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I'm a Minnesota Girl, living in the south. I tell my friends I try not to talk and think like a Yankee, but sometimes I slip up!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Your jaw drops.... Texas - It's About Treaties and the Law




This Guy (with the good hair)









And These Guys (the 4 men in the front and the big guy in the back that looks like Alfred E. Neumann)




They took action today to violate the Vienna Convention. Because, when the US has signed that treaty, the state of Texas doesn't have to care what the US has done. They're not bound by US Treaties. Theyre Texas. The state of Texas did not insure that Humberto Leal, a criminal, who most likely would have been convicted if they had followed the law, had information of his right to consult with Mexican consular authorities ( he is a citizen of Mexico) when he went on trial for his crimes in the Great State. The Vienna Convention, which guarantees foreign detainees the right to consult with representatives of their governments when they are arrested; it is YOUR protection if you travel abroad and get accused of a crime and arrested in a foreign country.




The world protested Leal's execution today. The government of Mexico, the President of the United States, the Justice Department, the State Department, senior military officers, the United Nations and former president George W Bush also appealed for Leal's execution to be halted on the grounds it could jeopardise American citizens arrested abroad as well as US diplomatic interests.






In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague found that the inmates had been denied their rights under the Vienna Convention. The convention requires that foreigners detained abroad be told they may contact consular officials.
In 2008, the Supreme Court acknowledged that the international court’s ruling was binding but said that the president acting alone could not compel states to comply with it. Congress also had to act, the court said.






These guys (so what else is new?) failed to act since directed to by the Supremes in 2008. They didn't pass the law compelling states to comply with foreign treaties.


The Supremes?



on Thursday evening rebuffed a request from the Obama administration that it stay the execution of a Mexican citizen on death row in Texas. The inmate, Leal, was executed about an hour later. Ruling along party lines, the 5 Republican judges said:




“We decline,” the majority wrote, “to follow the United States’ suggestion of granting a stay to allow Leal to bring a claim based on hypothetical legislation when it cannot even bring itself to say that his attempt to overturn his conviction has any prospect of success.”




Sort of a "gotcha"....we told you so, moment for these gentlemen.




The outnumbered Supremes (the three women and the bald guy in the back?


wrote that the government’s request was modest given that allowing the execution to proceed would, in the solicitor general’s words, “cause irreparable harm” to “foreign-policy interests of the highest order” and endanger Americans traveling abroad.




AFTER THE VERDICT, THE HONORABLE (?) GOVERNOR OF TEXAS REFUSED A STAY OF 30 DAYS. HE PROBABLY FIGURED THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE SENATE IN WASHINGTON COULDN'T PASS A LAW IN 30 DAYS ANYWAY. HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN RIGHT.




WITHOUT GIVING THOUGHT TO HIS NATIONAL POLITICAL FUTURE; WITHOUT CONSIDERING HOW THOUGHTFUL HE MIGHT LOOK TO THE REST OF THE WORLD HE WANTS TO START THINKING OF "PERRY AS PRESIDENT", HE DIDN'T LIFT A FINGER AND ALLOWED LEAL TO BE PUT TO DEATH.




After Texas had kept him alive for 17 years since his crime, anyway.




If I were Rick Perry....I might not want to travel abroad for awhile. Same thing with the delightful Clarence Thomas. I'm just sayin' ...............................



P.S. There are about 50 nationals of other countries in Death Row captivity across America who have not been given their rights under Vienna. Stay tuned.

1 comment:

Pam said...

I just hope he tosses his hat in the ring for Prez so we can get rid of him in Texas.

The Republican field is just full of second-rate candidates. He would be in good company.

I found this ruling a bit surprising.