It is beyond outrageous that, at the last minute, the Obama administration is trying to stop the execution of a brutal rapist-murderer in Texas today, completely ignoring the precedent in an earlier case (Medellin) — on the grounds that the poor abused rapist/murderer wasn’t told he could contact the Mexican embassy (he was a Mexican national) before proceedings against him began.
Having looked at this, I tend to agree that the failure here to contact the embassy was a harmless error and that, unlike in countries that use summary executions and have no other procedural safeguards, this guy has had PLENTY of opportunity to have his arguments heard. I see no legal reason to halt the execution and no moral reason to pass the proposed law that would block such executions while federal courts review the cases. (In short, the legislation would give foreign nationals GREATER rights to escape scot-free than the already significant protections in law for American citizens.)
Methinks the Obama administration should worry less about protecting Mexican killers and should worry more about having given weapons to other Mexican killers who used the weapons to murder American border personnel.
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