Citations:

Medellin v. Dretke, 371 F.3d 270 (5th Cir. 2004) (Habeas).

Final/Special Meal:

None.

Final Words:

"I am sorry my actions caused pain. I hope this brings closure to what you seek. Don't ever hate them for what they do. Never harbor hate. I love you. Alright Warden."

ClarkProsecutor.org

Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Executed Offenders (Jose Medellin)

Co-Defendants: Peter Cantu, Raul Villareal, Efrain Perez, Sean Derrick O'Brien

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Media Advisory: Jose Medellin Scheduled For Execution

AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information on Jose Ernesto Medellin, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. Tuesday, August 5, 2008. Medellin was sentenced to die for the June 24, 1993, capital murder of Elizabeth Pena in Houston. A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows.

FACTS OF THE CRIME

On the night of June 24, 1993, 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman and 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena were walking home when they encountered a gang initiation.

The gang members present were Jose Medellin, Peter Cantu, Roman Sandoval, Efrain Perez, Raul Villareal and Sean O’Brien. Roman’s brother, Frank, and Medellin’s 14–year-old brother, Venancio, tagged along. The initiation involved fighting each member of the gang for a five- to ten- minute period.

As the girls passed Medellin, he attempted to engage Elizabeth in conversation. When Elizabeth tried to run from Medellin, he grabbed her and threw her to the ground. Elizabeth screamed for Jennifer to help her. In response to her friend’s cries, Jennifer ran back to help, but Peter and Sean grabbed her and threw her down as well. At this point, the Sandoval brothers decided that it was time to leave.

Subsequent boastful statements of Medellin and other gang members revealed that what ensued was a brutal gang rape of both girls by the gang members. After the assault, Medellin, Raul, Efrain, and Peter met at Peter’s house where he lived with his brother and sister-in-law, Joe and Christina Cantu, to brag about their exploits. Christina noticed that Raul was bleeding and that Efrain had blood on his shirt. She asked the group what had occurred and Medellin responded that they “had fun” and that their exploits would be seen on the television news. Medellin was hyper, giggling, and laughing. He boasted to Joe and Christina that the group had met two girls and had sex with them. He also told the couple that the two girls had been talking to them and that he punched one of the girls because she had started screaming after he grabbed her.

Medellin told Joe and Christina that he sexually assaulted both girls. Peter joined the group shortly thereafter and began to divide up the money and jewelry that had been taken from the two girls. Peter gave Medellin a ring with an “E” design on it so that he could give it to his girlfriend, Esther.

When Christina asked the group what happened to the girls, Medellin told her that they had been killed so that they could not identify their attackers. Medellin then elaborated that it would have been easier with a gun, but because they did not have one at the scene of the incident, he took off one of his shoelaces and strangled at least one of the girls with it. Both Joe and Christina noted that Medellin complained of the difficulty the group encountered in killing the girls. After Medellin related the difficulty he encountered in strangling one of the girls, he said that he put his foot on her throat because she would not die.

Christina later convinced her husband to report the incident to the police. By the time bodies were discovered, they were so badly decomposed that dental records were required to identify them. However, enough tissue remained for the medical examiner to determine that each girl had died of a trauma to the neck consistent with strangulation.

Eventually, all of the individuals who participated in the rapes and murders were arrested. After Medellin was arrested, he gave a written and tape-recorded statement, the latter of which was never offered into evidence at trial. In the written statement, Medellin admitted to having oral sex with Elizabeth, but commented that he only peripherally participated in her murder.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

• September 23, 1993 -- Medellin was indicted in Harris County for murdering Elizabeth Pena during the course of committing kidnapping, robbery, and aggravated sexual assault.

• September 16, 1994 -- Medellin was found guilty by a jury.

• October 11, 1994 -- Following a separate punishment hearing, Medellin was sentenced to death.

• March 26, 1998 -- Medellin filed an application for a state writ of habeas corpus.

• October 3, 2001 -- The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied writ.

• November 28, 2001 -- Medellin filed a federal petition for writ of habeas corpus.

• June 25, 2003 -- The federal district court dismissed Medellin’s federal habeas petition.

• October 24, 2003 -- Medellin requested permission to appeal from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

• May 20, 2004 -- The Fifth Circuit Court denied Medellin’ request to appeal.

• August 18, 2004 -- Medellin petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for writ of certiorari.

