Mexican president sends Texas governor letter asking him to halt execution

Aug 12, 2002

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's president sent the Texas governor a letter asking him to halt the planned execution of a Mexican citizen, saying the condemned prisoner was denied his right to assistance from the Mexican consulate when he was arrested.

In the letter, released to the Mexican media on Monday, Mexican President Vicente Fox ( news - web sites) called Javier Suarez Medina's punishment "illegal" and said the consulate may have been able to prevent the death sentence.

 "For Mexico, the violation of the right to notifying the consulate in this case gravely affected other basic rights to due legal process," Fox said.

 He said he hoped to speak about the issue directly with Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the coming days.

 Mexican officials have said they are prepared to file a petition to with the U.S. Supreme Court ( news - web sites) if Texas refuses to spare Suarez Medina's life.

 The 33-year-old is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday in Texas. He was convicted in 1989 of killing a Dallas police narcotics agent who was posing as a drug buyer.

 According to the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which the United States signed, foreigners detained by U.S. authorities must be told "without delay" that they can seek consulate help.

 The treaty also protects the roughly 2,500 Americans detained abroad each year.

 Dallas prosecutors say Mexican authorities weren't informed because Dallas police had no way of knowing that Suarez, then 19, was a Mexican citizen. Kim Schaefer, a Dallas County prosecutor, has said Suarez lived in the United States since he was 3.

Mexican government prepared to take case to U.S. Supreme Court

Aug 12, 2002

By SUZANNE GAMBOA, 

WASHINGTON - Mexican government officials said they plan to file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court  if Texas refuses to spare the life of a Mexican citizen scheduled to be executed Wednesday.

  Javier Suarez Medina, 33, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday in Texas. He was convicted in 1989 of killing a Dallas police narcotics agent who was posing as a drug buyer.

 Mexican officials also plan to file a petition signed by nine other countries supporting that country's request that Suarez be given a life sentence or a 90-day reprieve so that other facts in his case can be considered.

 The petitions say Suarez was denied his right to assistance from the Mexican consulate when he was arrested, as guaranteed by international treaty.

 "There's no question the execution of Javier Suarez Medina would violate international law ... it would not be just a technical violation, but a very significant and inexcusable violation," Sandra Babcock, lead attorney for the Mexican Foreign Ministry's Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program, said on Monday.

 Mexico is awaiting decisions by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the state's Board of Pardons and Parole, which recommends to the governor whether to grant clemency. Those were expected Monday or Tuesday.

 The embassy's calls for leniency for Suarez come after his parents held a news conference in Mexico City last month asking the same. Mexico's President Vicente Fox ( news - web sites) has written a letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry and other Mexican officials have contacted the U.S. State Department and Texas officials asking that he be given life in prison.

 "Although the date of the execution leaves us very little time, we might get in due course a decision of commutation or a reprieve of 90 days," said Juan Manuel Gomez-Robledo, legal adviser to Mexico's foreign relations secretary.

 According to the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which the United States signed, foreigners detained by U.S. authorities must be told "without delay" that they can seek consulate help.

 The treaty also protects the roughly 2,500 Americans detained abroad each year.

 Dallas prosecutors say Mexican authorities weren't informed because Dallas police had no way of knowing that Suarez, then 19, was a Mexican citizen. Prosecutor Kim Schaefer has said Suarez lived in the United States since he was 3.

 But Babcock said Dallas officials admitted, in connection with a State Department investigation, that they knew Suarez was Mexican. She said the Mexican government is presenting evidence that its consulate was told on three occasions that Suarez was Cuban.

 The right to consult with a consulate was the basis of a recent Oklahoma ruling in favor of Gerardo Valdez, another Mexican sentenced to death.

 However, several previous protests of U.S. executions of Mexican citizens, on grounds that the consulate was not advised, have failed.

 Newsweek International

13 AGO 2002

Lives on the Line

Mexico, with 54 nationals on America's death row, is lobbying for changes in the state justice system

Aug.19 issue In 1988 Javier Suarez Medina, then 19, was convicted for the murder of Larry Cadena, an undercover cop posing as a drug dealer, in a Texas drug bust. At his trial, police witnesses testified that Medina had opened Cadenas car door and shot the officer. Medina, who was in the United States legally, admitted that he killed Cadena. That was enough to get him convicted. Hes scheduled to die by lethal injection in Texas this week.

 Medina's home country, Mexico, is scrambling to save his life. Mexican officials argue that Medina's consular rights were violated at the time of his arrest. Under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention, foreigners arrested in the United States have the right to see their consular offices without delay. In Medina's case, that did not happen. In fact, the Mexican Consulate claims that after making inquiries, it was told at various times by Texas officials that Medina was not Mexican, but rather Cuban or Colombian. Mexico, which hasn't applied the death penalty in more than 70 years, does not like the fact that it has more foreign nationals on death row in the United States (54) than in any other country. President Vicente Fox is likely to raise the issue with George W. Bush during his visit to the president's ranch later this month. What Mexico wants is simple: full judicial review of any case involving a violation of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention.

 Until recently, the Vienna Convention was invoked only as a diplomatic recourse and had no bearing on individual criminal trials. But a series of high-profile cases, some involving Mexicans, has refocused international attention on U.S. capital- punishment policy. Mexico has taken a leading role in opposing it. The federal government needs to tell [the U.S. states] that [they] are bound by international law, says Juan Manuel Gomez Robledo, legal adviser to head of the Mexican State Department, Jorge Castaneda.

 In recent years Mexico has organized a number of groups that aim to keep its nationals from getting death sentences or, if they do, to have the sentences commuted. Its also trying to win support from the European Union and other Latin American countries, which tend to be opposed to Americas eye-for-an-eye justice system. In 1999 Germany took the United States before the International Court of Justice after Arizona executed two German brothers. Germany says they were apprised of their rights too late, and the court ruled that the United States had violated the convention. "Our perception is that U.S. attorneys are not familiar with international law," says Victor Uribe, an attorney for the Mexican government.

 The U.S. State Department says it is trying to boost awareness of international law in state and local governments, but admits the process has been slow. Defense attorneys say that in Texas, which executes more people than any other U.S. state, the pace of justice has gotten ahead of itself. "It's a little too fast," asserts Sandra Babcock, who heads a group called Mexican Legal Assistance for the Death Penalty, which works on behalf of the Mexican government in the United States. Last week the State Department sent a letter to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, asking that it consider consular issues in Medina's case. That may not be quite enough to please Mexico, but it's a start. 

Comunicado - 13/08/2002

El Presidente de M�xico estableci� contacto telef�nico con el Gobernador de Texas, Rick Perry

13 de agosto de 2002.

 Ayer por la noche, el Presidente de M�xico, Vicente Fox, estableci� contacto telef�nico con el Gobernador de Texas, Rick Perry, para comentar sobre el caso del mexicano sentenciado a muerte, Javier Su�rez Medina, programada para ma�ana mi�rcoles 14 de agosto.

 En la llamada, el Presidente Fox extern� su preocupaci�n e inter�s porque el Gobernador Perry intercediera para suspender la ejecuci�n del mexicano, a fin de contar con tiempo suficiente para considerar las numerosas violaciones en este caso.

 El Presidente Vicente Fox se encuentra en espera y al pendiente de una respuesta por parte de las autoridades texanas, en el transcurso del d�a de hoy.