Texas carried out its sixth execution of 2014, last night in Huntsville. It was the 514th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 275th execution under the administration of Gov. Rick Perry. Texas is responsible for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions.
"Mexican Government Condemns Texas Execution Of 'Mentally Impaired' Inmate," is the Fox News Latino report.
The Mexican government condemned the execution of a Mexican national for fatally beating a former Baylor University history professor and attacking his wife more than 16 years ago.
On Wednesday, the Mexican government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying the execution of Ramiro Hernández Llanas, 44, through lethal injection was “in clear violation of the judgment of the International Court of Justice.”
"The Government of Mexico expresses its most vigorous protest at the failure to comply," the ministry said.
"Texas executes Mexican citizen with drugs from unknown provider," is the AP report, via the Guardian.
Hernandez-Llanas was the second Texas inmate to receive a lethal injection of a new supply of pentobarbital. Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials have refused to identify the source of the powerful sedative, contending secrecy is needed to protect the drug's provider from threats of violence from capital punishment opponents. The US supreme court backed the state's position in a related case last week.
Texas and other states that have the death penalty have been scrambling for substitute drugs or new sources for drugs for lethal injections after major drugmakers – many based in Europe with long-time opposition to the death penalty – stopped selling to prisons and corrections departments.
Hernandez-Llanas' appeals were exhausted, and the Texas parole board on Tuesday refused to delay his death sentence or commute it to life in prison.
There have been 16 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,375 post-Furman executions since 1977.
According to TDCJ, Texas state district courts have set three additional execution dates.
Related posts are in the foreign citizen and international category indexes.
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