Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth
Pena were 14 and 16 years old, respectively. They were friends who attended
the same high school in Houston, Texas, Waltrip High
School. On June 24,
1993, the girls spent the day together....and then died together.
They were last seen by friends
about 11:15 at night, when they left a friend's apartment to head home,
to beat summer curfew at 11:30. They knew they would be late if they took
the normal path home, down W. 34th Street to T.C. Jester, both busy streets.
They also knew they would have to pass a sexually-oriented business on
that route and so decided to take a well-known shortcut down a railroad
track and through a city park to Elizabeth's neighborhood.
The next morning, the girls parents
began to frantically look for them, paging them on their pagers, calling
their friends to see if they knew where they were, to no avail. The families
filed missing persons reports with the Houston Police Department and continued
to look for the girls on their own. The Ertmans and Penas gathered friends
and neighbors to help them pass out a huge stack of fliers with the girls'
pictures all over the Houston area, even giving them to newspaper vendors
on the roadside.
Four days after the girls disappeared,
a person identifying himself as 'Gonzalez' called the Crimestoppers Tips
number. He told the call taker that the missing girls' bodies could be
found near T.C. Jester Park at White Oak bayou. The police were sent to
the scene and searched the park without finding anything. The police helicopter
was flying over the park and this apparently prompted Mr. 'Gonzalez' to
make a 911 call, directing the search to move to the other side of the
bayou. When the police followed this suggestion, they found the badly decaying
bodies of Jenny and Elizabeth.
Jennifer Ertman's dad, Randy
Ertman, was about to give an interview regarding the missing girls to a
local television reporter when the call came over a cameraman's police scanner
that two bodies had been found. Randy commandeered the news van and went
to the scene that was now bustling with police activity. Randy Ertman
appeared on the local news that evening, screaming at the police
officers who were struggling to hold him back, "Does she have blond
hair? Does she have blond hair?!!?" Fortunately, they did manage
to keep Randy from entering the woods and seeing his daughter's brutalized
body and that of her friend Elizabeth, but they were unable to escape that
fate themselves. I saw hardened, lifelong cops get tears in their eyes
when talking about the scene more than a year later. The bodies were very
badly decomposed, even for four days in Houston's brutal summer heat and
humidity, particularly in the head, neck and genital areas. The medical
examiner later testified that this is how she could be sure as to the horrible
brutality of the rapes, beatings and murders.
The break in solving the case
came from, of course, the 911 call. It was traced to the home of the brother
of one of the men later sentenced to death for these murders. When the
police questioned 'Gonzalez', he said that he had made the original call
at his 16 year-old wife's urging. She felt sorry for the families and wanted
them to be able to put their daughters' bodies to rest. 'Gonzalez' said
that his brother was one of the six people involved in killing the girls,
and gave police the names of all but one, the new recruit, whom he did
not know.
His knowledge of the crimes came
from the killers themselves, most of whom came to his home after the murders,
bragging and swapping the jewelry they had stolen from the girls.
While Jenny and Elizabeth were
living the last few hours of their lives, Peter
Cantu, Efrain
Perez, Derrick
Sean O'Brien, Joe Medellin and Joe's 14 year old brother were initiating a new
member, Raul
Villareal, into their gang, known as the Black and Whites.
Raul was an acquaintance of Efrain and was not known to the other gang members.
They had spent the evening drinking beer and then "jumping in"
Raul. This means that the new member was required to fight every member
of the gang until he passed out and then he would be accepted as a member.
Testimony showed that Raul lasted through three of the members before briefly
losing consciousness.
The gang continued drinking and 'shooting the breeze'
for some time and then decided to leave. Two brothers who had been with
them but testified that they were not in the gang left first and passed
Jenny and Elizabeth, who were unknowingly walking towards their deaths.
When Peter Cantu saw Jenny and Elizabeth, he thought it was a man and a
woman and told the other gang members that he wanted to jump him and beat
him up. He was frustrated that he had been the one who was unable to fight
Raul.
The gang members ran and grabbed
Elizabeth and pulled her down the incline, off of the tracks. Testimony
showed that Jenny had gotten free and could have run away but returned
to Elizabeth when she cried out for Jenny to help her.
For the next hour or so, these
beautiful, innocent young girls were subjected to the most brutal gang
rapes that most of the investigating officers had ever encountered. The
confessions of the gang members that were used at trial indicated that
there was never less than 2 men on each of the girls at any one time and
that the girls were repeatedly raped orally, anally and vaginally for the entire hour.
One of the gang members later said during the brag session that by the
time he got to one of the girls, "she was loose and sloppy."
One of the boys boasted of having 'virgin blood' on him.
The 14-year-old juvenile later testified
that he had gone back and forth between his brother and Peter Cantu since
they were the only ones there that he really knew and kept urging them
to leave. He said he was told repeatedly by Peter Cantu to "get some".
He raped Jennifer and was later sentenced to 40 years for aggravated
sexual assault, which was the maximum sentence for a juvenile.
When the rapes
finally ended, the horror
was not over. The gang members took Jenny and Elizabeth from the clearing
into a wooded area, leaving the juvenile behind, saying he was "too little
to watch". Jenny was strangled with the belt of Sean O'Brien, with
two murderers pulling, one on each side, until the belt broke. Part of
the belt was left at the murder scene, the rest was found in O'Brien's
home. After the belt broke, the killers used her own shoelaces to finish
their job. Medellin later complained that "the bitch wouldn't die"
and that it would have been "easier with a gun". Elizabeth was
also strangled with her shoelaces, after crying and begging the gang members
not to kill them; bargaining, offering to give them her phone number so
they could get together again.
The medical examiner testified
that Elizabeth's two front teeth were knocked out of her brutalized mouth
before she died and that two of Jennifer's ribs were broken after she had
died. Testimony showed that the girls' bodies were kicked and their necks were stomped on
after the strangulations in order to "make sure that they were really
dead."
The juvenile pled guilty to his
charge and his sentence will be reviewed when he turns 18, at which time
he could be released. The other five were tried for capital murder in Harris
County, Texas, convicted and sentenced to death. I attended all five trials
with the Ertmans and know too well the awful things that they and the Penas
had to hear and see in the course of seeing Justice served for their girls.
Two VERY important things in
the criminal justice system have changed as a result of these murders.
After the trial of Peter Cantu,
Judge Bill Harmon allowed the family members
to address the convicted. This had not previously been done in Texas courts
and now is done as a matter of routine.
The other change came from the
Texas Department of Corrections which instituted a new policy allowing
victims' families the choice and right to view the execution of their perpetrators.
I had an ever-swaying opinion
on the death penalty before this happened to people I know, before I watched
the justice system at work firsthand. I have now come to believe that there
are some crimes so heinous, so unconscionable that there can be no other
appropriate punishment than the death penalty.
Charlene
Hall
Vinnie Medellin was sentenced
at age 14 to forty years in the Texas Department of Corrections for the crime
of aggravated sexual assault upon Jennifer Ertman, to which he pled guilty.
As a juvenile, he was remanded to the custody of the Texas Youth Commission
where he would remain until age eighteen. He testified at all of the other
trials except for that of his brother, Jose Medellin. He refused to answer
any questions at his brother's trial and was held in contempt of court
and sentenced to six months in county jail, to be served at the end of his
current sentence.
