Published: August 04, 2008 10:43 pm      

State board denies Medellin reprieve

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles announced Monday that it would not recommend a commutation of sentence or a reprieve for the Mexican-born Jose Medellin.

Medellin, whose execution is scheduled for sometime after 6 p.m. today at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Walls Unit, was originally sentenced to death in 1994.

Attorneys representing the now 33-year-old Medellin submitted a clemency application to the board seeking one of the two alternatives.

The board, which has the authority to make clemency recommendations to Gov. Rick Perry, decided not to recommend a change of plans.

The release indicated that “after reviewing the clemency application submitted by Jose Ernesto Medellin’s attorneys and all relevant documents, the board members decided by a majority vote not to recommend a commutation of sentence from death to life or a 240-day reprieve.”

Medellin was originally sentenced to death after he and five others gang-raped and murdered two girls — 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena and 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman — in Houston.

Medellin was 18 years old at the time the two girls were killed.

Since 1994, attorneys representing Medellin have appealed to the International Court of Justice, claiming Medellin was denied the protections of the Vienna Convention during his trial.

As a Mexican national, the attorneys claim Medellin should have been provided access to his country’s consular officials.

Late last week, Medellin’s attorneys filed for a reprieve with the Supreme Court on similar grounds.

His attorneys have also approached the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

The lethal injection, which would be the fifth this year in Texas and the first of two this week in the nation’s most active capital punishment state, has attracted international attention with Medellin’s lawyers arguing the Mexican-born convicted killer was not given legal courtesies allowed foreigners under international treaty.

The International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, has said Medellin and some 50 other Mexicans on death rows around the nation should have new hearings in U.S. courts to determine whether a 1963 treaty was violated during their arrests.

Medellin is the first among them set to die. His attorneys contend he was denied the protections of the Vienna Convention, which calls for people arrested to have access to their home country’s consular officials.

President Bush has asked states to review the cases, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year neither the president nor the international court can force Texas to wait.

Medellin’s supporters say either Congress or the Texas Legislature should be given a chance to pass a law setting up procedures for new hearings before he should be executed.

Gov. Rick Perry, the Texas courts and the state attorney general have said the execution should be carried out.

Randy Ertman, whose daughter Jennifer was murdered, plans to be in the death chamber today to see Medellin die.

He made a similar trip in 2006 when Derrick O’Brien became the first of the gang members executed for the crime.

O’Brien said Medellin was at one end of a belt being pulled around Jennifer Ertman’s neck as he yanked on the other.

Two others, Efrain Perez and Raul Villarreal, had their death sentences commuted to life in prison when the Supreme Court barred executions for those who were 17 at the time of their crimes.

Peter Cantu, described by authorities as ringleader, remains on death row. He does not have an execution date.

The sixth person convicted, Medellin’s brother, Vernancio, was 14 at the time and is serving a 40-year prison term.

At least six other Mexican nationals have been executed in Texas since 1982.

On Thursday, a Honduran man, Heliberto Chi, 29, is set to die for the slaying of a suburban Dallas clothing store manager during the robbery of a clothing store seven years ago.