SubscribeTexas Defies UN, Executes Rapist Murderer
From an outraged Reuters:
The Peace Palace in The Hague, the home of the International Court of Justice (World Court), is seen in this exterior view August 24, 1998.
Texas defies World Court with execution
Wed Aug 6, 2008
By Ed Stoddard
DALLAS (Reuters) - Texas defied the World Court and executed a Mexican national by lethal injection on Tuesday over the objections of the international judicial body and neighboring Mexico.
Jose Medellin, 33, was pronounced dead at 9:57 p.m. CDT in the state’s death chamber in Huntsville, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.
He had been condemned for the 1993 rape and murder of 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena in Houston and lost his bid late Tuesday for a last-minute stay from the U.S. Supreme Court.
The World Court last month ordered the U.S. government to “take all measures necessary” to halt the upcoming executions of five Mexicans including Medellin’s on the grounds that they had been deprived of their right to consular services after their arrests.
Medellin’s execution is sure to anger neighboring Mexico and analysts have said it could make life rough for Americans arrested abroad if other countries decide to evoke the U.S. example and deprive them of their right to consular services…
The World Court’s jurisdiction also does not reach Texas, a state where authorities generally don’t like outsiders telling them what to do.
The political fall-out from the Medellin and related cases has reached the White House and the U.S. Supreme Court.
U.S. President George W. Bush directed his native Texas to comply with a World Court ruling in 2004 mandating review of the cases of Medellin and other Mexicans in U.S. prisons awaiting execution. The U.S. Supreme Court said in March Bush’s action had exceeded his authority.
The government of Mexico sent the U.S. State Department a diplomatic note of protest, expressing “its concern for the precedent” that the case “may create for the rights of Mexican nationals who may be detained in that country.” …
The June 1993 crime for which Medellin was condemned was chilling. According to the Texas Attorney General’s office, Pena and her 14-year-old companion, Jennifer Ertman, were walking home when they encountered a gang initiation.
Medellin and his fellow gang members sexually assaulted, beat and strangled the two girls. When their badly decomposed bodies were finally recovered, they could only be identified by dental records. Medellin was only convicted of Pena’s murder.
Speaking to Reuters in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, Medellin’s aunt Reyna Armendariz, 45, said:
“He was a normal, happy kid … They don’t have the right to take his life away, we acknowledged that he committed a crime but make him pay with a life sentence,” she said…
Would you believe that this would have ever been a news item?
Still, hooray for Texas.
Of course it is bad enough that President Bush told them to comply with the World Court’s request.
But they would probably be punished by President Obama.
(Of course our news maven BillK had already posted about this in the ‘other news’ section. But such heroic independence deserves its own thread.)
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21 Responses to “Texas Defies UN, Executes Rapist Murderer”
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August 6th, 2008 at 7:44 am
“analysts have said it could make life rough for Americans arrested abroad”
Americans arrested abroad are treated horribly. They have zero rights, they are jailed under abysmal conditions, they are denied any kind of decent treatment, and almost all of the time, the trial is conducted in the language of the country they were arrested in, no translation, no special effort for the accused at all.
NOT HERE!! So that accusation is lame….our citizens are not prone to any worse treatment, and that murdering thug got what he deserved. Too bad we dont do the same at Guantanamo Bay……I dont believe muslims treat our captured with any regard to their rights, or their lives.
August 6th, 2008 at 11:41 am
A normal, happy kid! Wee! Oh, who just happened to rape and kill someone…
Too bad they used a lethal injection. Call me old fashioned, but I preferred regular or extra-crispy.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
“analysts have said it could make life rough for Americans arrested abroad”
Who are these analysts? Here’s my analysis: The death penalty may or may not deter rape and murder, but it’s definitely effective at reducing the number of rapist-murderers in our society. Frankly, if an American traveling aboard is guilty of rape and murder, I would hope he would find the same justice.
“The World Court last month ordered the U.S. government….”
Who appointed these people and where do they live? Are these the same folks who gave us the Kofi Anin?
“…on the grounds that they had been deprived of their right to consular services after their arrests.”
I assume this is a reference to some sort of legal process, like applying for a visa and work permit before entering the United States. Although he was just “visiting”, he had already joined a street gang.
“The World Court’s jurisdiction also does not reach Texas”
No kidding!
“…a state where authorities generally don’t like outsiders telling them what to do.”
And what sovereign nation does?
“The political fall-out from the Medellin and related cases has reached the White House and the U.S. Supreme Court.”
You’d think the Mexicans would be supportive in a case where a Mexican-American girl was raped and murdered. This is the real point of the story — the perpetrator and the victim were both of Mexican decent, yet we are supposed to be sympathetic to the criminal. What about the young girl’s family?!
How would the MSM spin a story where a young Mexican girl “who had come the US to earn money to send to her poor relatives back home” was viciously raped and murdered as part of an American street gang initiation?
August 6th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
God Bless Texas!
