Execution Report: Edgar Tamayo

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A provision of the Vienna Convention of 1963 states that citizens of a foreign country must have access to their consulate when charged with a crime. In 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a ruling finding that 51 Mexican nationals who were under death sentences in the United States had been denied their consular rights. One of those was Tamayo. In compliance with the court's ruling, President George W. Bush ordered Texas to review Tamayo's case to determine whether the failure to inform him of his consular rights negatively affected the outcome. In response, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that the state was not bound by the ICJ's ruling, and it declined to review Tamayo's consular rights claim.

In 2008, the United States Supreme Court agreed with the Texas high court where another Texas prisoner was concerned that the ICJ's ruling did not constitute binding domestic law because Congress had not passed legislation to implement it. In 2012, the Supreme Court declined to review Tamayo's case.

In addition to the consular rights issue, Tamayo also filed other appeals in state and federal court, including a claim that he was ineligible for execution by reason of mental retardation. All of his appeals were denied.

A spokesperson for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott noted that at the time of his arrest, Tamayo was afforded the rights of U.S. citizens, including the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. The spokesperson stated that upon hearing those rights recited to him in Spanish, Tamayo waived them and opted to confess to Gaddis's murder.

In late 2013, when Harris County prosecutors requested an execution date for Tamayo, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sent the judge a letter asking him not to set an execution date because Tamayo was a Mexican citizen.

"I want to be clear. I have no reason to doubt the facts of Mr. Tamayo's conviction, and as a former prosecutor, I have no sympathy for anyone who would murder a police officer," Kerry wrote. This is a process issue I am raising because it could impact the way American citizens are treated in other countries."

District Judge Michael McSpadden signed Tamayo's death warrant despite Kerry's request.

Appeals by Mexico's Foreign Affairs Ministry to Governor Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbot asking them to stay Tamayo's execution went unheeded.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said he met with Tamayo in his cell the morning of his execution. Clark said Tamayo told him he was "ready to go. Twenty years is too long." When asked about the possibility of a stay, Tamayo shrugged and said, "If they take me back [to death row], they take me back."

That afternoon, a federal judge rejected a civil suit filed by Tamayo's lawyers. Their appeals to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court were denied.

Officer Gaddis's mother and two brothers were among those who attended Tamayo's execution. One of the brothers, Gary Gaddis, told a reporter it was "unfortunate this has become a political event."

"We're here to remind the public who the true victim is in this crime and to warn the public that John Kerry has no right to try to change the locks of the Supreme Court and turn the keys over to the international community," he said.

No one attended on Tamayo's behalf.

The execution was delayed about three hours by the condemned man's final appeals. When the warden asked Tamayo if he wanted to make a last statement, he mumbled, "No." The lethal injection was given. He was pronounced dead at 9:32 p.m.

By David Carson. Posted on 23 January 2014.
Sources: Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's office, court documents, Austin Chronicle, CNN.com, Houston Chronicle, KTRH-AM Houston, KPRC-TV Houston, NPR.org.