On September 26, 1996, after
three years in the custody of the TYC, a hearing was held to determine
the future of the juvenile. Three outcomes were possible; he could have
been released on parole, a possibility which was never even discussed;
he could have been returned to TYC custody until he reached the age of
21 at which time another hearing would have been held; or he could have
been sent to TDC to serve the remainder of his sentence as an adult.
The recommendation of TYC was
that he continue treatment at TYC until age 21. He was said to be an excellent
inmate and did not have behavior problems and participated in all required
therapies. On the other hand, his counselors reported that he still seemed
to show no remorse for his part in the crimes and also did not take responsibility
for his part.
The courtroom was filled
with supporters of the girls' families, most of whom did not know them
before the murders and who have become friends through Justice For All
or Parents of Murdered Children. There was testimony about the details
of the crime from a detective who was present at the murder scene and participated
in the investigation and arrests. A therapist from TYC testified as to
Vinnie's stay at TYC and the reports of various counselors and therapists.
Vinnie's father testified as to his good behavior before this incident.
Randy Ertman took the witness
stand to tell the court about his daughter, Jennifer. When asked what Jenny's
hobbies were, he elicited bittersweet smiles in the courtroom when he responded,
"Shopping!" Randy told the judge that he was living through
the worst possible thing that could happen to a family and implored the
judge to send Vinnie to TDC and to not make the families repeat this process
in three years.
Vinnie took the stand and was
asked about his past behavior, his grades at school and how he happened
to be with his brother on this night. He read a letter that he had written,
telling the parents of the victims that he was sorry for their losses and
warning other teenagers away from gangs, saying that he had gone with this
gang for one hour and had ruined his life forever.
Judge Pat Shelton did not take
a recess to ponder his decision. He said that he agreed with Mr. Ertman,
that this is the nightmare of nightmares for a parent. He said that he
also agreed with Vinnie Medellin that gangs were destructive but that "you
have to mean what you say when you are walking out the front door of your
house, not just when you are walking in the door of the courtroom."
He also said "I'm not sure
that your future parole officer has even been BORN yet and I'm not sure
that you deserve for him to have even been born yet." He rejected
the report from the TYC as "psycho-babble" and transferred custody
of Venancio Medellin to the Texas Department of Corrections.
Charlene
Hall
Update
I just wanted to
let visitors know what is going on with the killers' appeals.
Two of the
murderers had an execution date set for June 2004, on and the
day after the 11th anniversary of the murders. The two were
Efrain Perez and Raul Villarreal. They both received a stay
because of an appeal that was to be heard before the US Supreme
Court regarding a case from Missouri that challenged the
execution of any murderer who was under the age of 18 at the
time of the crime. Both of these killers were not yet 18 when
they brutally attacked and killed the girls. Villarreal turned
18 in three months, and Perez turned 18 five months after the
murders.
The arguments in
this case were heard in the fall of 2004 and the decision was handed down
a few months later; no more death penalties for "juvenile"
murderers. This will result in these two killers, plus dozens
more across the country, being removed from death row and given
life sentences instead. In this case, it is life without the
possibility of parole for 35 years because that was the
alternative to a death sentence in a capital case at the time of
the murders. They will certainly never be
released from prison, but they should have been executed.
The only
consolation is that they will no longer have the protection they
now have on death row - they will be in the general population
of the prison system and most regular prisoners do not like
people who rape and murder children. They might have gotten a
reprieve but it may be much worse in the end, a true case of
be careful what you wish for...
Additionally, a
third killer out of the five who were put on death row for this crime had an
appeal pending before the US Supreme Court. In this instance,
Joe Medellin
claims that he should get a new trial because he is a Mexican
national and should have been allowed to contact the Mexican
consulate for legal assistance. However, he had lived in the
US since he was six years old and had gone to elementary, middle
and high school here. The Supreme Court heard arguments in
the case in spring of 2005. In the meantime, US President George
Bush instructed, via a "determination," that Texas courts comply
with the 2004 ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
and hold a hearing for Medellin. Texas refused to comply,
saying that the federal government and the international ruling
have no bearing on state criminal justice statutes. The
US Supreme Court agreed to hear Medellin's case again, and sided
with Texas against the President, saying that President Bush did
not have the authority to order such a review. Medellin
has an execution date of August 5, 2008.
Sean O'Brien was
executed on July 11, 2006. His final statement was, "I'm sorry.
I have always been sorry. It's the worst mistake that I ever
made in my whole life. Not because I am here but because of what
I did and I hurt a lot of people, you and my family."
Email me at charlene@murdervictims.com
Memorial
Service on the five year anniversary of the murders
We mourn not just for the loss of what was but also for what
will never be.
Two benches were placed
in TC Jester Park, each bearing the names of one of the
girls,
Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena. Speakers included Dianne
Clements; Marie Munier and Jeannine Barr
from the Harris County District Attorney's Office; Kim Ogg
from the Houston Gang Task Force; John Sage and Woody
Clements.
Adolph & Melissa Pena, speaking to the audience.
Just before sunset,
dozens of balloons were released over the spot where
Jennifer and Elizabeth lost their lives that sad night.
Each balloon had a note attached to it that showed a photo
of the girls along with the following text:
We can heal, but we
will never forget.
Elizabeth and
Jennifer were brutally murdered five years ago this month.
This balloon was released on June 29, 1998, from Houston,
during a remembrance gathering for the girls. If you
find this balloon message, please call xxx-xxx-xxxx and let
us know how far the message traveled.
The furthest distance
reported was approximately sixty miles, in Anahuac, Texas.
In Memory of Elizabeth Pena and Jennifer Ertman
- 1993
S. P. Waltrip High School
News articles
about these murders (if you want to read
them in chronological order,
start at the bottom of the page)
Wed 8/6/2008
Somber tribute held to the teen victims / Group gathers where 2
girls slain and neighborhood was shaken to core
While all eyes were on Huntsville, a small group gathered
near an Oak Forest railroad trestle to pay quiet tribute to the
two girls whose deaths shook the Houston neighborhood to its
foundation.
It was the spot where, in the 1980s and early '90s, dense woods
sheltered teenagers playing hooky, and where the railroad bridge
over the bayou beat a shortcut back to their middle-class
neighborhood.
It was the same spot where, in 1993, 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman
and 16-year-old Elizabeth Peņa were raped, tortured and killed
when they stumbled upon a late-night gang initiation.
"This is where we came to skip school," said 46-year-old Sissy
Odell, waving to the park, a shorn and manicured version of its
former self. "We've all been walking the train tracks, just like
they did, all our lives."
On Tuesday, the girls' neighbors and former friends recounted
the graphic details that have stayed fresh in their memory. They
didn't want to gloss over them. They wanted everyone to remember
the sadism, the senselessness.
"They were so close to home," said Odell, whose niece was a
close friend of both girls. "They were almost there."
Before the killing, city officials often denied there was a gang
problem in the city.
"This was part of the impetus for the anti-gang programs in
Houston," said Officer C.E. Andersen, who worked the case in
1993, and stopped by Tuesday night to pay his respects.
The group disbanded around 7 p.m., after Medellin's execution
was put on hold.
As they left, a former middle school classmate of Jennifer's
carried two bouquets of roses to the granite benches in a stand
of pines and live oaks that serve as a memorial for the pair.
Sylvia Orta Perez, 32, set one bouquet by Elizabeth's marker,
among the soggy stuffed animals and ceramic angels other friends
had placed there.
Perez lowered her head, and a few minutes later, did the same
for her childhood friend.
"They're getting some peace now," she said.
