According to El Norte, after months of intense review,the World Court and Congress’ Howard Berman and Zoe Lofgren submitted their resolution. Close sources of the project are saying the additional presentation and proposal of the HR 6481 law is more than enough reason for the state of Texas to not only postpone, but offer a powerful recourse for an extensive review and litigation in the case of the programmed August 5 execution of Mexico’s Jose Medillin.

From the very first 1824 and in the revised 1857 Mexican Constitution, the death penalty was abolished, although there were admitted exceptions and practices were still widely allowed to be subjected to a judge’s criteria. In 1929, the death penalty was excluded by definite manner in the Mexican Federal Penal Code.

Jose Medellin was born in New Laredo and moved to the U.S. as a child. He attended U.S. public schools and later joined the Blacks and Whites gang which later lead to the brutal gang raping, torture, and murders of Elizabeth Peña and Jennifer Ertman. Along with Medillin, there were five other convictions for the tragic and confessed deaths of these two young girls.

The question is not if Jose Medillin is guilty, as he had confessed to his complete involvement in the crimes. The question is why was the Mexican Consulate not notified until after the fact?

Unfortunately, the lack of acknowledgement of International Law is not uncommon. My wife was curious as to her Rights as an American Citizen if she were to be found guilty of a crime here in Mexico.
This is what she found:

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_970.html#criminal_penalties

Can we, globally, pick and choose? Can we choose to visit or live in a country legally or illegally, and assume instant immunity? I’m not talking about persecution, I’m talking about Murder. Can we choose to ” have our cake and eat it too? I do NOT favor capital punishment. I feel killing is killing and murder is murder : by committing the crime or invoking the death penalty, but how can an issue like this be resolved ? Is it fair to the Peña and Ertman families to allow those convicted to live when they didn’t allow their daughters the same opportunity? Will executing the guilty bring their daughters back? Should Medillin’s family be punished by the murder of their child as well? Are we “eye for eye”, where do we draw the line?

If a foreign citizen commits a crime abroad, their consulate is notified,as by international law, and they are still sentenced to death, what happens? We need clearly defined international laws to avoid increased global judicial abuse (by the accused or the accuser) and chaos.

Please share your thoughts.