(March 25, 2008)—The U.S. Supreme Court says Texas does not have to give a new hearing to a Mexican on death row for rape and murder, deciding a case that mixes presidential power, international relations and the death penalty.
The case pits the president against his home state of Texas.
By a 6-3 vote, the court says President Bush does not have the authority to order a new hearing for the prisoner.
It put Mr. Bush in the unusual position of siding with death row prisoner Jose Ernesto Medellin, a Mexican citizen whom police prevented from consulting with Mexican diplomats, as provided by international treaty.
Medellin was one of five gang members sentenced to death for the rape and murder of two teenage girls in 1993 in Houston.
His attorneys argued that he and 51 other Mexicans on death rows nationwide were denied their rights under international law violated when they were not allowed to seek legal help from Mexican consulates.
The case attracted worldwide attention, and was seen as a test of how much weight the court would give to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which ruled in 2004 that the convictions violated the 1963 Vienna Convention.
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