Tue 8/6/2008
Medellin executed for rape, murder of Houston teens
HUNTSVILLE - The state of Texas defied an international court
and executed Jose Ernesto Medellin late Tuesday after the U.S.
Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for the killer in the
1993 Houston gang rape-murders of two teenage girls. Medellin,
33, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 9:57 p.m., nine
minutes after receiving the fatal cocktail and nearly four hours
after his scheduled 6 p.m. execution. In his final statement,
Medellin apologized for his crime: "I'm sorry that my actions
brought you pain. I hope this brings the closure to what you
seek," he said. "Don't ever hate them for what they do. Never
harbor hate." He then looked toward the witness room in which
his friend, Sandra Crisp, was watching, crying softly, and
smiled. "I love you," he said. In the adjoining witness room,
relatives of the two victims watched with little apparent
emotion.
Medellin, a Mexican national who spent most of his life in the
United States, was condemned for the June 1993 murders of
Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Peņa, 16. The girls were
raped and strangled with a belt and shoelace after they stumbled
into a drunken gang initiation rite while cutting through the
park to get home before their curfew. Four days after the crime,
a tip from a gang member's brother led authorities to the
bodies, then to the suspects. Within three hours of his arrest,
Medellin admitted his role in the gruesome murders, appalling
authorities with his boastful, callous description of the
night's events.
At issue in Medellin's last-minute appeal was his assertion that
authorities refused his right to contact the Mexican Consulate
after his arrest. By doing so, his attorneys argued, officials
violated a 1963 treaty signed by the U.S. and 165 other
countries that should have granted him access. His case stirred
international controversy when the United Nations' high court
found his rights had been violated. The court ordered the
execution be stayed.
While some cheered Texas' decision to execute him on Tuesday,
others warned that his death could render the treaty void,
putting the lives of American citizens arrested overseas in
jeopardy. The fathers of the victims, however, expressed relief.
"It's a long time coming," Adolfo Peņa said, "Fifteen years is a
long time. I wish those two girls could've lived that long."
Randy Ertman stood with his arm around Christina Alamaraz, a
close friend. He said recent media attention had been too
focused on Medellin and not their daughters.
Sandra Babcock, a law professor at Northwestern University in
Chicago and an attorney for Medellin, said the case was not just
about one Mexican national on death row. "It's also about
ordinary Americans who count on the protections of the consulate
when they travel abroad in strange lands," she said. "It's about
the reputation of the U.S. as a nation that adheres to the rule
of law."
Hours before the execution, death penalty supporters and
opponents gathered at Huntsville's Walls Unit, site of the state
execution chamber. Elaine Jackson of Houston, who identified
herself as a friend of the Peņas, was among those supporting the
execution. "The girls didn't get a second chance, why should
he?" Jackson demanded. "Why should he keep on breathing?" On the
other side of the street, Nancy Bailey was among those opposing
the execution. Putting Medellin to death, she said, would flout
the nation's treaty commitments and endanger Americans arrested
abroad.
Medellin, who granted few interviews on death row, told a
Mexican news reporter that he'd had 15 years in prison to
compose his emotions. On Monday and Tuesday he visited with his
parents, whom he had not seen since 2001, and spoke by phone
with his younger brother, who is serving 40 years for his part
in the crime. Jose Medellin had insisted he told police he was a
Mexican citizen; Gov. Rick Perry's office said he did not. In
2004, the world court, acting on a Mexican lawsuit against the
U.S., ordered hearings to determine if the cases of Medellin and
dozens of other Mexican nationals in custody had been damaged by
the treaty violations.
President Bush urged the hearings be held. Texas, however,
appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that only
Congress had authority to demand such hearings. Weeks after the
decision, a bill retroactively calling for the hearings was
introduced in Congress. The bill, however, remains in
legislative limbo. "Outside of Texas this is a huge diplomatic
misstep," said Columbia Law School professor Sarah Cleveland.
"Unfortunately, I doubt the international community is likely to
brush this off as simply the actions of Texas. In the
international community ... the United States is responsible for
Texas' actions."
Judge Cathy Cochran, of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals,
took a different view. "Some societies may judge our death
penalty barbaric," she noted. "Most Texans, however, consider
death a just penalty in certain rare circumstances. Many
Europeans disagree. So be it."
Medellin was the second person executed for the attack. Derrick
O'Brien was put to death in July 2006. Gang leader Peter Cantu
remains on death row. Two others, 17 at the time of the crime,
had their death sentences commuted to life in prison.
Mon 5/4/2008
Medellin set to die Tuesday for Ertman-Pena killings
HOUSTON - "Texas. It's like a whole other country." Coined to
promote tourism, that wry verbal wink at the state's mythic
image has assumed a literal meaning as Texas finds itself in
defiance of the United Nations, the Organization of American
States and national leaders in its planned Tuesday execution of
Mexican citizen Jose Medellin. Unless the U.S. Supreme Court or
Gov. Rick Perry acts in his favor, Medellin, 33, will die for
the 1993 rape-strangulation of two teenage Houston girls,
Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peņa. Jennifer's father, Randy
Ertman, dismissed international opposition to the execution.
"It's just a last-ditch effort to keep the scumbag breathing,"
Ertman said. "He never should have been breathing in the first
place. I don't care, I really don't care what anyone thinks
about this except Texas. I love Texas. Texas is in my blood."
At issue is Texas' refusal to hold a hearing to determine
whether Medellin's defense was harmed by his inability to confer
with Mexican consular officials at the time of his arrest. A
suspect's right to talk with his consulate is guaranteed by the
United Nations' Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to
which the United States is a party. Medellin insists he told
both Houston police and Harris County officers that he is a
Mexican citizen. Prosecutors say the killer never informed
authorities of his nationality. In a sworn statement, Medellin
said he learned that the Mexican Consulate could possibly help
him in 1997, four years after his arrest. He unsuccessfully
petitioned the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on the issue in
1998. In 2004, the U.N.'s world court, responding to a Mexican
lawsuit against the United States, ordered that hearings be held
for Medellin and dozens of other inmates denied their consular
rights. In 2005, President Bush called for the hearings to be
held. Texas challenged the decision, and the Supreme Court
determined that only Congress could mandate such action. In
July, the world court ordered Medellin's execution be stayed.
Perry has argued Texas isn't bound by the decisions of
international courts and that the state is determined to hold
killers, regardless of their nationality, responsible for their
crimes. Texas has rebuffed not only the U.N. and Bush, but
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Attorney General
Michael Mukasey and the judicial arm of the Organization of
American States, which has demanded Medellin receive a new
trial.As politicians worried about the impact on Americans
arrested in foreign countries should Texas fail to honor the
world court order, prison officials moved Medellin to a special
death row cell, where he will be held under constant video
surveillance until he is driven to Huntsville's death house.
The big city wept when little Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth
Peņa died. Students at Waltrip High School, Jennifer was 14, and
Elizabeth had just turned 16. Their lives were filled with the
things that occupy teenage girls. Friends recalled Elizabeth,
who was beginning to dabble with makeup, as a "social
butterfly." Jennifer tried her hand at basketball before
concluding she wasn't cut out for athletics. On June 24, 1993,
the girls were at a party at a friend's apartment when they
realized the lateness of the hour. Following the railroad tracks
through T.C. Jester Park, they concluded, would shave 10 minutes
off their trip to Elizabeth's Oak Forest home.
As the girls made their way past a thicket near White Oak Bayou,
they stumbled onto the tail end of a drunken gang initiation.
