Garcia Executed despite Presidential Request

Garcia Executed despite Presidential Request

Humberto Leal Garcia, the 38-year-old Mexican-born man was executed about an hour ago by lethal injection. Sources say that US President Barack Obama has made an appeal to delay the said execution to protect US foreign interests.

Leal was the Mexican national who was charged of rape and murder of a 16-year old girl, and was reportedly not told after his arrest that under the Vienna convention, he has the right to contact the Mexican consulate and might have been legally represented. The delay was requested by the President because of the possible effect of the said execution to the country’s foreign relations, and probably endangering Americans who travel abroad.

Despite the reasons being set, the Supreme Court still continued with the execution due to a 5-4 ruling saying that, “Our task is to rule on what the law is, not what it might eventually be." This is apparently in response to the President’s appeal citing the new international law that might prove that there are violations on the rights of Leal and 50 other Mexican citizens on death row in the United States.

The Supreme Court further noted that although the 2008 international court ruling was binding, there was no action made by the Congress to fully enforce the said law, which led to the demise of Leal.

Posted by James Fried on Friday July 08 2011, 4:46 PM EST. Ref: Yahoo news. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0