From the Austin Statesman, reporting that Texas executed a Mexican citizen last night for a rape and murder:
In his last minutes, Humberto Leal repeatedly said he was sorry and accepted responsibility.
"I have hurt a lot of people. ... I take full blame for everything. I am sorry for what I did," he said in the death chamber.
"One more thing," he said as the drugs began taking effect. Then he shouted twice, "Viva Mexico!"
"Ready warden," he said. "Let's get this show on the road."
The Mexican government and the Obama administration had each asked that Governor Perry delay the execution because the condemned man hadn't gotten help from his consulate. The Statesman reports that Mexico says when its ambassador called, Governor Perry declined to take the call.
With Governor Perry looking like a possible Republican hopeful for 2012, we had two epic segments on the show last night about this. The second one's above, with Bob Herbert. Here's the first.
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This was a awesome segment hopefully it will end any thoughts of Rick Perry entering a bit for the White House in reality Perry should be given a cell at Texas's Ellis Unit One on multiple charges of murder along with George Bush. Texas is a embarrassment to the entire country
Despite RobDon's cynicism and DonQ's levity, below, there are still the Vienna Conventions - and no, they are NOT just for tourists and businesspeople caught up in foreign countries in something they can't control. As Rachel pointed out, and as most Americans don't realize because they don't read the foreign press, the Europeans, Middle Easterners, South Americans and Orientals don't perceive us the way we perceive ourselves. They think we're barbaric, immature and stupid and actions like this reinforce that perception. Their systems of jurisprudence and incarceration are different from ours, too. Your rights as an American citizen over there won't amount to the proverbial hill of beans unless their rights are upheld here.
I wouldn't call it levity. I think that Bush the Younger was a criminal long before he was president and that what Perry has done is criminal and well deserving of sparking an International Incident.
But, as I said, Rule of Law is for pussies and Democrats. In the 8 years of the Bush Administration was Rule of Law invoked ONCE? Certainly not when the 4th Amendment was being violated in the name of the Patriot Act or when the Geneva Convention was having violence done to it, guaranteeing that every American service person would be tortured because that's how WE roll. Republicans sacrifice children before the altar of Richard Nixon, Patron Saint of HOW ITS DONE. Okay just a little bit of empurpled hyperbole there. Very little.
So is Rick Perry...
Why is it that a person can claim to be an American Citizen, then after they rape and murder a little girl they can yell "Mexican Citizen". Why are people supporting a rapist/murder.
Should we drop all the sentences for all the mexican murders and rapists because Mexico was consulted. Mexico can't even enforce thier own laws against drug dealers and murders. Where's mexico's credibility?
Jason, get a life. Better yet, take a deep breath and think very hard about what you would do if you were arrested for something in Mexico and not allowed to contact the US Consulate. It's NOT about whether or not Leal was guilty of his crime; it's about the international rules of decent behavior. If you don't want to be abused in a foreign country, THE ONLY WAY we can protect you is to protect foreign nationals from being abused here.
Its enhanced interrogation all over again. International Laws like the Geneva and Vienna Conventions, those are all "quaint" relics of the past...to paraphrase one of the Bush/Cheney's legal geniuses. The true law is one of the corollaries to Catch-22. People in authority have the right to do whatever they cannot be prevented from doing: Torture prisoners of war? Sure. Its FUN. Deprive foreign prisoners the right to communicate with their ambassador, even when the embassasy comes calling? Damn skippy!
And when OUR soldiers are captured and tortured, our citizens imprisoned tried and punished or executed in foreign lands despite entreaties from the American embassy, whatcha gonna do? Appeal to International Law? What International Law? That old thing? That's for pussies. [your pardon lady]
Yes, he should have been allowed to get assistance from his own country but that Texas Wild West justice of convict them in the morning and string 'em up that afternoon just didn't allow for that...
...oh, wait, what? He was convicted in 1995? 16 plus years ago...did no one tell the Mexican government he was there? Please!
To delay it another 6 months would not have allowed anything to take place that the Mexican consulate couldn't have done in the 192 previous months...get that 192 months!
Now, if you want to argue the humanity or the right/wrong of capital punishment, that is a totally different discussion that this lame excuse for delay.
I agree with you. This guy raped a 16 year old, strangled her and then smashed her head with a 15 lb. rock. Neither him or his attorney asked for consular help for two years. He was properly executed. This is maybe a death penalty validity discussion but it is not a political one.
The Vienna Convention is for tourists and business people arrested in a foriegn country who have no idea of the legal system and need consular assistance dealing with the situation. This situation is different - he grew up here and knew our legal system and had access to his rights. The fact that he was legally a Mexican citizen because he illegally immigrated when he was 2 years old has no bearing on the outcome of his case.
#rationalization
or are you saying that people who live in the US illegally for x years and/or since childhood are legal US citizens?
listen to yourself for a moment, if you're able:
legality in the legal system has every bearing in every case!! it absolutely @!$%#ing matters! "facts matter."
Tomm, maybe you should re-read his statement. He wrote that legally he was a MEXICAN citizen that illegally immigrated.
And personally, I don't think it mattered to the 16 yr old girl - that he admitted to raping and killing - (a fact that as you say matters) what his nationality and legal status was. Yes international law allows for access to your consulate, but in this case I really don't see what difference it would make on the outcome.
There would have been no difference in the outcome. The point is that the US is bound to honor its treaties. Not to do so signals to the rest of the world that we are not a nation under the rule of law.
Rule of Law is for pussies and Democrats.
Amen Don Quixokie
Mr. Leal was properly convicted. He admitted to the crime and apologized for the brutal rape and murder of a sixteen year old girl. He deserved a harsh punishment. That said, he did not deserve to die in this fashion, not because he did not receive counsel from the Mexican government, a government he hadn't lived under since he was a small child, but because NO ONE should be put to death by our government. We are better people than this.
