TheOrangeCat
AFK..being taken to the vet to get neutered.
Well, it appears that you who would deny this guy his rights (under the terms of the Vienna Convention) that were in effect and of which we were a participant when he was arrested and charged with the crime have gotten your way. He was killed by lethal injection at Ellis Unit One in Huntsville shortly after 6 pm local time.
Before all of you shout "hip...hip...hooray!" at this development, I would really ask you to think twice about traveling abroad as an American citizen from now on.....especially if you have the misfortune of being arrested for any reason. It's likely that you will now be denied access to assistance from the US consulate just like this individual was. It is incredible to me that here in the "land of the free and the home of the brave" that such basic rights would be so easily dismissed by those of you here who have made statements like "let him fry" or making references to "tacos" (racist beyond question) without any regard to the due process to which he should have been afforded by international agreement and yet denied nonetheless.
I wonder how many of you who might find themselves in similar circumstances and be denied access to help from the American consulate should you somehow find yourself in legal trouble abroad would still maintain your position on this issue in retrospect. This is an incredibly defiant and incomprehensible statement for this nation to make to the international community when it comes to individual human rights.
Before you spit-roast me about my views understand that I am in no way exonerating this man from the crime for which he was convicted. The issue in question has nothing to do with that. The more salient point is that he was obviously denied his rights under international agreement and this country (the USA) just decided to throw those rights in the toilet regardless for reasons that I am unable to understand.
I hate to say this but tonight I am ashamed to be an American.
I can understand your passion in your opposition to the death penalty: hell, I'm not even sure I'm for it most days.
But - accepting that he was denied his rights to speak to the Mexican consulate - changes nothing in the facts of the case. He would still have been found guilty, still have been executed under the provisions of the current law.
This last appeal was nothing but a tactic: to delay, to protest capital punishment, to wrangle and dissect yet more law.
Let's say he'd won the appeal on the grounds of being denied access to the consulate. He'd still, eventually, have been executed. Nothing was going to stop that freight train riding him to the death chamber, because an abuse of process - no matter how egregious - doesn't change the fact that he kidnapped, raped and murdered a teenage girl.
