Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Texas insists: Geneva who?

Texas won't halt Jose Ernesto Medellin's execution scheduled Aug. 5, overlooking today's International Court of Justice call to review his case and those of other four Mexican citizens awaiting death penalties, The Houston Chronicle reports today.

"The petition sought to halt executions to allow for review of the killers' cases to determine whether denying them access to the Mexican Consulate after arrest harmed their trial defenses", wrote Chronicle reporters Allan Turner and Rossana Ruiz.

Couple of paragraphs below, the story quotes Texas Governor Rick Perry's spokesperson, giving us some light about how deeply is the state's consideration--and knowledge--on international treaties:

' "The world court has no standing in Texas and Texas is not bound by a ruling or edict from a foreign court," Perry spokesman Robert Black said.

"It is easy to get caught up in discussions of international law and justice and treaties. It's very important to remember that these individuals are on death row for killing our citizens." '

As we said before, if you get in trouble with the law overseas, remember this at all times: you're entitled to contact your Consulate. Law Enforcement authorities of all nations that ratified the Geneva Convention must facilitate foreign citizens to stablish contact with consular authorities of their country of origin and receive legal support from them.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Please note that the Geneva Convention has nothing to do in the Medellin´s case since Mexico and the USA are not in a state of war or armed conflict. It was apparently a mistake that appeared in the Houston Chronicle´s front page. The Vienna Convention is the one related to the case.