State of Texas Delayed Execution of Mexican Citizen By Only A Few Hours

Tonight the state of Texas executed Mexican defendant, Jose Ernesto Medellin Rojas, in open defiance of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), appeals by the Administration of President George W. Bush, and a petition by the Secretary of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.

The defendant was declared dead at 9:57 p.m. His last words asked forgiveness from the families of the two young women in whose rape and murder he participated.

The Mexican government sent a protest to the U.S. State Department. It said that the execution was a violation of international law, as on July 16 of last year, the ICJ urged Texas to stay the execution pending a review of Medellin’s sentence, just as the international tribunal has ordered in rulings on the Avena case since 2004, as well as those of other Mexican nationals who, without access to the consular assistance referred to in the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, have been sentenced to die.

The execution of Medellin by lethal injection was delayed nearly four hours after the originally scheduled time because the defense filed a last-minute appeal for a stay before the U.S. Supreme Court, which was ultimately rejected.

As a last resort, the legal team sought to postpone the execution until Congress has time to reform the laws on complying with the Vienna Convention.

Medellin, 33, said he was refused access to the Mexican Consulate when he was arrested for the rape and murder of the two Houston teenagers 15 years ago. After a lengthy judicial process before the ICJ, Mexico succeeded in getting the international body to petition the U.S. government for a review of all the cases, since it was found that the right to consular assistance, mandated by international protocols, was violated.

Nevertheless, the U.S. court decided that the State of Texas was not required to abide by the ICJ petition, ignoring appeals by both the Bush Administration and the U.N. Secretary General, who from Mexico – where he was attending the International Conference on HIV/AIDS – said that the U.S. “must obey the orders of the international court.”

Medellin, sentenced to death in 1994 for his participation in the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Elizabeth Pena, 16, and Jennifer Ertman, 14, on Tuesday met his parents and one of his grandmothers from behind a glass partition that prevented all physical contact.

In protest, the Mexican government also expressed concern for the precedent that this execution could establish in regards to the rights of co-nationals detained in the United States.

The chancery noted having exhausted all available legal remedies, domestic and international, as well as seeking a retrial, in light of the lack of consular notification.

Medelllin’s execution took place after a divided Supreme Court rejected his latest appeal.

Several dozen protesters, almost equally divided between opponents and supporters, demonstrated outside the facility where the execution took place.