Today's San Antonio Express-News reports, "Death-row petition in S.A. killing now in federal court." It's written by Guillermo Contreras.
A Mexican national convicted of killing a 16-year-old girl in San Antonio in 1994 has turned to the federal courts in an effort to block his execution next month.
On Thursday, lawyers for Humberto Leal Jr., 38, filed in San Antonio a federal habeas petition and a motion for a stay of execution, which is set for July 7.
The appeal asks U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia to halt the execution while Congress weighs legislation introduced Tuesday that would address an international court's concern that Mexican nationals on death row were not informed of their right to contact their consulate when they were arrested.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague found that neither Leal nor 50 other Mexican citizens on death row in the United States had been told they could contact their consulate and said the legal remedy was to grant new hearings to them to determine if consular access would have affected the outcome of their capital murder trials.
A year later, then-President George W. Bush tried to force states to hold such hearings and Texas fought the order. The case of Mexican national Jose Medellin went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that only Congress could require states to follow the international court's ruling.
Five months later, Medellin was executed for the rape and murder of two Houston girls.
On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced the Consular Notification Compliance Act. If passed, it would give federal courts jurisdiction to review cases of foreign nationals on death row in the United States, and ensure that all foreign nationals charged with a capital offense be informed of their right to contact their consulates.
Leal's lead lawyer, Sandra L. Babcock, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, wrote in the federal appeal that Leal “has a federal due process right to remain alive so that he can benefit from the legislation.”
The AP filing is, "Mexican national sues to block his Texas execution," via the Houston Chronicle.
A Mexican national on Texas' death row for the 1994 beating death of a teenage girl filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court in San Antonio asking a judge to block his execution next month.
Humberto Leal Jr., 38, of Monterrey, Mexico, is scheduled to die in the Texas death chamber in Huntsville on July 7 for the rape and fatal bludgeoning of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda in San Antonio.
His attorneys want a federal judge to allow time for Congress to consider legislation introduced this week that would allow federal judges to review the cases of foreign nationals awaiting execution in the United States, the San Antonio Express-News reported. The Texas attorney general's office had no comment on the latest appeal.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, found that Leal and 50 other Mexican citizens awaiting execution in the United States weren't advised of their right under the 1963 Vienna Convention to contact their consulate when they were arrested.
Previous court decisions have rejected Leal's past appeals based on the assertion that he was denied the advice of the Mexican consulate.
The International Court had urged new hearings in courts where the 51 people were convicted to determine if consular access would have affected their verdicts and sentences.
A year later, in 2005, President George W. Bush agreed with an International Court and urged that the new hearings be held. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, subsequently overruled Bush and the impact of the International Court decision. In an appeal brought by Mexican national Jose Medellin, a court majority ruled that only Congress could require states to follow the International Court's ruling.
In June 2009, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a federal district judge was wrong when he said he had no jurisdiction in Leal's case. However, the appeals court said the Supreme Court's ruling last year ultimately shut the door to Leal's appeal.
Earlier coverage of the international treaty issues in Humberto Leal's case begins with the preceding post.
The clemency petition, case background, and other information is at Humberto Leal.
Readers who wish to sign a petition urging clemency can do so at the link, or using the right-column Take Action box.
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