• May 23, 2005 -- The Supreme Court dismissed the writ as improvidently granted.

• March 24, 2005 -- Medellin filed a second state application for writ of habeas corpus.

• November 15, 2006 -- The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed Medellin’s application.

• November 16, 2006 -- Medellin filed a second federal petition for writ of habeas corpus.

• January 16, 2007 -- Medellin petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari.

• April 30, 2007 -- The United States Supreme Court grants writ of certiorari.

• March 25, 2008 -- The Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Criminal Appeals.

• July 22, 2008 -- U.S. District court dismissed Medellin’s second federal habeas petition.

PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

Medellin was referred for a weapons charge as a juvenile in 1992. Later that same year, Medellin was arrested and charged with the offense of carrying a weapon.

Medellin executed for rape, murder of Houston teens

By Allan Turner and Rosanna Cruz - Houston Chronicle

Aug. 6, 2008

HUNTSVILLE — The state of Texas defied an international court and executed Jose Ernesto Medellin late Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for the killer in the 1993 Houston gang rape-murders of two teenage girls.

Medellin, 33, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 9:57 p.m., nine minutes after receiving the fatal cocktail and nearly four hours after his scheduled 6 p.m. execution. In his final statement, Medellin apologized for his crime: "I'm sorry that my actions brought you pain. I hope this brings the closure to what you seek," he said. "Don't ever hate them for what they do. Never harbor hate."

He then looked toward the witness room in which his friend, Sandra Crisp, was watching, crying softly, and smiled. "I love you," he said. In the adjoining witness room, relatives of the two victims watched with little apparent emotion.

Medellin, a Mexican national who spent most of his life in the United States, was condemned for the June 1993 murders of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Peña, 16. The girls were raped and strangled with a belt and shoelace after they stumbled into a drunken gang initiation rite while cutting through the park to get home before their curfew.

Four days after the crime, a tip from a gang member's brother led authorities to the bodies, then to the suspects. Within three hours of his arrest, Medellin admitted his role in the gruesome murders, appalling authorities with his boastful, callous description of the night's events.

At issue in Medellin's last-minute appeal was his assertion that authorities refused his right to contact the Mexican Consulate after his arrest. By doing so, his attorneys argued, officials violated a 1963 treaty signed by the U.S. and 165 other countries that should have granted him access. His case stirred international controversy when the United Nations' high court found his rights had been violated. The court ordered the execution be stayed.

While some cheered Texas' decision to execute him on Tuesday, others warned that his death could render the treaty void, putting the lives of American citizens arrested overseas in jeopardy.

The fathers of the victims, however, expressed relief. "It's a long time coming," Adolfo Peña said, "Fifteen years is a long time. I wish those two girls could've lived that long." Randy Ertman stood with his arm around Christina Alamaraz, a close friend. He said recent media attention had been too focused on Medellin and not their daughters.

Sandra Babcock, a law professor at Northwestern University in Chicago and an attorney for Medellin, said the case was not just about one Mexican national on death row. "It's also about ordinary Americans who count on the protections of the consulate when they travel abroad in strange lands," she said. "It's about the reputation of the U.S. as a nation that adheres to the rule of law."

Hours before the execution, death penalty supporters and opponents gathered at Huntsville's Walls Unit, site of the state execution chamber. Elaine Jackson of Houston, who identified herself as a friend of the Peñas, was among those supporting the execution. "The girls didn't get a second chance, why should he?" Jackson demanded. "Why should he keep on breathing?"

On the other side of the street, Nancy Bailey was among those opposing the execution. Putting Medellin to death, she said, would flout the nation's treaty commitments and endanger Americans arrested abroad.

Medellin, who granted few interviews on death row, told a Mexican news reporter that he'd had 15 years in prison to compose his emotions. On Monday and Tuesday he visited with his parents, whom he had not seen since 2001, and spoke by phone with his younger brother, who is serving 40 years for his part in the crime.

Jose Medellin had insisted he told police he was a Mexican citizen; Gov. Rick Perry's office said he did not. In 2004, the world court, acting on a Mexican lawsuit against the U.S., ordered hearings to determine if the cases of Medellin and dozens of other Mexican nationals in custody had been damaged by the treaty violations.

President Bush urged the hearings be held. Texas, however, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that only Congress had authority to demand such hearings. Weeks after the decision, a bill retroactively calling for the hearings was introduced in Congress. The bill, however, remains in legislative limbo.

