Texas execution plan defies Hague order



* Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
* The Guardian,
* Tuesday August 5 2008

Officials in Texas defied the international court of justice last
night to affirm the scheduled execution today of a Mexican national
at the centre of a global legal row.

The state's board of parole and corrections rejected a last minute
appeal from lawyers for José Medellín.

He is now scheduled to be put to death at 6pm local time despite an
order from the court at The Hague to halt his execution.

Legal experts and human rights organisations said the execution would
be seen as an act of defiance of international law after a ruling
from the ICJ that Medellín was denied his right to consult with
Mexican embassy officials during his trial.

"US respect for international law might be further damaged by this
execution," said Brian Evans of Amnesty International.

"We are deeply disappointed with this recommendation from the board
of pardons and paroles," said Donald Francis Donovan of Debevoise &
Plimpton LLP, counsel to Medellín "The board has failed to support
the United States in fulfilling its international legal obligations.
The board's action ... risks the safety of thousands of Americans
travelling and living abroad.

Katharine Huffman, a spokeswoman for Medellín's legal team, said the
case was being monitored by the international community. "The failure
on the part of the US could have very serious implications for our
relationship with Mexico as well as other nations," she said.

But the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, has repeatedly indicated the
execution would go ahead. Texas has the most active death chamber in
America.

"The [ICJ] has no jurisdiction here in Texas. We're concerned about
following Texas law and that's what we're doing," a spokeswoman for
Perry said.

Medellín has spent most of his adult life on death row after he was
convicted in the 1993 gang rape and murders of two teenage girls.

His hopes now rest on the US supreme court. His lawyers had asked the
board for a 240-day stay of execution to give Congress time to enact
legislation that would spare him.

A bill now before Congress would compel Texas and other states to
comply with international treaties guaranteeing foreign nationals on
trial the right to consult with officials from their home countries.

Medellín is the first of 51 Mexicans on death row in the US whose
cases have become an embarrassment for the Bush administration.

In a 2004 ruling the ICJ ordered the courts to grant a review of
their cases, and George Bush earlier this year urged the authorities
in Texas to revisit Medellín's case. But the supreme court ruled that
the president had overstepped his authority.

Last month the ICJ ordered the US to "take all measures necessary" to
block Medellín's execution. Huffman warned that America could still
be in conflict with the court until the cases of the other 50 Mexican
nationals on death row are resolved.

http://www.guardian .co.uk/politics/ 2008/aug/ 05/justice. usa?