When they blundered into the group of youths, Medellin - 5 feet,
5 inches tall and weighing just 135 pounds - grabbed Elizabeth
and flipped her to the ground. Jennifer, drawn by Elizabeth's
scream, turned to help and was herself captured. As the teens
cried and struggled, six gang members took turns raping them.
Finally, gang leader Peter Cantu told Medellin, "We're going to
have to kill them." Gang members Derrick O'Brien and Raul
Villarreal looped a belt around Jennifer's throat, pulling with
such force that the belt broke. Cantu, Medellin and Efrain Perez
strangled Elizabeth with a shoelace. Then they stomped on the
girls' throats for good measure.
Four days later, police, acting on a tip from a gang member's
brother, found the teens' bodies, badly decomposed in the summer
heat. The victims were identified through dental records.
Judge Cathy Cochran, a member of the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals, which last week rejected his appeals, wrote that
Medellin bragged to his friends that the victims had been
virgins until they were attacked by the gang. "His written
confession," Cochran wrote, "displayed a callous, cruel and
cavalier attitude toward the two girls that he had raped and
helped to murder. Surely no juror or judge will ever forget his
words or his sordid deeds."
O'Brien was first to be executed, going to his death in July
2006 with the parting words: "I am sorry. I have always been
sorry." Cantu, also convicted of capital murder, awaits a death
date. Medellin, who grew up in poverty amid drug abuse and an
unstable home environment, twice refused to be interviewed for
this story. But on his Web site, posted by a Canadian anti-death
penalty group, he claims: "I'm where I am because I made an
adolescent choice. That's it! My life is in black and white like
old western movies," he wrote. "But unlike the movies, the good
guys don't always finish first."
'Uncaring and hateful'
This time, death penalty opponents believe, the sovereign state
of Texas has gone too far. "Most of our friends abroad have long
since come to the conclusion that this country, on this topic,
just doesn't get it," said Southern Methodist University history
professor Rick Halperin. "This state is seen as uncaring and
hateful. And this case is just right on the top." The Medellin
case will solidify stereotypical views of the Lone Star State,
said Halperin, president of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the
Death Penalty and former board chairman of Amnesty International
USA.
Cochran, however, disagreed in her appeals court concurrence.
"Some societies may judge our death penalty barbaric," she
wrote. "Most Texans, however, consider death a just penalty in
certain rare circumstances. Many Europeans disagree. So be it."
The politics of capital punishment aside, some legal observers
worry that the United States may suffer as a result of Texas'
noncompliance with the world court order. "Outside of Texas this
is a huge diplomatic misstep," said Columbia Law School
professor Sarah Cleveland. " ... Unfortunately, I doubt that the
international community is likely to brush this off as simply
the actions of Texas. In the international community (and under
all U.S. treaty obligations) the United States is responsible
for Texas' actions."
Wide-ranging effect
If the United States fails to observe its treaty commitments,
said Cleveland, co-director of the Human Rights Institute, other
nations might be inclined to disregard agreements when they
become inconvenient. Affected could be treaties ranging from
those mandating protection for foreign nationals to nuclear
nonproliferation. Texas Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, a frequent
traveler abroad, said he fears Texas' noncompliance will put
American military personnel and civilians at risk. In ruling
that Bush could not unilaterally force states to hold hearings
to consider Vienna Convention violations, the Supreme Court
noted that power lies in Congress. Within weeks, U.S. Rep.
Howard Berman, D-Calif., introduced such a bill. It is pending
in the House Judiciary Committee and can't be enacted until next
year.
Sun 8/3/2008
Texas to World Court: Murderer should die
HOUSTON - The likely prospect of Texas
carrying out the death penalty in one of Houston's most brutal
murder cases in a generation is making the planned execution
among the most contentious in the nation's busiest capital
punishment state.
The scheduled execution of convicted killer Jose Medellin in
Huntsville Tuesday evening has attracted international
attention. The International Court of Justice, also known as the
World Court, said the Mexican-born 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, now 33, is the first
among them set to die.
His attorneys contend Medellin was denied the protections of the
Vienna Convention, which calls for people arrested to have
access to their home country's consular officials. "The United
States's word should not be so carelessly broken, nor its
standing in the international community so needlessly
compromised," Medellin's attorneys said, seeking a reprieve in a
filing late last week with the U.S. Supreme Court. President
Bush has asked states to review the cases. Texas has refused to
budge.
Medellin's lawyers went to the Supreme Court after the Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court,
refused to stop the lethal injection. The justices in March
ruled that neither President Bush nor the international court
can force Texas' hand. Medellin's supporters says either
Congress or the Texas legislature should be given a chance to
pass a law ordering a new hearing before he can be executed.
"There is no dispute that if Texas executes Mr. Medellin in
these circumstances, Texas would cause the United States
irreparably to breach treaty commitments made on behalf of the
United States as a whole and thereby compromise U.S. interests
that both this Court and the President have described as
compelling," Medellin's attorneys said in their filing.
If executed, Medellin would become the 410th condemned prisoner
to die, far more than any other state since Texas resumed
carrying out capital punishment in 1982. At least six other
Mexican nationals are in that total. Medellin was sentenced to
die in October 1994. "Medellin and five others brutally and
viciously gang raped, stomped, kicked, slashed, strangled and
murdered two teenage girls," Allison Castle, a spokeswoman for
Gov. Rick Perry, said. "The governor's not feeling any pressure
on this. He's considering the facts of the crime."
The facts are horrific. Medellin was one of six teenagers
arrested and charged with the gang rape and murders of Elizabeth
Pena, 16, and Jennifer Ertman, 14. The two Houston girls,
returning from a friend's house, took a shortcut home along some
railroad tracks and stumbled on a group of teenagers drinking
beer after initiating a new gang member. Evidence showed the
girls were gang raped for more than an hour, then were kicked
and beaten before being strangled. A red nylon belt was pulled
so tight around Ertman's neck that the belt snapped. Four days
later, the girls' bodies were found, decomposing and mummifying
in 100-degree heat, culminating a frantic search by families and
police under the glare of intense media coverage. A tip from the
brother of one of the gang members led police to arrest Medellin
and the others.
One of the gang members convicted for the slayings, Derrick
O'Brien, was executed last year. O'Brien said Medellin was at
one end of a belt being pulled around 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.
In the legal frenzy to save Medellin, the fact that two girls
were killed is being lost, said Randy Ertman, whose daughter was
one of the victims and who looked forward to attending
Medellin's execution. "They've forgotten Jennifer and
Elizabeth," he said. "They care only about saving Jose Medellin.
This is not about vengeance. This is not about a deterrent or
about closure. It's about the punishment. Everybody wants me to
say closure or vengeance. I'm never going to have closure. It's
just a miracle word that's going to make us feel good, but it
ain't going to happen."
Texas officials acknowledged Medellin was not told he could ask
for help from Mexican diplomats but argued he forfeited the
right because he never raised the issue until four years after
his conviction. In any case, the diplomats' intercession
wouldn't have made any difference in the outcome of the case,
they said.
State and federal courts rejected Medellin's claim when he
raised it on appeal. "Concluding that the World Court cannot
force Texas to release convicted murderers, last March the U.S.
Supreme Court rejected Medellin's claims and found that he would
have received the same sentence with or without consular
notification," said Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the Texas
Attorney General's Office.
