DP in Texas

Mexican Man's Fate Has Implications In U.S. and Abroad


By ASHBY JONES
August 1, 2008; Page A4
Tuesday, the state of Texas is scheduled to execute José Medellín, a
Mexican national who in 1994 was convicted of participating in the
rape and murder of two teenagers in Houston.

Mexican José Medellín's execution in Texas, scheduled to take place
Tuesday, may have consequences for Americans jailed abroad.
Between now and then, Mr. Medellín's lawyers will be filing 11th-hour
legal motions seeking to save their client. A spate of others will be
paying attention too, hoping Texas holds off. Among them: members of
Congress, the Mexican government, the International Court of Justice
and the Bush Administration.

The Medellín case has become about more than whether a Mexican
national is executed. To some, the case highlights the enduring
strength of the U.S.'s federalist system; that states do not have to
yield to interpretations of law made by foreign courts. To others,
the case represents a chance for the U.S. to burnish its credibility
in the international community or, alternatively, to risk the
diminution of its citizens' rights overseas. To others still, the
case is a referendum on the death penalty.

The controversy goes back five years. In 2003, years after Mr.
Medellín's crime, Mexico filed a lawsuit with the International Court
of Justice on behalf of Mr. Medellín and 53 other Mexican nationals
on death row in the U.S. Mexico argued the U.S. had failed to notify
the nationals that they were allowed to reach out to a Mexican
consulate, a right guaranteed them by a multinational treaty called
the Vienna Convention.

The following year, the ICJ, the court that hears disputes involving
international treaties, ordered the U.S. to hold a judicial hearing
for nearly all of the nationals over whether the violations had
compromised their trials. In a move that surprised many, the Bush
administration backed the ruling and ordered the states to hold
hearings.

The administration cited the need to ensure that the Vienna
Convention's safeguards, like so-called consular notification, would
continue to apply reciprocally to U.S. citizens abroad. "If the U.S.
stops doing something, it makes it much easier for the rest of the
world to stop doing it, as well," a State Department official said
about the decision.

Reciprocal treatment is a legitimate concern, said Lucy Reed,
president of the American Society for International Law, a nonprofit
organization that promotes the study and use of international law.
"Why doesn't Texas give [him] the hearing and ensure that U.S.
consulates get word of the poor American stuck in a foreign jail for
a trumped-up drug-mule charge?" she said.

Texas courts, however, shot down President Bush's order, ruling that
the administration was powerless to force the state to follow an ICJ
ruling. In March of this year, the Supreme Court ruled that Texas
rulings were right, that the instruction had to come from Congress,
not the president.

To many, the ruling made sense. Julian Ku, an international- law
specialist at Hofstra University in New York, said it would be a
dangerous precedent to allow an international court to tell a state
how to manage its criminal law and procedures without first getting
the approval of federal lawmakers.

In July, Congress introduced legislation to enforce the ruling on the
states, but it is unlikely to come to a vote before Mr. Medellín's
execution date.

Texas has the power to end the flap, at least in the short term, by
postponing the execution and providing Mr. Medellín "review and
reconsideration, " as ordered by the ICJ. Yielding to the ICJ wouldn't
be unprecedented. In May 2004, shortly after the ICJ's ruling,
Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry commuted a convicted murderer's death
sentence to life without the possibility of parole, stressing that
the Vienna Convention is "important in protecting the rights of
American citizens abroad."

Texas isn't inclined to take Oklahoma's lead. "Mr. Medellín gang-
raped and murdered two teenagers," said Allison Castle, a spokeswoman
for Gov. Rick Perry. "We welcome foreign visitors, but for those who
come here with the intent to do harm, there are going to be
consequences. "

To Ed Swaine, a law professor at George Washington University in
Washington, an execution Tuesday would reverberate throughout the
international- law community. "It will diminish the ICJ's credibility
and lessen the incentive for countries to bring cases to the ICJ in
the first place," he says. "This will be a very big deal."