August 6th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
You can blame this whole dustup on the fact that Houston is a sanctuary city. When Medellin was arrested, the HPD was not allowed to ask him his nationality and Medellin, who had attended Texas schools and spoke very fluent English, never volunteered the fact he was foreign born. Nor did he request Mexican council, which his attorneys (that taxpayers paid for) should have advised him was his right. Nor did he request Mexican council after he was found guilty and given the death sentence. It was only four years after his conviction, and after the conviction has been uphelp in the appelate court, that he contacted the Mexican government on his own.
This slug never expressed any remorse for what he did. But the Mexican government, once again, tried to usurp our soverignty laws by insisting that Medellin be given a life sentence and THEN TURNED OVER TO THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT SO HE COULD BE INCARERATED IN A MEXICAN JAIL.
Mexico said the death sentence violated treaty agreements (a treaty signed by Jimmy Carter). But it seems that the Mexican government doesn’t have any problems with the act of war created by their military when they cross our borders helping drug runners.
http://washingtontimes.com/new.....s-to-agent
August 6th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I am so glad that TX did not back down. Medellin came (actually I would probably say was brought) to America when he was 3 years old - I suspect that he kept his illegal alien status quiet at arrest he feared that he’d be deported (can’t have that, leave the American prisons where he’d get fed, cable tv and probably set free long before his sentence was over) and only mentioned it after the fact - hoping (I think some legal mind helped him here) that he’d get 1) a new trial or 2) deported - either one infinately better than dead.
-’The death penalty may or may not deter rape and murder, but it’s definitely effective at reducing the number of rapist-murderers in our society’- and TX learned it’s lesson with Kenneth McDuff - who should be the poster child as to the failures of letting killers live - no matter what the reason(ing) presented - I don’t think that they’d let another one loose for a long, long time.
August 6th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
“U.S. President George W. Bush directed his native Texas to comply with a World Court ruling in 2004 mandating review of the cases of Medellin and other Mexicans in U.S. prisons awaiting execution. The U.S. Supreme Court said in March Bush’s action had exceeded his authority.”
Don’t you think that this was a set-up to get the Scotus to rule on this, ie the President (read: future presidents) cannot use the World Court to dictate to the United States?
August 6th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
“What do you want us to do?! Hang ‘em in a barn as if we’re ashamed of hangin’?!”
The Honorable Judge Roy Bean
Check out this clip - especially the last 10 seconds (God I love YouTube).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxqWN9×4mwg
August 6th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
The World Court has no standing in Texas.To defy the World Court Texas would have to openly challenge its authority, and it has no authority. I know President Bush directed Texas to comply with the World Court’s ruling. When Mr. Bush enforces the US laws on immigration maybe we can talk.
August 6th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Remember that Bush is a Compassionate Conservative.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
The upside of the World Court getting involved is the exposure this gives to “our policy” (as Ron White would say) here in TX.
Let the normal, happy kids of the whole world take notice and take their evil elsewhere.
August 7th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Why, if I was Mexico, I would shut down the border and not allow my citizens to enter the U.S.
August 7th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Personally I’d support giving him a life sentence with a couple of conditions:
1) He can only be fed by his family or other benefactor out of their own pocket
2) Should a prison overcrowding situation arise, the inmate(s) incarcerated for the greatest length of time will be shot immediately to make space for the newcomer(s).
August 7th, 2008 at 7:00 am
“Texas defies World Court…..the international judicial body….The World Court last month ordered the U.S. government….Texas authorities generally don’t like outsiders telling them what to do…diplomatic note of protest, expressing ‘its concern for the precedent’ that the case ‘may create for the rights of Mexican nationals who may be detained in that country.’”
These quotes from the story make my blood boil. Also, I hope this does set a precedent. If we would never have gotten soft on the criminals coming across our borders in the first place, the world court would know to shut up and keep it’s nose out of our business. The softer we become, the more our sovereignty slips away.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Our nationals got cained rightfully in south east asia a while back for breaking vandalism laws in a foreign country.
When did it become passe for criminals to be punished by local standards? God Bless the great Country of Texas. More states need to be like them and like the U.S. used to be….I might end up there before I give up on the U.S. They got a good firm tack on how stuff should be. Don’t quite get Bush’s love affair w/ Mexico.
August 7th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
And next on the list? Illegal Honduran, Heliberto Chi.
Scheduled to have to explain to the Devil tonight.
http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/chiheliberto.htm
August 7th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
retire05 -
The Dept. of Criminal Justice site has a small typo when you pull up Heliberto Chi. They (inadvertently?) call him ‘Chit’ in the Summary of charges. I wonder if that was a Freudian slip on the part of Texas’ DCJ…
August 7th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Arctain, I don’t really care what the state calls him. What I care about is what the state does to him. Like put him in a pine box and call his family and tell them to come and get him. If the family doesn’t want him, bury the slug in an unmarkd grave in some out of the way cemetary.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:05 am
retire05,
I love that Scheduled Executions page.
August 8th, 2008 at 4:01 am
DamnSkippy,
I forgot to mention, did you forget the outpouring of concern by President Clinton and all of the other bleeding hearts for that little punk Fay who got caned? They actually got the number of “lashes” reduced from 6 to 4. Singapore should have added 6 extra “lashes” just for the hell of it after that BS.
August 8th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Texas just went two for two.
Nice job.