In the Dallas Morning News, Christy Hoppe reports, "Death-row inmate Medellín doesn't get a reprieve from Texas pardons board."
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously voted Monday against a reprieve for José Medellín, whose scheduled execution today has frayed relations with Mexico and the International Court of Justice.
Mr. Medellín's case has prompted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Attorney General Michael Mukasey to ask Gov. Rick Perry for Texas' help in the case, but thus far the governor's office said he is disinclined to give "additional protection" to the condemned inmate.
"Medellin execution on after pleas fail," is the Houston Chronicle article by Rosanna Ruiz.
On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Medellin's request for a 240-day reprieve and a request to commute his sentence to life in prison.
Donald Francis Donovan, one of Medellin's attorneys, said in a prepared statement he was disappointed with the board's action, saying it went against "the interests of the nation and risks the safety of thousands of Americans traveling and living abroad."
If the sentence is carried out, Medellin would be the first of 51 Mexican nationals on American death rows whose cases were at the center of a 2004 U.N. International Court of Justice order. The U.N. court ordered a review of the cases because the men had not been allowed to speak with their nation's consular officials following their arrests, in violation of international treaty.
AP is distributing Mike Graczyk's, "Lawyers for Mexican say execution violates treaty."
Mexico, which has no death penalty, initially sued the United States in the World Court in 2003. It and other opponents of capital punishment have sought to use the court to fight for foreigners facing execution in the U.S.
At least six other Mexican nationals have been executed in Texas since 1982, when the state resumed carrying out capital punishment.
"Mexican set for US execution in defiance of Intl Court of Justice," is the AFP dispatch from Washington.
The ICJ in 2004 ordered US officials to review the sentences for the Mexicans on death row.
On July 16 this year, the ICJ instructed the US authorities to do everything it could to stay the imminent execution of five Mexicans on death row, including Medellin, granting an urgent request by Mexico.
Since the 2004 ruling, some US states have agreed to review their death row cases at President George W. Bush's request.
But Texas has refused, arguing that its state courts, which decided the Medellin case, are not bound by the ICJ treaty. And their position was supported by a March US Supreme Court ruling.
That left the federal government in Washington with no legal tools to force Texas to put off the execution.
Medellin's lawyers are still hoping the US Supreme Court will issue a stay of execution that would give the US Congress time to pass a new law that can force individual states such as Texas to abide by ICJ decisions.
The US House of Representatives took up such a bill after the ICJ's July 16 ruling.
Earlier coverage is here.
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