"Outside of Texas this is a huge diplomatic misstep," said Columbia Law School professor Sarah Cleveland. "Unfortunately, I doubt the international community is likely to brush this off as simply the actions of Texas. In the international community ... the United States is responsible for Texas' actions."

Judge Cathy Cochran, of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, took a different view. "Some societies may judge our death penalty barbaric," she noted. "Most Texans, however, consider death a just penalty in certain rare circumstances. Many Europeans disagree. So be it."

Medellin was the second person executed for the attack. Derrick O'Brien was put to death in July 2006. Gang leader Peter Cantu remains on death row. Two others, 17 at the time of the crime, had their death sentences commuted to life in prison.

Court decision sends Medellin to death

By Kristin Edwards - Huntsville Item

August 6, 2008

After a lengthy wait for a U.S. Supreme Court decision Tuesday night, 33-year-old Jose Medellin was executed for his part in the 1993 gang-rape and murder of two teenage girls. The lethal injection began flowing at 9:48 p.m., and Medellin was pronounced dead at 9:57 p.m.

Medellin’s execution was scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. Tuesday, but at that point, the Supreme Court had not yet released its ruling on an appeal filed by Medellin’s attorneys days before.

At approximately 9:20 p.m., a split decision by the court was released indicating that the court had dismissed the attorneys’ request for a stay of execution, giving the state the go-ahead to carry out the lethal injection. Without any further appeals pending, Medellin was taken from his holding cell in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Walls Unit and prepared for the lethal injection.

According to Michelle Lyons, TDCJ public information officer, Medellin was apologetic in his last statement, addressing the families of his victims and saying “I love you” to his personal witnesses. “I am sorry my actions caused pain, and I hope this bring the closure you seek,” Medellin said Tuesday night at approximately 9:48 p.m. “Never harbor hate — I love you.”

While making his final statement, Medellin appeared to have tears in his eyes as he twice told his personal witnesses he loved them. As the lethal solution took effect, Medellin’s eyes appeared to be slightly open.

Medellin’s case gained international attention when Mexican officials complained that its nationals on death row — of which Medellin was only one of approximately 50 — were not informed of their right to consular access and assistance during trial. That alleged denial, Mexico claimed, was a violation of rights guaranteed in the Vienna Convention.

Following the execution, Medellin’s attorney Sandra Babcock made a statement to the multitude of local and international media who had gathered outside of the Walls Unit. “In a situation like this, it’s hard to talk about what’s next,” Babcock said. “Now, more than ever, it is important to think not only about the fate of one Mexican (national), but about the safety of Americans who travel abroad to strange lands. “It is now imperative that Congress act to restore the country’s reputation.”

Medellin was originally sentenced to death after he and five others gang-raped and murdered 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena and 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman in Houston. The girls walked past Medellin and five other gang members during a gang initiation, and according to reports, each of the gang members took active roles in the assaults and murders of both girls. Medellin was 18 years old at the time of the murders.

Pena’s father, Adolfo Pena, spoke briefly following the execution to express his gratitude to Gov. Rick Perry. “We feel relieved — 15 years is a long time to get justice for Jennifer and Elizabeth,” he said. “We’re just looking forward every day to that last execution.”

However, he and the other victim witnesses would not speak to any of the Hispanic media present. Pena specifically said to one reporter, “I don’t have anything to say to you, sir.”

Texas defies World Court with execution

By Ed Stoddard - Reuters News

Wed Aug 6, 2008

DALLAS (Reuters) - Texas defied the World Court and executed a Mexican national by lethal injection on Tuesday over the objections of the international judicial body and neighboring Mexico.

Jose Medellin, 33, was pronounced dead at 9:57 p.m. CDT (0257 GMT) in the state's death chamber in Huntsville, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said. He had been condemned for the 1993 rape and murder of 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena in Houston and lost his bid late Tuesday for a last-minute stay from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The World Court last month ordered the U.S. government to "take all measures necessary" to halt the upcoming executions of five Mexicans including Medellin's on the grounds that they had been deprived of their right to consular services after their arrests.

Medellin's execution is sure to anger neighboring Mexico and analysts have said it could make life rough for Americans arrested abroad if other countries decide to evoke the U.S. example and deprive them of their right to consular services. This typically means diplomats will visit and provide legal advice to their nationals being held by authorities.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had recommended that the state's Republican governor Rick Perry not grant a temporary reprieve, paving the way for Medellin's execution. Texas, which executes far more convicts than any other U.S. state, had taken the view that the brutal nature of Medellin's crimes rendered him unfit for a reprieve or lesser sentence.