Medellin, who came to the United States at age 3, speaks, reads
and writes English. He gave a written confession. "I am a
Mexican through and through," Medellin said on an anti-death
penalty Web site where inmates seek pen pals. "I don't want
sympathy or pity, I'd rather have your anger. Don't feel sorry
for me. I'm where I'm at because I made an adolescent choice."
Mexico, which has no death penalty, initially sued the United
States in the World Court in 2003. Mexico and other opponents of
capital punishment have sought to use the court to fight for
foreigners facing execution in the U.S. Medellin would not be
the first foreign national executed in Texas. Two years ago,
infamous train-hopping serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz,
who became known as "The Railroad Killer," became at least the
sixth Mexican executed in Texas.
"The law is clear: Texas is bound not by the World Court, but by
the U.S. Supreme Court, which reviewed this matter and
determined that this convicted murderer's execution shall
proceed," Strickland said of Medellin's case.
Fri 8/1/2008
Mexican citizen asks high court to block execution
HOUSTON - Texas officials remained adamant
that a convicted killer in a gruesome gang rape-slaying in
Houston should be executed next week despite an international
court's ruling he should be entitled to additional legal reviews
because he's a Mexican citizen. Lawyers for Jose Medellin, four
months after losing his case at the U.S. Supreme Court, returned
to the high court Friday seeking a last-minute reprieve.
Medellin is set to die Tuesday in Huntsville for his
participation in the 1993 gang rape and beating deaths of two
Houston girls, Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16.
Medellin's lawyers want the justices to block his lethal
injection until Texas grants him a new hearing to comply with a
ruling from the International Court of Justice, also known as
the World Court.
The state has so far refused. "We don't care where you're from,"
Allison Castle, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, said Friday.
"If you commit a despicable crime like this in Texas, you'll
face the ultimate penalty under our laws." The Supreme Court
ruled in March that neither President Bush nor the international
court can force Texas' hand. "The truth is, Texas is not bound
by a foreign court's ruling," Castle said.
Medellin says Congress or the Texas Legislature, which doesn't
meet again until January, should be given a chance to pass a law
ordering a new hearing before he can be executed. Four
Democratic lawmakers have introduced such a bill in Congress,
but it probably won't be acted upon this year. Medellin is one
of roughly 50 Mexicans on death rows around the nation,
including about a dozen in Texas, who contend they were denied
prompt access to their country's consular officials after being
arrested in the United States. The access is guaranteed by
international treaty.
On Thursday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's
highest criminal court, rejected similar arguments from
Medellin, who was 18 when the two girls were killed. In a
concurring opinion to the court's ruling, Judge Cathy Cochran
said Medellin, who was brought to the United States when he was
3, indeed was a Mexican citizen. But she said he had lived in
the U.S. for 15 of his 18 years and spoke fluent English while
he never obtained or sought American citizenship. "His claim is
that no one informed him of his right to contact the Mexican
consulate," she wrote. "This is true. It also is true that he
was never denied access to the Mexican consulate. "The problem
is that he apparently never told any law enforcement or judicial
official that he was a Mexican citizen until some four years
after his conviction." Cochran said while Texas authorities
"clearly failed in their duty" to inform Medellin of his rights
under the Vienna Convention, "this foreign national equally
failed in his duty to inform those authorities that he was a
Mexican citizen."
In 2004, the World Court said the prisoners should have new
court hearings to determine whether the absence of contact with
consular officials affected the cases. Bush, while saying he
disagreed with the ruling, nevertheless said the United States
was obligated by treaty to comply with it and ordered the states
to follow suit. Texas refused, which is how Medellin's case
initially ended up before the Supreme Court. Bush was in the
unusual position of siding with the death row inmate against the
state he served as governor, and after having overseen 152
executions in Texas.
The World Court last month ordered U.S. authorities to do
everything possible to halt executions scheduled in Texas of
Medellin and four other Mexicans until their cases are reviewed.
The Bush administration has said it expected the World Court's
order to have little impact.
Evidence showed the girls were gang raped for more than an hour,
then were kicked and beaten before being strangled. Four days
later, the girls' bodies were found, decomposing and mummifying
in 100-degree heat. A tip from the brother of one of the gang
members led police to arrest Medellin and his companions. Two of
the gang members, 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. One of the gang, Derrick O'Brien, was executed
last year. O'Brien said Medellin was at one end of a belt being
pulled around Ertman's neck as he yanked on the other. Peter
Cantu, described by authorities as ringleader of the gang,
remains on death row without an execution date. A sixth person
convicted, Medellin's brother, Vernancio, was 14 at the time and
received a 40-year prison term.
Fri 8/1/2008
Court's rejection brings Medellin closer to execution / Despite
calls for delay, Mexican citizen set for execution
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has dealt capital killer
Jose Medellin a major setback in his bid to escape the
executioner's needle, throwing out his bid for a post-conviction
writ of habeas corpus and his motion for a stay. Medellin, 33,
convicted in the 1993 rape-murder of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and
Elizabeth Pena, 16, still has motions for stays pending with the
U.S. Supreme Court and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
He is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday. Medellin's attorneys
could not be reached for comment Friday.
Medellin, a Mexican national, had filed his appeal based on
arguments that Houston police deprived him of his right to
contact the Mexican consulate after his arrest. The right is
guaranteed by the United Nation's Vienna Convention of Consular
Relations, to which the United States is a party. Last month,
the UN's world court ordered Medellin be granted a stay so that
a hearing could be held on whether that violation damaged his
defense. Texas authorities responded that Medellin was not
informed of his UN rights because he did not identify himself as
a Mexican citizen. Thus far, they have resisted pressure from
President Bush and other U.S. officials to comply with the world
court order.
The Texas appeals court, in a ruling posted today, held that the
latest petition, supposedly containing late-developing arguments
and facts that could not have been presented earlier, was not
filed in a timely manner. Medellin was one of six gang members
arrested in the dual killings in TC Jester Park. Gang member
Derrick O'Brien was executed in July 2006. Peter Cantu also has
been condemned. Two other gang members, minors at the time of
the crime, have had their death sentences commuted to life.
Medellin's brother, only 14 at the time of the killings, is
serving a 40-year sentence.
Judge Cathy Cochran, in concurring with the appeals court's
majority opinion, wrote that there is "no likelihood at all"
that the inadvertent violation of the Vienna Convention harmed
Medellin's defense. "This was a truly despicable crime committed
by ...deadly brutal young men who were deadly dangerous to
anyone who might find themselves near them. All five were
sentenced to death by separate juries after hearing all of the
evidence in each of their individual trials. "No matter how long
the courts of this state, this nation, or any other nation
review, re-review and re-review once again the disgusting facts
of this crime and these perpetrators, the result should be the
same: These juries reached a reasonable verdict, beyond a
reasonable doubt, that a sentence of death was the only
appropriate punishment under Texas law."
Thu 7/17/2008
TEXAS TO WORLD COURT: EXECUTIONS ARE STILL ON / Gov. Perry's
office rebuffs call to let Medellin's case be reviewed
Texas will go ahead with the scheduled Aug. 5 execution of
Houston rapist-killer Jose Medellin despite Wednesday's United
Nations world court order for a stay, a spokesman for Gov. Rick
Perry said. The U.N.'s International Court of Justice's call for
stays in the cases of Medellin and four other Mexican nationals
awaiting execution in Texas came in response to a petition filed
last month by the Mexican government. The petition sought to
halt executions to allow for review of the killers' cases to
determine whether denying them access to the Mexican Consulate
after arrest impaired their trial defenses. The Vienna
Convention on Consular Relations stipulates that, upon request,
an alien offender's national consulate must be notified of his
arrest.
