Texas Court Won’t Halt Mexican Citizen’s Execution

A Texas appeals court refused to review the case of condemned Mexican citizen Javier Suarez Medina on Monday, even as Mexican officials promised to appeal his execution to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Also Monday, Mexican President Vicente Fox released a letter sent to Texas Gov. Rick Perry asking him to halt Suarez Medina’s scheduled execution and calling the punishment “illegal.”

Suarez Medina, 33, is to die by lethal injection Wednesday. He was convicted in 1989 of killing a Dallas police narcotics officer.

Suarez Medina’s attorneys and the Mexican government had sought a new trial or a sentence commutation to life in prison.

They say he was denied his right to contact the Mexican consulate, as guaranteed by international treaty.

But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest court in the state for criminal cases, said he had made similar requests previously.

“He provided no justification or excuse for belatedly raising claims, which he could have presented at an earlier time,” said Richard Wetzel, the court’s general counsel.

A request also is pending with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which was not expected to make a recommendation to the Texas governor until today.

If that request is rejected, Mexico is prepared to immediately file petitions with the U.S. Supreme Court alleging that execution of Suarez Medina would violate international law, said Javier Manuel Gomez-Robledo, legal advisor to Mexico’s foreign relations secretary. Mexico is asking for a stay or a 30-to 90-day reprieve.

According to the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which the United States signed, foreigners detained by U.S. authorities must be told “without delay” that they can seek consulate help.

Fox said in his letter that the Mexican consulate may have prevented the death sentence.

“For Mexico, the violation of the right to notifying the consulate in this case gravely affected other basic rights to due legal process,” Fox said.

In addition to the clemency request, Mexican officials said they will file a petition cosigned by nine other countries--Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Poland and Uruguay--in support of Mexico’s allegation that the execution violates international law.

“Texas should not be permitted to damage the United States’ relationship with its allies, invite international condemnation and increase the danger that nationals detained abroad will be denied in their time honored right to consular assistance and protection,” a copy of the petition states.