The World Court's jurisdiction also does not reach Texas, a state where authorities generally don't like outsiders telling them what to do. The political fall-out from the Medellin and related cases has reached the White House and the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. President George W. Bush directed his native Texas to comply with a World Court ruling in 2004 mandating review of the cases of Medellin and other Mexicans in U.S. prisons awaiting execution. The U.S. Supreme Court said in March Bush's action had exceeded his authority.

The government of Mexico sent the U.S. State Department a diplomatic note of protest, expressing "its concern for the precedent" that the case "may create for the rights of Mexican nationals who may be detained in that country."

CHILLING CRIME

The June 1993 crime for which Medellin was condemned was chilling. According to the Texas Attorney General's office, Pena and her 14-year-old companion, Jennifer Ertman, were walking home when they encountered a gang initiation.

Medellin and his fellow gang members sexually assaulted, beat and strangled the two girls. When their badly decomposed bodies were finally recovered, they could only be identified by dental records. Medellin was only convicted of Pena's murder.

Speaking to Reuters in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, Medellin's aunt Reyna Armendariz, 45, said: "He was a normal, happy kid ... They don't have the right to take his life away, we acknowledged that he committed a crime but make him pay with a life sentence," she said.

In his last statement Medellin said: "I am sorry my actions caused pain." He had no last meal request, which is a ritual of U.S. executions.

Medellin was the fifth inmate executed in Texas so far this year and the 410th put to death since 1982, when the state resumed executions six years after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment.

Texas currently has 14 more executions scheduled for this year and one early in 2009. Seventeen executions have now been carried out in the United States since the Supreme Court in April lifted an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty when it rejected a challenge to the three-drug cocktail used in most lethal injections.

ProDeathPenalty.com

Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena were 14 and 16 years old, respectively. They were friends who attended the same high school in Houston, Texas, Waltrip High School. On June 24, 1993, the girls spent the day together and then died together. They were last seen by friends about 11:15 at night, when they left a friend's apartment to head home, to beat summer curfew at 11:30.

They knew they would be late if they took the normal path home, down W. 34th Street to T.C. Jester, both busy streets. They also knew they would have to pass a sexually-oriented business on that route and so decided to take a well-known shortcut down a railroad track and through a city park to Elizabeth's neighborhood.

The next morning, the girls parents began to frantically look for them, paging them on their pagers, calling their friends to see if they knew where they were, to no avail. The families filed missing persons reports with the Houston Police Department and continued to look for the girls on their own. The Ertmans and Penas gathered friends and neighbors to help them pass out a huge stack of fliers with the girls' pictures all over the Houston area, even giving them to newspaper vendors on the roadside.

Four days after the girls disappeared, a person identifying himself as 'Gonzalez' called the Crimestoppers Tips number. He told the call taker that the missing girls' bodies could be found near T.C. Jester Park at White Oak bayou. The police were sent to the scene and searched the park without finding anything. The police helicopter was flying over the park and this apparently prompted Mr. 'Gonzalez' to make a 911 call, directing the search to move to the other side of the bayou. When the police followed this suggestion, they found the badly decaying bodies of Jenny and Elizabeth.

Jennifer Ertman's dad, Randy Ertman, was about to give an interview regarding the missing girls to a local television reporter when the call came over a cameraman's police scanner that two bodies had been found. Randy commandeered the news van and went to the scene that was now bustling with police activity. Randy Ertman appeared on the local news that evening, screaming at the police officers who were struggling to hold him back, "Does she have blond hair? Does she have blond hair?!!?" Fortunately, they did manage to keep Randy from entering the woods and seeing his daughter's brutalized body and that of her friend Elizabeth. The bodies were very badly decomposed, even for four days in Houston's brutal summer heat and humidity, particularly in the head, neck and genital areas.

The medical examiner later testified that this is how she could be sure as to the horrible brutality of the rapes, beatings and murders. The break in solving the case came from, of course, the 911 call. It was traced to the home of the brother of one of the men later sentenced to death for these murders. When the police questioned 'Gonzalez', he said that he had made the original call at his 16 year-old wife's urging. She felt sorry for the families and wanted them to be able to put their daughters' bodies to rest. 'Gonzalez' said that his brother was one of the six people involved in killing the girls, and gave police the names of all but one, the new recruit, whom he did not know.

