HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A Mexican-born condemned prisoner was executed Tuesday night for the rape and murder of two teenage girls 15 years ago after a divided U.S. Supreme Court rejected his request for a reprieve.
“I’m sorry my actions caused you pain. I hope this brings you the closure that you seek. Never harbor hate,” Jose Medellin said to those gathered to watch him die by lethal injection. Nine minutes later, he was pronounced dead.
Medellin’s execution attracted international attention after he raised claims he wasn’t allowed to consult the Mexican consulate for legal help following his arrest. State officials say he didn’t ask to do so until well after he was convicted of capital murder.
Medellin, 33, was condemned for participating in the 1993 gang rape, beating and strangling of Elizabeth Pena, 16, and Jennifer Ertman, 14. He and five fellow gang members attacked the Houston girls as they were walking home on a June night, raped and tortured them for an hour, then kicked and stomped them before using a belt and shoelaces to strangle them.
Their remains were found four days later. By then, Medellin already had bragged to friends about the killings.
Medellin’s attorneys contended he was denied the protections of the Vienna Convention, which calls for people arrested to have access to their home country’s consular officials.
The International Court of Justice said Medellin and about 50 other Mexicans on death row around the U.S. should have new hearings in U.S. courts to determine whether the 1963 treaty was violated during their arrests. Medellin was the first among them to die.
President Bush asked states to review the cases, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year neither the president nor the international court can force Texas to wait.
Medellin’s lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution until legislation could be passed to formalize case reviews ordered by the International Court of Justice.
The high court said in its ruling Tuesday that that possibility was too remote to justify a stay. Justice Stephen Breyer, one of four justices who issued dissenting opinions, wrote that to permit the execution would place the United States “irremediably in violation of international law and breaks our treaty promises.”
Medellin’s supporters said either Congress or the Texas Legislature should have been given a chance to pass a law setting up procedures for new hearings. A bill to implement the international court’s ruling wasn’t introduced in Congress until last month. The Texas Legislature doesn’t meet until January.
“I don’t want sympathy or pity, I’d rather have your anger,” Medellin had written on an anti-death penalty Web site. “Don’t feel sorry for me. I’m where I’m at because I made an adolescent choice. That’s it!”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
