Tamayo and Due Process

Yesterday, Edgar Tamayo, a Mexican sentenced to the death penalty in Texas for killing a policeman in 1994, was executed by lethal injection. The outcome of the trial — on which diplomatic pressure had no effect — should not change Mexico’s stance on the issue: demanding that all citizens have an adequate judicial process because it determines the result of the trial.

Despite being scheduled for 6 p.m. yesterday, a last-minute appeal got the United States Supreme Court to evaluate the defense’s arguments, previously presented before other courts — that Tamayo was denied assistance from the Mexican consulate and that the defendant had mental disabilities. Nevertheless, his last legal petition was denied yesterday.

Beyond the nationality of the condemned, it is important to demand the observation of due process from all countries. Mexico itself has made an effort in this sense in recent years, after cases were discovered where the defendants did not even have the right to present evidence in their favor.

You do not have to go far to demonstrate how important a meticulous legal proceeding is. In the past few years, Mexico has had to reverse many sentences for such abominations as obtaining testimony through torture or altering crime scenes. These are typical methods used in the Mexican attorney general’s office, with the goal of finding the defendants guilty at any cost.

In this case, the U.S. government shows us the best demonstration of the importance of due process, as it is not in its interest to execute Tamayo. President Barack Obama’s administration requested that the state of Texas postpone the lethal injection, but without success. The administration knows the possible consequences for its citizens abroad.

We should remember that that the International Court of Justice judged that the country had violated the rights to access consular assistance of several Mexicans, among those Tamayo, who were sentenced to death. Continuing with the execution will give other countries reason to apply similar sentences to U.S. citizens, who also were not granted access consular assistance during their trials.

The debate surrounding the Tamayo case is not whether the Mexican man was guilty of the crime for which he was sentenced, but about the atrocity of dismissing the importance of due process in spite of his evident transgressions. It is a principle of justice that should be defended in every part of the world.