I was away at a family funeral; did I miss Texas' secession from the union?
was the funeral in 1861? because i don't think they ever really rejoined after the Civil War.
which would be okay, as it makes Perry and Ron Paul ineligible for President and invalidates (and maybe explains) the W administration.
Very humorous, Tomm :-).
This discussion is about violence. Does the violent taking of one life give society the right to take another? The US holds that it does which goes counter to international norms.
Does the US have the right to carry out violence against foreign nationals? The not so secret CIA drone attacks have killed 100's or maybe 1000's in Pakistan and is now spreading to other countries. No courts, no names, not even a body count. Just an order by someone and it's done. Did we worry about legal when we took out bin Laden?
To use international law as an argument against the death penalty is a reach considering the other much more flagrant violations that the US does as a matter of everyday. We don't take these actions because they are legal but because we can.
When I argue against the death penalty I prefer to look at how flawed the justice system is. How many innocents have we put to death? No one knows. It is absolutely certain that we have executed innocents, only the precise number is unclear.
Really its very simple. If you think this execution was just, then you shouldn't have any qualms about Texans being tried and punished according to the laws of whatever foreign countries they commit crimes in and being denied any contact with the American embassy there. That is how they roll in Texas after all. If Texas is independent enough to have their own foreign ploicy then than afford to have that policy reciprocated. So when little Johnny gets caught stealing in Bahrain, he needs to quit whining and just throw away his extra gloves. If Jane goes out in a bikini in Saudi Arabia, she was just asking to get killed. Fair is fair.
Robert F. Kennedy ~ Cleveland City Club, Cleveland, Ohio, April 5, 1968
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/RFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Senator-Robert-F-Kennedy-to-the-Cleveland-City-Club-Cleveland-Ohio-April-5-1968.aspx
I hear this voice whenever I think of my opposition to the death penalty...doesn't matter the nationality...it's human.
I dated someone from Texas once for five minutes...who thought it was within his rights to take the life of someone who would steal a coke from the back of his truck. Truly sad.
Texas has a habit to put people in jail who are not guilty a fews years back they had to let 600 or more people for false DNA and people who look into this person said he was not guilty of anything. But this not the only state who put in jail that are not guilty. Oh and again this Gorvernor was in offices and he didn't it like when they let the people go.
Rick Perry authorizes executions one day and endorses stadium size prayer circles the next. Praying for better morals in the USA? You can watch his endorsement of the AFA prayer gathering here: http://theresponseusa.com/
Not the kind of President this country needs.
I think Pres Obama should've pardoned HLG. I'm not completely opposed to the death penalty, but it should be after due process. Letting HLG free, though he's admittedly guilty, is more fair. The trouble is that maybe he wouldn't have admitted his crime if he'd been allowed consular advice. To execute him does far more harm to the system than pardoning his atrocious crime.
The arguement that now another country could deny a US citizens his protection due to our violating the Vienna Convention is not germane.
If you would take the time to read the Vienna Agreement, article 5, you would find out that it implies that the foreign citizen and/or his attorney have to request consular assistance. In this case, neither the accused nor his attorney made that requisition for two years. If you believe that the President should pardon an individual who raped a 16 year old, then strangled her and smashed her head with a 15 pound rock for political reasons, you need to consider if you would feel the same way if it was your daughter. If you want to discuss the validity of the death penalty, then that is a different issue.
If you are going to deny rule of law for political purposes, then you should not whinge when your child or neice or nephew gets their hand cut off for shop-lifting in the middle east. Fair is fair. Especially for Texas.
i can't say how much i'm disappointed in Pres Obama in not exercising his power to commute Leal's sentence, despite the 'soft on crime' ramifications it may bring. that perception reminds just a little of the feelings toward the Casey Anthony jurors, that in weighing the evidence presented against law as was their sworn charge, and not coming to the conclusion which the public wanted, they are somehow monsters. was it justice? maybe not. was it the law? absolutely, but i digress.
now, Obama is
virtuallyan accomplice after the fact; he's complicit and enabling the US to break its treaties with other nations. again, even N.Korea permitted consular access when they imprisoned Euna Lee, and Iran when they charged those hikers. North Korea and Iran!!and now he's offering up Social Security and Medicare to the Republicans
satanicsacrificial altar! and as noted last night by Mr Herbert, this is a pattern, so i also sincerely doubt that it's going to be an Abraham and Isaac situation where God or somebody sends a goat at the last moment. thank goodness for the Congressional Democrats. i seriously hope/wish someone would primary him, because yet again, he's steering in a direction in which the country does expressly not wish to go in.Rick Perry might want to re-think anything which will find him outside of the US for the next, say, 20 years -- things like secession, travel, becoming president:
I said International Incident. That's no small thing.
i missed where you posted that -- sorry -- but yeah; no small thing.
well, not to rational people.
Hooray for Rick Perry! Rick Perry for President!!
I can see where the Elitist from the East Coast and West Coast are posting their comments. I am from Texas and quite frankly he lived way to long. He was convicted and should have been executed years ago. These are our laws we have our own consititution and the is in accordance with both. That young girl did not ask to have her head crushed nor a board stuck up her simply for his pleasure. I don't know who is sicker him or the people that who defend is actions. If we had a quicker time set between conviction date and execution date, then there would probably a lot less executions happening. By the way another is happening while i write this response. Quit making excuses for other peoples behavior. You do the crime here, you get what is coming to you.
That's really cute when you you've produced one of the worse mass murderers in the history of the nation.
Oh, just horse @!$%#.