas court to grant a new hearing to a Mexican on death row for rape and murder, the Supreme Court said Tuesday. In a case that mixes presidential power, international relations and the death penalty, the court sided with Texas 6-3. Bush was in the unusual position of siding with death row prisoner Jose Ernesto Medellin, a Mexican citizen whom police prevented from consulting with Mexican diplomats, as provided by international treaty. An international court ruled in 2004 that the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death...

President Bush overstepped his authority when he ordered a Texas court to reopen the case of a Mexican on death row for rape and murder, the Supreme Court said Tuesday. In a case that mixes presidential power, international relations and the death penalty, the court sided with Texas 6-3. Bush was in the unusual position of siding with death row prisoner Jose Ernesto Medellin, a Mexican citizen whom police prevented from consulting with Mexican diplomats, as provided by international treaty. An international court ruled in 2004 that the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row around the...

WASHINGTON — President Bush, who presided over 152 executions as governor of Texas, wants to halt the state's execution of a Mexican national for the brutal killing of two teenage girls. The case of Jose Ernesto Medellin has become a confusing test of presidential power that the U.S. 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...

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 ultimately will sort out. This undated photo released by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows death row inmate Jose Ernesto Medellin. Texas wants President Bush to get out of the way of the state's...

Death Penalty Case Puts Bush and Texas at Odds Over Mexican's FateSunday, October 07, 2007 WASHINGTON — President Bush, who presided over 152 executions as governor of Texas, wants to halt the state's execution of a Mexican national for the brutal killing of two teenage girls. The case of Jose Ernesto Medellin has become a confusing test of presidential power that the U.S. 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...

WASHINGTON — President Bush and Texas, the state he once led, were on opposite sides of a Supreme Court dispute today over the role of international law and claims of executive power in the case of a Mexican on death row for rape and murder in Houston. The justices engaged in a spirited discussion of who gets the final say in whether Texas courts must give Jose Ernesto Medellin a new hearing because local police never notified Mexican diplomats that he had been arrested, in violation of an international treaty. An international court ruled in 2004 that the convictions of...

President Bush's demands in the Medellin murder case, now being heard before the U.S. Supreme Court, are "bizarrely grotesque," according to the chief counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. And the warning from ADF Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull notes that the case could result in U.S. laws being subjugated to U.N. resolutions and rules to the point that local police officers will have to spend more time studying international law than catching criminals. "The notion that an international body can Mirandize the right of an illegal immigrant to call a consulate, so that if the local police trip up and...

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...

Recent violence in Sao Paulo may just be the tip of the iceberg: Many parts of Brazil and indeed across Latin America, governments have capitulated to gangsters, and the rise of organized crime could end the recent leftward shift across Latin America. Garbage containers block the road into slum district Vigario Geral, one of the most dangerous favelas in Rio de Janeiro. A visitor approaches the barricade, two youths appear from the shadow of a nearby building. They're carrying machine guns, and handguns are tucked into their pants. "You want to go to church, right?" the older of the two...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court Monday turned aside an appeal by a Mexican citizen on death row in Texas. In an unsigned decision, justices dismissed the case brought by Jose Medellin that had drawn worldwide interest. Medellin was one of five gang members sentenced to death for raping and murdering two Houston girls in 1993. The victims were 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman and 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena. His attorneys said Medellin and 51 other Mexican death row inmates' rights under international law were violated when they were denied legal help from their consulates. The justices cited a last-minute maneuver by President...

Prompted by an international tribunal's decision last year ordering new hearings for 51 Mexicans on death rows in the United States, the State Department said yesterday that the United States had withdrawn from the protocol that gave the tribunal jurisdiction to hear such disputes. The withdrawal followed a Feb. 28 memorandum from President Bush to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales directing state courts to abide by the decision of the tribunal, the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The decision required American courts to grant "review and reconsideration" to claims that the inmates' cases had been hurt by the...

Jose Ernesto Medellin was 18 when, while participating in an initiation for the "Black and Whites" street gang in Houston, he was among those who raped and killed two teenage girls in a particular heinous way, a jury found. In a petition to the Supreme Court, Medellin's court-appointed lawyers contend he told arresting officers he was born in Laredo, Mexico, and was not a U.S. citizen. Nevertheless, the International Court of Justice found, he was not told of his right to contact the Mexican consul, who could have offered translation as well as legal help. Convicted and sentenced to death,...

<p>WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The U.S. Supreme Court invited world opinion into its consideration of capital punishment Friday, accepting the case of a Mexican national sentenced to death in Texas for his part in the rape and murder of two teenage girls.</p>

Ex-Colombian druglord found guilty of conspiracy By JAY WEAVER jweaver@herald.com A jury convicted legendary drug cartel boss Fabio Ochoa Wednesday afternoon of running a 30-ton-a-month cocaine smuggling network during the late 1990s.Clad in a blue blazer blazer, Ochoa dropped to his knees and made the sign of the cross after the jury convicted him. Ochoa, who once ran the Medellin cartel, remained on bended knee while his lawyer Roy Black polled jurors.The conviction is a major score for federal prosecutors because Ochoa is one of the most prominent smugglers to face trial in this country since the U.S. and Colombia...