The US broke international law when it executed a Mexican citizen, the UN’s top human rights official said on Friday.
The Texas execution of Humberto Leal “raises particular legal concerns,” including whether he had access to consular services and a fair trial, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said.
Leal Garcia was executed on Thursday evening for the 1994 rape and murder of a San Antonio teenager after his attorneys, supported also by the Mexican government and other diplomats, unsuccessfully sought a stay.
Photo: AFP
Mexico’s government, US President Barack Obama’s administration and others wanted the US Supreme Court to stay the execution to allow Congress time to consider legislation that would require court reviews for condemned foreign nationals who are not offered the help of their consulates. The high court rejected the request 5-4.
Texas Governor Rick Perry also declined to block the execution. Texas, the US’ most active death penalty state, has executed other condemned foreign nationals who raised similar challenges, most recently in 2008.
“Texas is not bound by a foreign court’s ruling. The US Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the treaty was not binding on the states and that the president does not have the authority to order states to review cases of the then 51 foreign nationals on death row in the US,” said Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Perry.
However, what Texas did also “places the US in breach of -international law,” said Pillay, who visited Mexico this week. “What the state of Texas has done in this case is imputable in law to the US and engages the United States’ international responsibility.”
Pillay said Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles each failed to exercise consular and fair-trial obligations — spelled out under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and an International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — that could have prevented the US from breaching its obligations under international law.
Pillay also cited a 2004 International Court of Justice ruling saying the US must review and reconsider the cases of 51 Mexican nationals — including Leal Garcia — who were sentenced to death. She said those reviews never happened.
She said the execution undermined “the role of the International Court of Justice, and its ramifications are likely to spread far beyond Texas.”
Mexico’s foreign ministry has said in a statement it condemns the execution of Leal Garcia and has sent a note of protest to the US State Department. It said Mexico’s ambassador to the US, Arturo Sarukhan, also attempted to contact Perry, who refused to speak on the telephone.
Leal Garcia, a 38-year-old mechanic, repeatedly apologized and then shouted: “Viva Mexico!” as the lethal drugs began taking effect on Thursday.
He was sentenced to death for killing 16-year-old Adria Sauceda, whose brutalized nude body was found hours after the two left a street party.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was