HONDURAS: Honduras Asks Texas to Commute 2 Sentences

Honduras has asked Gov. Rick Perry to spare the lives of 2 of its citizens on Texas' death row, saying its consulate wasn't properly notified about the charges the men were facing.

Honduran Consul General Lastenia Pineda made the request Friday on behalf of Heliberto Chi, 25, and Carlos Manuel Ayestas, 34. Perry's office said late Friday it had not received Honduras' request.

The action came a day after the same apparent breach of international law prompted Oklahoma's governor to commute the death sentence of a convicted murderer from Mexico, Osbaldo Torres.

Torres was one of 51 Mexicans on death row nationwide cited in a March 31 ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. The world court found the inmates' rights were violated because they were not told they could receive help from their governments as guaranteed by the 1963 Vienna Convention.

Perry initially said the world court has no jurisdiction in Texas, which has the largest concentration of foreign nationals on death row. But Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt took a different approach on Friday.

"The governor believes and has told law enforcement he expects them to enforce all laws - including consular notification," Walt told the Houston Chronicle for its Saturday editions. "He will continue to review death penalty cases on an individual basis as they reach his desk and look at the individual merits in each case in making a determination."

Like Torres, both Honduran men are convicted murderers.

Chi was sentenced to death in Tarrant County for killing the manager of a men's clothing store during a 2001 robbery. Ayestas received the death penalty in Harris County for robbing and strangling an elderly woman with duct tape in 1995.

Pineda, the consul general, said the Honduran Consulate was not told about the charges Chi faced until after he was convicted and sentenced to death.

The consulate learned about Ayestas' charges just before his capital murder trial began - 2 years after he was jailed.

"For the purpose of this petition, Honduras does not contend that our citizens are innocent of grievous crimes," Pineda wrote Perry. "We only ask that they not be executed in violation of international law."