Last week the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that international court decisions cannot be forced upon the states. Specifically, that Texas could execute Mexican national Jose Medellin.
On the back of that case (and probably because of that decision), SCOTUS declined to hear the appeals of seven other Mexican-born prisoners condemned to die in Texas.
Those men are:
- Felix Rocha — 31-year old man convicted of shooting a security guard in a Houston apartment complex in 1994
- Virgilio Maldonado — 42-year old man convicted of shooting a man three times in the back of the head during a 1995 Houston drug robbery.
- Ignacio Gomez — 38, convicted of shooting three teenage boys and burying them in desert sand dunes outside El Paso in 1996.
- Humberto Leal — 35, convicted of abducting a San Antonio female, raping her and crushing her head with a 35-pound chunk of asphalt in 1994.
- Ruben Cardenas — 37, convicted of raping and strangling a teenager in Hidalgo County in 1997.
- Robert Ramos — 53, convicted of killing of his wife and two children at their home in Progreso in 1992, then burying them beneath the bathroom floor.
- Cesar Fierro — 51, who was convicted of robbing and killing an El Paso taxi driver in 1979.
Of course, those who think that our country should allow foreign law to dictate our laws are upset by the courts decision:
Steiker and others, including state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, warned that the court’s decisions regarding the Mexican inmates could undermine the rights of American citizens traveling abroad.
“Showing regard for the foreign nationals in the United States under our treaty obligations serves to protect American citizens by ensuring that any detention is followed by contact with a local United States consulate so that legal assistance and other moral support can be provided,” said Ellis, who sits on the state Senate criminal justice committee. “The Supreme Court’s decision makes those kinds of assurances harder to establish.”
Frankly, if US citizens go to foreign countries, to include Mexico, and rape and kill their citizens in the same manner that these Mexican citizens did here in the US, I could give a damn how their prosecuted and punished over there.
In fact, I hope it’s severe.
Thankfully, Gov. Rick Perry gets it:
“Foreign courts have no jurisdiction in Texas,” said Krista Piferrer. “The governor believes that justice has been and will be served for these individuals who committed atrocious crimes.”
Excellent!
Let the treaties work for federal crimes, but our states can handle our own criminal problems without interference from anyone, thank you very much.
Left by no2liberals on April 1st, 2008 at 4:39 am