In its order, the world court quotes the Mexican government's
argument that "Texas has made clear that unless restrained, it
will go forward with the execution without providing Mr.
Medellin the mandated review and reconsideration," which will
"irreparably" breach the U.S. government's obligations to the
court's 2004 order. The Mexican government reasons that "the
paramount interest in human life is at stake," according to the
court's order. If Medellin and the other nationals are executed
without additional court reviews, "Mexico would forever be
deprived of the opportunity to vindicate its rights and those of
the nationals concerned."
Perry's office dismissed the argument. "The world court has no
standing in Texas and Texas is not bound by a ruling or edict
from a foreign court," Perry spokesman Robert Black said. "It is
easy to get caught up in discussions of international law and
justice and treaties. It's very important to remember that these
individuals are on death row for killing our citizens."
But international law expert Sarah Cleveland, a professor of
human and constitutional rights at New York City's Columbia Law
School, said if the U.S. fails to act on the world court order,
other countries may follow suit. "This can only come back to
hurt U.S. citizens when they are detained abroad," she wrote in
an e-mail. " ... When a global leader like the U.S. refuses to
comply with its clear international legal obligations (and
everyone agrees that this is a clear legal obligation), it
undermines the willingness of other states to comply with their
own obligations and it inspires them not to trust us to obey
ours."
Deadly gang initiation Medellin, 33, was condemned for the 1993
killings of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Peņa, 16, who
stumbled into a drunken midnight gang initiation rite at T.C.
Jester Park in north Houston. Medellin's accomplice, Derrick
O'Brien, was executed in July 2006. Also sentenced to die is
gang leader Peter Anthony Cantu. Three other accomplices are
serving prison sentences. Medellin was the only non-American
involved in the murders.
Wednesday's U.N. court decision in The Hague, Netherlands, was
the latest development in an an ongoing legal wrangle that has
involved President Bush, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Mexican
government. In 2004, the U.N. court ordered a review of the
cases of 51 Mexican nationals facing execution in the United
States because they had not been allowed to speak with their
nation's consular officials. In February 2005, Bush directed
state courts to abide by the U.N. court decision, specifically
asking Texas to review Medellin's case. In March, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that Bush had overstepped his authority.
Chief Justice John Roberts said the president cannot mandate
such court reviews without congressional concurrence. On Monday,
U.S. Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., filed a bill providing for
such reviews. As of Wednesday, it was in committee. Weeks after
the Supreme Court's ruling, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey jointly wrote Perry
asking for his help in obtaining the reviews. The United States,
they wrote, continues to be bound by the world court's decision
under international law.
Girls' fathers adamant
Meanwhile, Randy Ertman, father of Jennifer Ertman, hotly
denounced the world court's order for stays. "The world court
don't mean diddly," he said. "This business belongs in the state
of Texas. The people of the state of Texas support the
execution. We thank them. The rest of them can go to hell."
Adolfo Peņa, father of Elizabeth Peņa, agreed. "I believe we've
been through all the red tape we can go through," he said. "It's
time to rock and roll."
EYE OF THE STORM: These five Texas inmates are among the 51
Mexican nationals at the center of the world court ruling:
JOSE ERNESTO MEDELLIN, 33, was convicted
in the 1993 strangulation, rape and kidnapping of Houston
teenagers Elizabeth Pena, Jennifer Ertman.
CESAR ROBERTO FIERRO, 51, has served on
death row since 1980 for shooting El Paso taxi driver,
Nicolas Castanon.
RUBEN CARDENAS, 38, and another man in
1997 took their victim to a remote area, where Cardenas
raped, beat and strangled her.
HECTOR GARCIA, 47, was convicted for the
1989 killing of 14- year-old Eduardo Rios during a robbery
of a Rio Grande Valley convenience store.
ROBERT RAMOS, 54, was convicted for the
1992 slayings of his wife Leticia Ramos, 42, and their two
children, Abigail Ramos, 7, and Jonathan Ramos, 3.
CHRONOLOGY
March 31, 2004: The United Nation's
International Court of Justice issued an order that U.S. courts
must review the cases of 51 condemned Mexican prisoners. The
court ruled the prisoners' rights to speak with Mexican consular
officials after their arrests had been violated.
Feb. 28, 2005: President Bush directed state courts to abide by
the world court's decision. He also asked Texas specifically to
review the case of Jose Medellin, now scheduled to die by lethal
injection Aug. 5.
March 25, 2008: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Bush could not
compel Texas to review Medellin's case. Chief Justice John
Roberts said the president cannot unilaterally carry out an
international treaty without concurrence of the legislative
branch.
June 20: The Mexican government made an emergency appeal to the
U.N.'s highest court to block the executions of its citizens on
death row in the U.S.
July 16: The world court ordered the U.S. to halt the five
pending executions of Mexican nationals on Texas' death row.
WORLD COURT
Some facts about the International Court of Justice, also known
as the World Court:
Established: 1945
Location: The Hague, Netherlands
Role: Judicial arm of the United Nations.
Decisions: Binding on member countries. No appeal, the court
cannot enforce judgments.
Justices: 15 justices, each elected to nine-year terms by the
U.N. General Assembly or the U.N. Security Council.
Lawsuits: Court acts on matters brought by member states;
individuals cannot bring suits.
Tue 5/6/2008
Execution date for teens' killer set for Aug. 5 / The lawyer for
Medellin hopes to stop it, saying client didn't get to talk to
consulate
A Houston man who was convicted of capital murder 14 years ago
for the gang rapes and slayings of two teenage girls received a
death date Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way
for his and other killers' executions. Jose Medellin, 33, is set
to die by injection on Aug. 5 for the 1993 murders of Jennifer
Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Peņa, 16. The girls were beaten, raped
and killed after they happened upon a drunken midnight gang
initiation rite in T.C. Jester Park in northwest Houston.
State District Judge Caprice Cosper set the date in a hearing
Monday. Medellin was convicted and sentenced in 1994. "I'm ready
for this to be over," said Adolph Peņa, Elizabeth's father."I
know it takes a long time, but how much time do you need?"
However, Medellin's attorney, Sandra Babcock, said she expected
to stop the execution, based on concerns about international
justice agreements between the United States and other nations.
She said she will ask congressional leaders to put pressure on
the government to adhere to the agreements, which include
notifying the consulates of foreign nationals who are arrested.
She said Medellin, who was born in Mexico but lived most of his
life in Houston, was not given the opportunity to notify his
consulate.
Mexico sued U.S.
A legal struggle over international law had kept Medellin's case
on appeal to the Supreme Court. Mexico, which opposes the death
penalty, sued the United States in 2003 in the International
Court of Justice in The Hague on behalf of about 50 Mexican
citizens, including Medellin, on death rows in the United
States. The Mexican government said U.S. officials violated the
1963 Vienna Convention when they failed to allow the citizens of
another country access to its representatives after arrest. The
World Court agreed and said the inmates deserved new hearings.
President Bush had said Texas should reconsider the Medellin
case and others based on the Vienna Convention. But the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in March that a memo by Bush instructing
states to comply with the international court was not sufficient
to require states to act. A few days after he wrote the memo,
Bush withdrew the United States from the part of an
international treaty that gives the International Court of
Justice final say in international disputes.
Supreme Court ruling
The Supreme Court removed another impediment to the execution of
Medellin and others when it ruled in April on a Kentucky case
that lethal injection is not cruel and unusual punishment.
