Guardian UK: Death and Texas

[marmar]

Death and Texas
Governor Rick Perry and his state's flawed judicial system are now executing convicts for crimes they did not commit

Maura Kelly
guardian.co.uk, Thursday August 14 2008 18:30


Texans - or at least governor Rick Perry and his supporters - seem to love the death penalty almost as much as flying the state flag. And last week, the good ol' Texan bloodlust came under international scrutiny once again when the state put to death a man born in Mexico, where capital punishment is prohibited.

During the trial of death row inmate José Ernesto Medellín, he was not given the opportunity to seek legal help from Mexican consulates, a right granted under the 1963 Vienna Convention. Appeals from all over the world - including one from the UN's International Court of Justice and another from President Bush himself - pointed out the discrepancy and asked the state to delay the execution till Medellín's case could be further reviewed. But Perry refused to put on the brakes, and Medellín died of a lethal injection on August 6.

"Texans are doing just fine governing Texas," Perry said last year in response to the European Union's request that he reconsider another death row case involving a young man who had never been accused of directly participating in the murder to which he was linked. Given Perry's audacity, perhaps it's no surprise he has single-handedly overseen more executions than any other governor in the country since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. He also vetoed a ban on the execution of mentally handicapped inmates in 2002. And since 1976, Texas has carried out more executions than any other state: 409 - more than four times as many as Virginia, its nearest competitor, with 99.

At the same time, it's not that difficult to understand why Perry might not have been terribly sympathetic to Medellín: There seems to be no question that the Mexican took part in the raping and killing of two teenage girls in 1993 as part of a gang initiation rite. But the story of a young man named Jeff Wood, set to be put to death on August 21, more poignantly highlights the injustices of the Texan judicial system. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/14/usa.internationalcrime

[moggie]

1. Can someone please remind me?

I seem to remember a case (I think it was in Texas) where a man was executed, even though it was known that he did not commit the crime in question, simply because the new evidence came to light after he'd exhausted his appeals against the guilty verdict. Do I have that right?