It's taken a while, but child rapist and murderer Jose Medellin finally has had a death warrant issued by the State of Texas that was scheduled to be executed between 6 PM and midnight Texas time.
Except so far, he's still breathing...and there's a chance he might walk out of jail free as a bird.
For those of you who've forgotten this case here's a link to what Medellin and his gang did to 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman and 16-year-old Elizabeth Peña on a terrible night back in 1993. I don't recommend you read the details unless you have a particularly strong stomach.
Medellin freely confessed to the crime and has never shown the slightest remorse for what he did. At this point, this mad dog has been on Death Row longer than one of his victims was alive.
The US Supreme Court has already ruled that his confession was voluntary and his conviction valid, but the controversy comes from the fact that Medellin is a Mexican national and he was never told he could contact the Mexican Consulate for assistance...even though he'd been living illegally in the US since he was nine years old.
The Mexican government sued the United States on behalf of this creature in 2003 over the consular issue in the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
The court ruled in Mexico's favor in late 2004 (no surprise there) and ordered the United States to reconsider the murder convictions of Medellin and about fifty other illegal aliens on death row for murder. In February 2005, Bush announced that the U.S. would comply, and he would order courts in Texas and elsewhere to review the cases.
A few days later, however, the president withdrew the United States from the part of the Vienna Convention that gives the World Court final say in international disputes.
The Texas Courts re-examined Medellin's conviction and confirmed the sentences, as did the appellate courts.The Texas courts also made the salient point that Medellin and his attorneys failed to complain at his original trial about any violation of his consular rights and had therefore waived them.
The current occupant of the White House actually tried to force the issue by having our Attorney General's office filing a brief on behalf of this murderer and trying to have our Supreme Court overturn Medellin's conviction, believe it or not.Happily, the Court severely spanked the Bush Administration by a 6-3 majority, ruling that judgments of the International Court of Justice are not binding on U.S. courts and that Bush's 2005 executive order that courts in Texas comply anyway was, shall we say, grossly illegal.
The case went back to Texas, the death warrant was issued and it looked like the families of these two victims who's lives that were snuffed out so cruelly would finally get some closure.
Except that apparently there are some last minute efforts on the part of the cockroaches who want to see Medellin go free. The execution is on hold pending yet another attempt to get the Supreme Court to acquiesce to a gross violation of American sovereignty in favor of what is being termed 'the international aspects of the case.'
What Medellin’s attorneys want is for the Supreme Court to put the execution on hold “for a period of one year to allow Congress an opportunity to enact implementing legislation” to carry out U.S. obligations under the treaty involved — the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
I agree with them on one point. Medellin should not be subjected to a lethal injection.
They ought to hang him from a tree.
And the President, for his part in this nonsense deserves to be shunned by every decent American, especially the proud residents of his native state.
I'll keep you posted on what happens...
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