When I read that my fair state executed convicted rapist and murderer Jose Medelin, I nearly let out a great big ol' "Yee haw!" Instead, I grabbed my boots and hat and took my rifle out to the back 40 for some target practice. Then I rode my horse, roped some cattle, and checked on how my oil wells were doing.
Well, ok, maybe I didn't do any of that. But I did find it satisfactory that yet another rapist and murderer won't have the opportunity to rape and murder anyone else. Who says capital punishment doesn't deter crime?
Over the last five days, Mr. Medellín’s lawyers tried to stop the execution by arguing to the Supreme Court that it should be put off until Congress had a chance to pass pending legislation that would require a review of similar cases. They argued that Mr. Medellín would be deprived of life without due process if he died before Congress acted.
Funny, I don't think "Mr. Medelin" worried about the life of the 16-year-old girl he raped and murdered. It's just hard to work up much sympathy, IMO.
Naturally, the usual suspects are upset that Texas actually upheld its laws.
“The impact of ignoring this endangers Americans traveling abroad,” Victoria Palacios, a professor at Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law, told Reuters. “If the world sees us ignoring the rights of foreign nationals arrested here, there is very little reason for them to recognize the rights of U.S. citizens.”
Strangely, I'm not worried about the rights of American citizens who go to Mexico and rape and murder 16-year-old girls.
UPDATE: Aphrael argues in the comments that Texas needs to abide by the treaties the U.S. ratifies, and violating such treaties sends the wrong message to other countries. But according to this article, the courts addressed these concerns on multiple occasions and found Texas not to be in violation of anything.
In their appeal, Medellin's lawyers warned his execution could endanger Americans abroad if they get into legal trouble and said Congress or the Texas Legislature should be given a chance to pass a law setting up procedures for new hearings before he was executed.
A bill to implement the international court's ruling wasn't introduced in Congress until last month. The Texas Legislature doesn't meet until January.
"State and federal courts -- on three separate occasions -- have already satisfied the World Court's suggestion that American courts examine whether Medellin suffered actual legal harm when authorities did not inform him about certain rights under the Vienna Convention," said Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the Texas Attorney General's Office. "On all three occasions, state and federal courts concluded that Medellin suffered no legal harm."
|