Kentucky uses the same lethal three-drug cocktail that is used
in 35 other states, including Texas. Defense attorneys argued
that it violated inmates' constitutional rights. Executions were
halted in September when the high court agreed to hear the
Kentucky case.
Five other reputed gang members were convicted in connection
with the Ertman and Peņa slayings. Derrick Sean O'Brien was
executed in 2006. Peter Anthony Cantu is on death row for the
killings, but his execution date has not been set. Raul
Villarreal and Efrain Perez were sentenced to death but had
their sentences commuted to life in prison in 2005 after the
U.S. Supreme Court determined that it was cruel to execute those
who were juveniles. They were months away from turning 18 when
the killings occurred. Venacio Medellin, Jose Medellin's brother
who was 14 at the time of the crime, testified against the
others and is serving a 40-year sentence.
Tue 4/1/2008
Court won't hear 7 killers' appeals / Execution dates for
Mexicans pending ruling on lethal injection
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the
appeals of seven Mexican-born prisoners condemned to die in
Texas, including two who had committed murders in Houston in the
1990s. The action followed a high court ruling last week in
which the justices rebuffed President Bush for directing the
state of Texas to abide by a world court ruling and rehear the
case of another Mexican on death row. The prisoner, Jose
Medellin, had been convicted of the 1993 rape-murders of two
Houston teenagers - Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16
- who had stumbled upon a gang initiation.
Mexico, which opposes the death penalty, sued the United States
in the International Court of Justice in the Hague on behalf of
some 50 Mexican citizens, including Medellin, on death rows in
the United States. The Mexicans said American officials violated
the 1963 Vienna Convention when they failed to allow the
citizens of another country access to its representatives after
arrest. The world court agreed. But in a 6-3 ruling on March 25,
the Supreme Court said the president overstepped his bounds when
he ordered states in a memo to abide by the world court's
ruling. The U.S. court said a president must consult Congress
before issuing an order based on a treaty.
The court did not comment Monday when it declined to hear the
appeals by the seven men. But their execution dates were not
expected to be set until the court rules on another death
penalty issue, whether lethal injections are constitutional.
Jordan Steiker, who co-directs the Capital Punishment Center at
the University of Texas Law School, said it was not unusual for
the justices to resolve the overarching legal issues based on
one case and then apply it to others in similar situations.
"These cases were already in the pipeline," he said. Steiker and
others, including state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, warned
that the court's decisions regarding the Mexican inmates could
undermine the rights of American citizens traveling abroad.
"Showing regard for the foreign nationals in the United States
under our treaty obligations serves to protect American citizens
by ensuring that any detention is followed by contact with a
local United States consulate so that legal assistance and other
moral support can be provided," said Ellis, who sits on the
state Senate criminal justice committee. "The Supreme Court's
decision makes those kinds of assurances harder to establish."
A spokesman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry praised Monday's action by
the high court. "Foreign courts have no jurisdiction in Texas,"
said Krista Piferrer. "The governor believes that justice has
been and will be served for these individuals who committed
atrocious crimes."
Among the seven Mexican-born inmates who lost appeals Monday are
31-year-old Felix Rocha, who was convicted of shooting a
security guard in a Houston apartment complex in 1994, and
42-year-old Virgilio Maldonado, who was convicted of shooting a
man three times in the back of the head during a 1995 Houston
drug robbery.
Others whose appeals were denied included:
Ignacio Gomez, 38, convicted of shooting
three teenage boys and burying them in desert sand dunes
outside El Paso in 1996;
Humberto Leal, 35, convicted of abducting
a San Antonio woman, raping her and crushing her head with a
35-pound chunk of asphalt in 1994;
Ruben Cardenas, 37, convicted of raping
and strangling a teenager in Hidalgo County in 1997.
Robert Ramos, 53, convicted of killing of
his wife and two children at their home in Progreso in 1992,
then burying them beneath the bathroom floor.
Cesar Fierro, 51, who was convicted of
robbing and killing an El Paso taxi driver in 1979.
Fourteen Mexican citizens are awaiting
execution in Texas, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
reported.
As of late February, 122 foreign nationals were on death row
throughout the United States, according to the Washington-based
Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that
monitors capital punishment issues.
Wed 3/26/2008
HIGH COURT RULES BUSH ERRED IN HOUSTON CASE / President can't
force a new trial for Mexican in 1993 murders, the justices find
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Texas cannot
be forced by President Bush to reopen the case of Jose Medellin,
a Mexican citizen sentenced to death for raping and murdering
two teenage girls in Houston. By a 6-3 vote, the court said that
a memo by Bush instructing the state to comply with a world
court decision for a new hearing in the 1993 case was not
sufficient to require the state to act. The dissenters, however,
expressed concerns that the ruling would harm the United States'
relationship with Mexico and make it more difficult to enforce
international treaties.
Tuesday's decision will not immediately lead to an execution
date for Medellin, who has exhausted all appeals and confessed
to the killings of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16,
after they happened upon a gang initiation. Harris County
Assistant District Attorney Roe Wilson said the next step must
wait until the justices resolve another case regarding the
legality of lethal injections. All executions are on hold until
that ruling is handed down. Mark Vinson, a former Harris County
assistant district attorney who prosecuted Medellin, said, "I've
been waiting for this decision for a long time. It looks like
the court saw through this masquerade and rendered the proper
ruling."
Donald Donovan, Medellin's attorney, said he was disappointed in
the decision, which he called "a departure from the original
intent of the framers of the Constitution and over 200 years of
enforcement of U.S. treaties by U.S. courts." At issue was a
2004 ruling by the world court - formally known as the
International Court of Justice - that the United States violated
the rights of Medellin and 50 other citizens of Mexico as
spelled out in the 1963 Vienna Convention. Mexico, which opposes
the death penalty, brought suit in the court at The Hague,
arguing that the U.S. violated the treaty by not allowing the
defendants to notify a Mexican Consulate of their arrests.
The Mexican foreign ministry criticized the Supreme Court's
ruling, complaining that the world court's decision "should be
respected by those governments that have accepted its
jurisdiction." Mexico "will continue making use of each and
every one of the resources at its disposal to achieve the full
respect for the rights" of its citizens, the foreign ministry
said.
Presidential powers
Even though Bush presided over 152 executions as governor of
Texas, he sided with the world court and issued a memo in 2005
without consulting Congress. The memo directed state courts to
comply with the decision to rehear the cases. But the Supreme
Court on Tuesday agreed with Texas that Bush had overstepped his
bounds. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts
said the president cannot unilaterally carry out an
international treaty without concurrence of the Legislative
Branch. "The responsibility for transforming an international
obligation arising from a non-self-executing treaty into
domestic law falls to Congress," Roberts wrote. In a dissent,
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote that it would be impractical to
involve Congress in carrying out numerous international
agreements. He added that the ruling could lead to "worsening
relations with our neighbor Mexico, of precipitating actions by
other nations putting at risk American citizens who have the
misfortune to be arrested while traveling abroad, or of
diminishing our nation's reputation abroad as a result of our
failure to follow the rule of law principles we preach." Breyer
was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and David Souter in
the dissent. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a separate opinion
concurring with Roberts' but nevertheless urged Texas to hold
another hearing. An unusual coalition of liberal academics and
conservative politicians had opposed the Bush administration's
effort to force states to abide by the world court decision.