His knowledge of the crimes came from the killers themselves, most of whom came to his home after the murders, bragging and swapping the jewelry they had stolen from the girls. While Jenny and Elizabeth were living the last few hours of their lives, Peter Cantu, Efrain Perez, Derrick Sean O'Brien, Joe Medellin and Joe's 14 year old brother were initiating a new member, Raul Villareal, into their gang, known as the Black and Whites. Raul was an acquaintance of Efrain and was not known to the other gang members. They had spent the evening drinking beer and then "jumping in" Raul. This means that the new member was required to fight every member of the gang until he passed out and then he would be accepted as a member.

Testimony showed that Raul lasted through three of the members before briefly losing consciousness. The gang continued drinking and 'shooting the breeze' for some time and then decided to leave. Two brothers who had been with them but testified that they were not in the gang left first and passed Jenny and Elizabeth, who were unknowingly walking towards their deaths. When Peter Cantu saw Jenny and Elizabeth, he thought it was a man and a woman and told the other gang members that he wanted to jump him and beat him up. He was frustrated that he had been the one who was unable to fight Raul. The gang members ran and grabbed Elizabeth and pulled her down the incline, off of the tracks.

Testimony showed that Jenny had gotten free and could have run away but returned to Elizabeth when she cried out for Jenny to help her. For the next hour or so, these beautiful, innocent young girls were subjected to the most brutal gang rapes that most of the investigating officers had ever encountered. The confessions of the gang members that were used at trial indicated that there was never less than 2 men on each of the girls at any one time and that the girls were repeatedly raped orally, anally and vaginally for the entire hour.

One of the gang members later said during the brag session that by the time he got to one of the girls, "she was loose and sloppy." One of the boys boasted of having 'virgin blood' on him. The 14-year-old juvenile later testified that he had gone back and forth between his brother and Peter Cantu since they were the only ones there that he really knew and kept urging them to leave. He said he was told repeatedly by Peter Cantu to "get some". He raped Jennifer and was later sentenced to 40 years for aggravated sexual assault, which was the maximum sentence for a juvenile.

When the rapes finally ended, the horror was not over. The gang members took Jenny and Elizabeth from the clearing into a wooded area, leaving the juvenile behind, saying he was "too little to watch". Jenny was strangled with the belt of Sean O'Brien, with two murderers pulling, one on each side, until the belt broke. Part of the belt was left at the murder scene, the rest was found in O'Brien's home. After the belt broke, the killers used her own shoelaces to finish their job. Medellin later complained that "the bitch wouldn't die" and that it would have been "easier with a gun". Elizabeth was also strangled with her shoelaces, after crying and begging the gang members not to kill them; bargaining, offering to give them her phone number so they could get together again.

The medical examiner testified that Elizabeth's two front teeth were knocked out of her brutalized mouth before she died and that two of Jennifer's ribs were broken after she had died. Testimony showed that the girls' bodies were kicked and their necks were stomped on after the strangulations in order to "make sure that they were really dead."

The juvenile, Venancio Medellin, pled guilty to his charge and his sentence was reviewed when he turned 18, at which time he was sent to serve the remainder of the sentence in prison. The five killers were tried for capital murder in Harris County, Texas, convicted and sentenced to death.

UPDATE: Before he was executed by lethal injection, Medellin apologized to the families of the victims. He said he was sorry that his actions had caused them pain and he hoped this would bring them the closure they seek.

José Ernesto Medellín, (March 4, 1975 – August 5, 2008) born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, was a Mexican national who was executed for murder in Texas in the United States. Medellín was convicted of raping and killing 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena and 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman in June, 1993.

His case gained notoriety when Mexico sued the United States in the International Court of Justice on behalf of 51 Mexican nationals asserting that, in these cases, the US had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to which it is signatory, which requires that local authorities inform foreign nationals being held on criminal charges of their right to consult with their country’s diplomats. That court ruled that the United States was obliged to have the defendants’ cases reopened and reconsidered.

The Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear the case on May 1, 2007. The Bush administration briefed the Supreme Court on the obligation to comply with international treaties. On March 25, 2008, the US Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration's arguments and cleared the way for Texas to execute the sentence.

