Execution Report: Humberto Leal

Continued from Page 1

A jury convicted Leal of capital murder in July 1995 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in February 1998. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Although Leal had lived in the U.S. illegally since the age of two, he was a citizen of Mexico. According to the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, he had a right to contact the Mexican consulate at the time of his arrest. Throughout his appeals, U.S. and Mexican officials attempted to have Leal's death sentence commuted because he was not informed of his consular rights.

In March 2005, in connection with a similar case involving Mexican national Jose Medellin, who was convicted in the gang rape and murder of two teenage girls, President George W. Bush ordered a review of all U.S. death row cases involving foreign nationals to determine whether their consular rights were respected. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, however, ruled in November 2006 that Bush's directive and the rulings of the World Court were not binding. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state in March 2008 in Medellin v. Texas, clearing the way for Medellin's execution later that year.

As Leal's execution date approached, President Obama appealed to Texas officials to halt the execution, warning that it would violate international law and cause "irreparable harm" to U.S. interests. Obama warned that American citizens traveling abroad could be in jeopardy of losing their consular rights if Leal was executed. He also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution because of pending legislation in the Senate that could force states to comply with international law.

Leal's lawyers also filed late appeals on his behalf. In their clemency appeal to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, they wrote, "There can be little doubt that if the government of Mexico had been allowed access to Mr. Leal in a timely matter, he would not now be facing execution for a capital murder he did not commit."

As in Medellin's case, Texas did not heed the protests. Governor Rick Perry's office released a statement that Leal was guilty of a heinous crime and deserved to die. Stephen Hoffman of the state attorney general's office stated, "Leal's argument is nothing but a transparent attempt to evade his impending punishment." Others pointed out that, as a lifelong resident of the U.S., Leal was not a traveler in a foreign country, and therefore his case was not the type the Vienna Convention was intended to cover.

Sauceda's mother, Rachel Terry, urged Texas to proceed with the execution. "A technicality doesn't give anyone a right to come to this country and rape, torture, and murder anyone," she said in a TV interview.

The U.S. Supreme Court sided with Texas in a 5-4 decision. The court's conservative Justices - Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Chief Justice John Roberts - were joined by swing Justice Anthony Kennedy. In a jointly-authored or "per curiam" opinion, the majority rejected the White House's request to stay the execution because of the bill in the Senate. "First, we are doubtful that it is ever appropriate to stay a lower court judgment in light of unacted legislation. Our task is to rule on what the law is, not what it might eventually be," the Court wrote. Referring frequently to its decisions in the Medellin case, the Court also noted that the Obama administration "studiously refuses to argue that Leal was prejudiced by the Vienna Convention violation ... We decline to follow the United States' suggestion of granting a stay to allow Leal to bring a claim based on hypothetical legislation when it cannot even bring itself to say that his attempt to overturn his conviction has any prospect of success."

The four liberal Justices on the Court - Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan - dissented, anticipating that Senator Patrick Leahy's bill could become law by the end of September. "It is difficult to see how the State's interest in the immediate execution of an individual convicted of capital murder 16 years ago can outweigh the considerations that support additional delay, perhaps only until the end of the summer," Breyer wrote.

"I've hurt a lot of people," Leal said in his last statement. "I take full blame for everything. I am sorry for what I did. May they forgive me. Let's get this show on the road, Warden." The lethal injection was then started. As the drug was taking effect, Leal shouted twice, "Viva Mexico!" He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.

By David Carson. Posted on 8 July 2011.
Sources: Texas Attorney General's office, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, court documents, Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, The Guardian, Huntsville Item.