| | |  Editorials | Issues | August 2008 
USA: Texas Execution Violates International Law
 Amnesty International UK
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| | This handout photo received in March 2008 courtesy of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) in Austin shows death row inmate Jose Medellin, who has been executed in Texas. (AFP/TDCJ-HO) | | |
The execution of José Ernesto Medellín Rojas by the state of Texas is a violation of international law, said Amnesty International today. "It undermines the authority of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which had ruled in favour of a stay of execution."
One of the US Supreme Court Justices, hearing the last-minute appeal for a stay of execution yesterday, said that to allow the execution to go forward would leave the USA 'irremediably in violation of international law and break our treaty promises'. The appeal was lost by five votes to four and the execution took place shortly afterwards.
It followed worldwide appeals for Medellín's death sentence to be commuted, including from the United Nations Secretary-General, who had called on states to respect the decisions and orders of the International Court of Justice.
This is the 1,116th execution in the USA since judicial killing resumed there in 1977.
Texas accounts for 410 of them. There have now been 17 executions in the USA this year, five of them in Texas.
Amnesty International unconditionally opposes the use of the death penalty in all cases and under any circumstances, since it violates the right to life and by its very nature constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
Background
On 4 August 2008 the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously voted against recommending that the state governor commute the death sentence or a grant a reprieve. A last-minute appeal to the US Supreme Court on 5 August 2008 was unsuccessful. Shortly afterwards, the execution was carried out, just before 10pm, about fours later than it had been scheduled.
On 16 July 2008 the ICJ ordered the United States 'to take all measures necessary' to ensure that José Ernesto Medellín Rojas and 4 other Mexicans were 'not executed... unless and until these five Mexican nationals receive review and reconsideration.' The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has also issued 'precautionary measures' calling on Texas not to execute José Medellín until the Commission has ruled on his petition asserting that he was deprived of a fair trial.
On 25 March 2008, in Medellín v. Texas, the Supreme Court unanimously found that the ICJ's decision 'constitutes an international law obligation on the part of the United States.'
José Medellín was sentenced to death in 1994 for his part in the murders of two girls, 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman and 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena, in Houston in 1993. José Medellín was never advised by Texas authorities of his right as a detained foreign national to seek consular assistance, as required under article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR).
Amnesty International's Urgent Action, issued in July 2008, resulted in hundreds of people sending appeals to Texas from around the world, see: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/081/2008/en
Mexican National Executed in Texas
Amnesty International UK
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A Mexican national who was not informed of his right to consular assistance after his arrest, was executed in Texas on Tuesday 5 August.
José Medellín was put to death in violation of the USA’s international legal obligations and despite worldwide appeals for the execution to be stopped, including one from the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon.
A last-minute appeal to the US Supreme Court was also unsuccessful, with the Court ruling 5-4 against a stay. The execution went ahead at around 10pm, about four hours later than scheduled.
One of the Justices dissenting from the refusal to stop the execution wrote that to allow it to go forward would leave the USA “irremediably in violation of international law and break our treaty promises”.
"The execution of José Ernesto Medellín Rojas by the state of Texas is a violation of international law," said Rob Freer, Amnesty International's researcher on USA. "It undermines the authority of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which had ruled in favour of a stay of execution."
José Medellín was sentenced to death in 1994 for his part in the murders of two girls, 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman and 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena, in Houston in 1993.
Medellín was never advised by Texas authorities of his right as a detained foreign national to seek consular assistance, as required under article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR).
Because of this treaty violation, Medellín was deprived of the extensive assistance that Mexico provides for the defence of its citizens facing capital charges in the USA.
The Mexican Consulate did not learn about the case until nearly four years after Medellín’s arrest. By this time, his trial and the initial appeal affirming his conviction and death sentence had already concluded.
On 4 August 2008, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously voted against recommending that the state governor commute the death sentence or grant a reprieve.
Governor Rick Perry was left with the option of granting a 30-day stay of execution, and calling on the Board to reconsider, to comply with a recent ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). He refused to do so.
The ICJ had ruled in 2004 that the USA violated its VCCR obligations in the cases of José Medellín and 50 other Mexican nationals on death row in the USA. The ICJ ordered the USA to provide judicial “review and reconsideration” of the convictions and sentences, to determine if the defendants had been prejudiced by the VCCR violations.
In March this year, the US Supreme Court found that the ICJ’s decision “constitutes an international law obligation on the part of the United States.” However, a 6-3 majority ruled that the ICJ’s decision “is not automatically binding domestic law” and that the authority for implementing it rested with the US Congress.
Efforts within Congress to pass implementing legislation stalled, but Texas pursued the execution date it had set for José Medellín’s execution. The ICJ ordered the US government to "take all measures necessary" to halt his execution.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was among those who appealed for the execution to be stopped: “All decisions and orders of the International Court of Justice must be respected by states”, he is reported as saying on television in Mexico City, where he was attending an AIDS conference.
The Government of Mexico issued a statement after the execution, which it said had been carried out “in clear contempt” of the ICJ order.
The statement continued: “The Government of Mexico sent the US Department of State a diplomatic note of protest for this violation of international law, expressing its concern for the precedent that it may create for the rights of Mexican nationals who may be detained in that country.
“The Ministry of Foreign Relations reiterates that the importance of this case fundamentally stems from the respect to the right to consular access and protection provided by consulates of every State to each of its nationals abroad”. |
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