Rape and Murder

On June 24, 1993, Medellín performed a gang initiation in a park along with five others, Peter Cantu, Roman Sandoval, Efrain Perez, Raul Villareal and Sean O'Brien. Two others, Frank Sandoval and Venancio Medellín, were present but did not participate in the initiation. The initiation involved the new member, Raul Villareal, submitting to beatings from the others. After this, the gang members remained in the park, drinking beer.

At this time, 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman and 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena were taking a shortcut through the park to get home before curfew. They encountered the gang, and Medellín began talking to Pena. She attempted to flee, but he forced her to the ground. Pena cried for help and Ertman ran back to assist her. In response, Cantu and O'Brien pushed her down as well. Roman and Frank Sandoval chose to leave then.

The remainder of the gang, as well as Venancio Medellín, took turns vaginally and anally raping the two girls. Afterwards, they were beaten, then the gang decided to murder the girls so they would not be identified as the rapists. Medellín killed one of the girls by using his shoelaces to strangle her, then crushing her neck with his foot. Other gang members strangled the remaining girl with a nylon belt, until the belt snapped.

Medellín, Villareal, Perez, and Cantu then congregated at Cantu's home, where he lived along with his brother, Joe Cantu, and sister-in-law, Christina Cantu. Christina Cantu questioned why Villareal was bleeding and Perez had a bloody shirt. This prompted Medellín to say the gang "had fun", and that details would appear on the news. He then elaborated that he had raped both girls. Peter Cantu then returned, and divvied up valuables that had been stolen from the girls. Medellín got a ring with an 'E', so he could give it to his girlfriend, Esther. Medellín reported that he had killed a girl, and noted that he would have found it easier with a gun. Derrick Sean O'Brien was videotaped smiling at the scene of the crime.

After the gang left, Christina Cantu convinced Joe Cantu to report the crime to police. Four days after the crime, the bodies were found in the park. They were badly decaying, and dental records were used for identification. The medical examiner corroborated that the cause of death was strangulation. All those believed responsible were ultimately arrested. Medellín gave both a written and taped confession.

Case history

In the International Court of Justice, Mexico sued the United States on behalf of Mexican citizens who had been sentenced to death without having their national consulate notified. The court ruled that the United States acted in error and required that the defendants’ cases be reopened.

Initially, the US government described Mexico’s suit as “an unjustified, unwise and ultimately unacceptable intrusion in the United States criminal justice system.” Reversing that position in early 2005, with Medellín’s death-penalty appeal pending before the Supreme Court, the White House announced that it would abide by the decision by instructing the states to reconsider the convictions and sentences of the Mexican nationals on death row. The Supreme Court then dismissed Medellín’s case to enable the Texas courts to comply with that directive.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to change their rules barring reconsideration of such cases. In that decision, one of the court’s judges accused the White House of an “unprecedented, unnecessary and intrusive exercise of power over the Texas court system”. In response, the Bush administration entered the case on Medellín’s behalf and urged the Supreme Court to overturn the Texas court’s decision. The case, Medellín v. Texas, No. 06-984, was argued on October 10, 2007 and decided on March 25, 2008.

The US government’s brief, filed by Solicitor General Paul D. Clement, told the justices that the Texas court’s decision, if not reversed, “will place the United States in breach of its international law obligation” to comply with the World Court’s decision and would “frustrate the president’s judgment that foreign policy interests are best served by giving effect to that decision.” Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito, rejected the Bush administration's arguments. Justice Stevens wrote a concurring opinion. Justice Breyer, joined by Justices Souter and Ginsberg, dissented.

On July 16, 2008, the International Court of Justice asked for a stay of execution on behalf of Medellin and four other Mexican nationals who they believe did not receive a fair trial.

On July 17, 2008, Robert Black, spokesman for Texas Governor Rick Perry, said the state would continue with the scheduled August 5 execution despite the International Court of Justice order for a stay. "The world court has no standing in Texas and Texas is not bound by a ruling or edict from a foreign court. It is easy to get caught up in discussions of international law and justice and treaties. It's very important to remember that these individuals are on death row for killing our citizens."

Execution

Medellín was executed at 9:57 PM Central, on August 5, 2008 after a three hour delay while the Supreme Court heard a late appeal, which was denied.

Wikipedia.org

Petitioner has not shown that reasonable jurists could disagree with the district court's denial of any of his claims. Accordingly, we deny Petitioner's Application for a Certificate of Appealability from Denial of a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus. DENIED.