Texas executes Mexican citizen despite U.S. pleas

[aGameOfThrones]

(Reuters) - Texas executed a Mexican national on Thursday over objections from President Barack

Obama's administration that the action would violate international treaty obligations and put U.S. citizens abroad at risk.

In a case that garnered international attention, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-minute stay of execution on the grounds that Humberto Leal Garcia was not told of his right to diplomatic counsel when arrested.

Leal Garcia, 38, was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. CDT (7:21 p.m. EDT) after he was given a lethal injection at a prison in Huntsville, Texas.

Leal Garcia, who had lived in the United States since he was an infant, was convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl and bludgeoning her to death with a piece of asphalt in 1994.

In a last statement provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Leal Garcia apologized to the victim's family and asked for their forgiveness.

"I truly am sorry. That is all. Let's get this show on the road," Leal Garcia said, according to the transcript. "One more thing, Viva Mexico, Viva Mexico."


In legal briefs filed before the Supreme Court, the U.S. government had warned that the execution would create an "irreparable breach" of international law, and Mexico's government said it would "seriously jeopardize" cross-border cooperation on joint ventures and extraditions.

The Obama administration had sought a temporary stay until January 2012 to allow Congress to weigh legislation that could clarify the rights of foreigners to consular access.

Without new guidance from Congress, the state of Texas is not obliged to honor the treaty after the Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that states don't have to act absent federal law.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/08/us-execution-texas-idUSTRE7667FG20110708

Yeah, but you're too afraid to stand up to the federal government over the TSA.

[specsaregood]

Uhm, could not Obama have given him a stay of execution? I would think if a president can pardon people they can give a stay of execution, no?

[oyarde]

Uhm, could not Obama have given him a stay of execution? I would think if a president can pardon people they can give a stay of execution, no?

I do not think so , I think congress would have to pass a law to allow anyone other than the state gov to do that , I think that law would be UnConstitutional . From a legal standpoint , they are entitled to the execution , best I can tell.

[specsaregood]

I do not think so , I think congress would have to pass a law to allow anyone other than the state gov to do that , I think that law would be UnConstitutional . From a legal standpoint , they are entitled to the execution , best I can tell.

Well it seems Taft did it in Alaska, but alaska was a territory not a state at the time.

http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13275632211980039055&hl=en&as_sdt=20000000002&as_vis=1


BIDDLE, WARDEN, v. PEROVICH.

MR. JUSTICE HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has certified questions of law to this Court upon facts of which we give an abridged statement. Perovich was convicted in Alaska of murder; the verdict being that he was `guilty of murder in the first degree and that he suffer death.' On September 15, 1905, he was sentenced to be hanged; and the judgment was affirmed by this Court. 205 U.S. 86. Respites were granted from time to time, and on June 5, 1909, President Taft executed a document by which he purported to "commute the sentence of the said Vuco Perovich . . to imprisonment for life in a penitentiary to be designated by the Attorney General of the United States." Thereupon Perovich was transferred from jail in Alaska to a penitentiary in Washington, and, some years later, to one in Leavenworth, Kansas. In November, 1918, Perovich, reciting that his sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment, applied for a pardon — and did the same thing again on December 10, 1921. On February 20, 1925, he filed in the District Court for the District of Kansas an application for a writ of habeas corpus, on the ground that his removal from jail to a penitentiary, and the order of the President, were without his consent and without legal authority. The District Judge adopted this view and thereupon ordered the prisoner to be set at large. We pass over the difficulties in the way of this conclusion and confine ourselves to the questions proposed. 486*486 The first is: "Did the President have authority to commute the sentence of Perovich from death to life imprisonment?"

Both sides agree that the act of the President was properly styled a commutation of sentence, but the counsel of Perovich urge that when the attempt is to commute a punishment to one of a different sort it cannot be done without the convict's consent...

[RonPaulFanInGA]

Uhm, could not Obama have given him a stay of execution? I would think if a president can pardon people they can give a stay of execution, no?

It was a state crime handled by Texas. Presidential pardons are exclusively for federal crimes.

[specsaregood]

It was a state crime handled by Texas. Presidential pardons are exclusively for federal crimes.

You are correct it seems:
http://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardon_instructions.htm


2. Federal convictions only

Under the Constitution, only federal criminal convictions, such as those adjudicated in the United States District Courts, may be pardoned by the President. In addition, the President's pardon power extends to convictions adjudicated in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and military court-martial proceedings. However, the President cannot pardon a state criminal offense. Accordingly, if you are seeking clemency for a state criminal conviction, you should not complete and submit this petition. Instead, you should contact the Governor or other appropriate authorities of the state where you reside or where the conviction occurred (such as the state board of pardons and paroles) to determine whether any relief is available to you under state law. If you have a federal conviction, information about the conviction may be obtained from the clerk of the federal court where you were convicted.


Not funny how the only instance of the federal govt not overruling states has to do with the states' right to imprison or kill people.