jose medellin

WASHINGTON � The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case Wednesday in which the Bush administration will seek to overturn the death penalty of a convicted rapist-murderer at the behest of the International Court of Justice.

Jose Medellin confessed in 1993 to participating in the rape and murder of two Houston teenagers. Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena were sodomized and strangled with their shoe laces. Medellin bragged about keeping one girl's Mickey Mouse watch as a souvenir of the crime.

Medellin and four others were convicted of capital murder and sent to Texas' death row. A juvenile court sentenced Medellin's younger brother, who was 14 at the time, to 40 years in prison.

The intervention in the case by the Bush administration comes after the International Court of Justice found Medellin was not informed of his right to contact the Mexican Consulate for legal assistance.

That, according to the Hague, was a violation of a 1963 treaty known as the Vienna Convention.

It's sad that we go out of our way to observe the rights of Medellin, while forgetting that he more than denied his victims any kind of rights while they were gang raped for an hour before they were killed.

How many more Americans need be victimized by criminals just so the Mexican government can enjoy the social safety valve called the US-Mexico border? They just send us their poor, their undesirables; our people are robbed, raped, murdered, killed by drunk drivers, and our taxes are sucked up by people who now expect and demand we support them.

Enough of the technicalities. Get em' outta here.
President George Bush is trying to stop a scheduled state execution.

He's asking Texas officials to not execute Jose Ernesto Medellin, a Mexican-native on Texas death row for the rape and murder of two teenagers back in 1993.

The president points to a ruling from the International Court of Justice, saying the convictions of the 51 Mexicans on death row violates the right for them to get legal help from their own country.

This week, the Supreme Court will look at the case.
AUSTIN ― The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday halted today's scheduled execution of a Honduran man and asked the state prison system to respond to questions about whether lethal injection is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.

The state's highest criminal court acted after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 4-3 to reject a six-month stay for Heliberto Chi, 28, who was convicted in the 2001 slaying of an Arlington store clerk.

On Sept. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to review a Kentucky appeal claiming the three-chemical combination that's also used in Texas executions causes unnecessary pain shortly before death.

"I was really hoping we would get the stay from the state court and not have to go knock on the Supreme Court's door again," Chi's attorney in Houston, longtime death penalty opponent David Dow, said.

The high court allowed Texas to proceed with an execution the night it agreed to hear the Kentucky case, but on Thursday justices stayed the injection of Dallas County killer Carlton Turner Jr., who appealed on similar grounds.

The Turner stay might have gotten the Texas appeals court's attention, Dow said.

"I think the Supreme Court has exhibited ... legitimate and serious concerns about the constitutionality of the lethal injection protocol most states are using," Dow said.


Tarrant County case
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice and Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry ― whose office prosecuted Chi ― have a month to "address the question of whether the current method of administering lethal injection in Texas constitutes cruel and unusual punishment such that the (TDCJ) would violate the Eighth Amendment," the order states.


The attorney general's office would respond on behalf of Nathaniel Quarterman, the director of TDCJ's Institutional Division, agency spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said.

Lyons added the prison system's long-standing position is that lethal injection "is constitutional and does not cause unwanton or unnecessary pain."

The next Texas execution is scheduled for Nov. 27, when convicted Arlington rapist-killer Dale Scheanette is set to die.

David Montague, staff attorney with the Tarrant County district attorney's office, which also is handling the Scheanette case, said Curry will continue to pursue death cases normally and that it's not entirely clear the Supreme Court has imposed a de facto temporary moratorium on lethal injection.

"I think I'd be very cautious about reading any more into what they're doing," he said.

Chi's Arlington lawyer, Wes Ball, said he believes the stay is not likely to be lifted until after the Supreme Court decides the Kentucky case and expects Scheanette will earn a similar victory.

Chi's attorneys also are arguing he was not provided proper access to Honduran consular officials after his arrest, as prescribed by international treaty.

Earlier, Nueces County District Attorney Carlos Valdez said his office would not seek the death penalty until the Supreme Court sorts out the legality of lethal injection.

"We're going to waive the death penalty until the Supreme Court gives us some direction," he said Tuesday.

Valdez said he will not interfere in the cases of the four Nueces County killers already on death row.

An informal survey Tuesday of district attorneys in some of Texas' largest counties, including Harris, indicated Valdez might be alone in his decision.


Dallas execution date
While Dallas County will continue prosecuting death cases as usual, District Attorney Craig Watkins said his office will wait until the injection matter is resolved before seeking an execution date for an already-condemned inmate.


The next scheduled Dallas County execution is in February. No Harris County inmate currently has an execution scheduled, according to TDCJ.

Jefferson County District Attorney Tom Maness in Beaumont, who plans to keep operating as usual, said an appellate court climate that has recently given victories to capital punishment foes demands that prosecutors be choosier about when to seek the death penalty.

"I think it causes us to be more selective," Maness said, referring to recent abolitions on the death penalty for juveniles and the retarded. "It's hard to try one of these, so before we go spending monetary and (prosecutors') mental resources, we're going to make sure the case is absolutely, unequivocally deserving."

Mark Babineck reported from Houston.