A spokeswoman for Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who has been
a close ally of Bush, welcomed the decision. "What the Supreme
Court's decision did was affirm what the governor has always
believed," said spokeswoman Krista Piferrer, "that the state has
rights and that a court based in some foreign country has no
jurisdiction in Texas."
Oval Office 'disappointed'
Ernest Young, a former University of Texas law professor, had
filed a friend-of-the-court brief along with other professors, a
number of them liberal, on behalf of the state of Texas. "This
was a very broad claim to executive power," Young said of the
administration's arguments. Young, now at Duke University, said
he was surprised that the majority decision was written by
Roberts, who in his confirmation hearing had expressed an
expansive view of the powers of the president. White House
spokeswoman Dana Perino dismissed suggestion that the decision
was a blow to the president's powers, saying it applied only to
this one issue. "But of course, since we urged a different
result, we're disappointed with the decision," she said. "But
we're going to accept it, and we're going to be reviewing it in
regards to the impacts that it may have."
Thu 10/11/2007
Texas fights at high court for turf / Official argues World
Court and president don't trump state law in death row case
WASHINGTON - In spirited arguments before the U.S. Supreme
Court, a lawyer for Texas said Wednesday that neither a
presidential order nor a ruling by the International Court of
Justice should be allowed to trump state law and interfere with
the cases of Mexican inmates on U.S. death row. Texas Solicitor
General Ted Cruz conceded that police violated the 1963 Vienna
Convention in denying Jose Medellin, a Mexican citizen, the
chance to contact the Mexican consulate for legal help after his
1993 arrest in the gang rape and murder of two Houston
teenagers. But he said President Bush's remedy for the treaty
violation - making state courts review the convictions and death
sentences of Medellin and 50 other Mexican inmates - would give
the president unprecedented power over the judiciary and give
the "World Court" authority over U.S. law.
The treaty dispute, which the World Court decided in Mexico's
favor after that country sued the U.S., should be resolved
through political and diplomatic channels, Cruz told the
justices. No other nation, including Mexico, would allow U.S.
inmates in their countries to use their court systems to enforce
the World Court's ruling, he said. He said that long before the
World Court's involvement, state and federal courts had rejected
Medellin's consular claim and decided that since he failed to
raise it at his original trial, he had waived it. Even if
Medellin had been represented by his countrymen, he still would
have been convicted and sentenced to death, Cruz said.
Mexican officials, whose country has no death penalty, had
argued that if they had been informed of Medellin's arrest, they
would have advised him not to speak to police without a lawyer
present. Within hours of his arrest, Medellin confessed to a
role in the killing of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peņa.
Medellin's attorney, Donald Donovan, and U.S. Solicitor General
Paul Clement, who sided with Medellin on behalf of the Bush
administration, countered Wednesday that the U.S. voluntarily
entered into the treaty more than four decades ago and agreed to
resolve international disputes at the World Court and to abide
by its decisions. Therefore the U.S. must comply, even though it
disagrees with the outcome, they said.
Chief Justice John Roberts said he was concerned about the
position on Medellin that the Supreme Court's role is only to
force compliance with the World Court's ruling. "We have no
authority to review the judgment itself?" he asked. Justice
Anthony Kennedy asked if the court could "interpret the meaning
of the (World Court) ruling, if it's ambiguous,"saying that it
was.
Justice Antonin Scalia balked at Clement's assertion that the
president's order for state courts to review the Mexican cases
was a critical part of the case. Clement had argued that the
president alone has the power to conduct foreign policy and that
his order trumps everything. "You're telling us we don't need
Congress? The president can make law by writing a memo to his
attorney general?" Scalia asked. And Scalia said he had a
problem with giving the World Court any say in U.S. domestic
law. "I am rather jealous of that power," he said.
But Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg indicated
they were leaning toward cooperation. "The United States gave
its promise," Ginsburg said. Outside on the courthouse steps,
Donovan agreed. "The United States did not have to go to this
court, but once we agree to go, we abide by its decision because
we are a country of laws," he said. "A deal is a deal."
A decision is expected by summer.
Mon 10/8/2007
MURDER CASE PITS TEXAS AGAINST BUSH / As U.S. justices consider
local killer's consular issue, control of courts is at stake
WASHINGTON - When Jose Medellin was arrested in 1993, he signed
a confession detailing how he and five fellow gang members had
raped and sodomized two Houston teenagers before strangling them
with their shoe laces. He bragged that he had pocketed one
girl's Mickey Mouse watch as a souvenir. Medellin and four
others eventually were convicted of capital murder and sent to
Texas' death row. A juvenile court sentenced Medellin's younger
brother, who was 14 at the time, to 40 years in prison. This
week, Medellin's case makes its second trip to the Supreme
Court. The issue now is not his confession to the murders of
Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peņa, but something else he said
during his arrest: He informed the police that he is a Mexican
citizen. But officers didn't inform him of his right to contact
the Mexican Consulate for legal assistance.
That mistake, a violation of a 1963 treaty known as the Vienna
Convention, has since sparked an international court battle,
bruised relations between the United States and its southern
neighbor and ultimately will force the high court to answer a
rather large constitutional question: What authority, if any,
does President Bush have to order courts in the state of Texas
to do anything about it? "We find ourselves in an unusual
position. Texas is not regularly litigating against the United
States," said Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz. "But sadly
enough, the United States will appear alongside Medellin at the
argument."
Medellin v. Texas, which will be argued on Wednesday and decided
by next summer, could determine the fate of Medellin and 50
other Mexican killers on death rows in the United States,
including more than a dozen in Texas. They were not informed of
their right under the treaty to contact their countrymen when
they were arrested. The case also could affect the treatment of
an estimated 6,000 U.S. citizens accused of crimes each year
while traveling or living abroad. They, too, are protected by
the treaty. More significantly to most Americans, though, the
justices are expected to produce a major ruling clarifying what
powers reside with the president, Congress and courts, what
powers belong to the federal government versus the states, and
what the relationship is between international and domestic law.
A presidential order
The Bush administration became involved in the Medellin case in
2003 when Mexico sued the U.S. over the consular issue in the
International Court of Justice at The Hague. The so-called
"World Court" is the United Nations' top court for resolving
international disputes. The court ruled in Mexico's favor in
late 2004 and ordered the United States to reconsider the
Mexican inmates' murder convictions and death sentences. In
February 2005, Bush announced that while he disagreed with the
World Court's decision, the U.S. would comply, and he declared
how: He would order courts in Texas and elsewhere to review the
cases. A few days later, however, the president withdrew the
United States from the part of the Vienna Convention that gives
the World Court final say in international disputes.
The Supreme Court, which had agreed to hear Medellin's case,
dismissed it later in 2005 to allow the case to play out in
Texas. Last November, the all-Republican Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals balked at the Republican president's order, saying Bush
had overstepped his authority.
The Texas court said the judicial branch, not the White House,
should decide how to resolve the Mexican cases. It also said
Medellin wasn't entitled to a new hearing because he failed to
complain at his original trial about any violation of his
consular rights and had therefore waived them. Medellin appealed
again to the U.S. Supreme Court, which announced last May that
it would hear his case. His lawyer, Donald Donovan of New York,
will argue this week that Bush was correct when he took action
to comply with the World Court's decision. In addition, Donovan
said that, independent of Bush's order, the Texas court has its
own obligation under the U.S. Constitution to do its part to
abide by international treaties. The Bush administration, now
siding with Medellin and Mexico, will try to help Donovan's team
convince the justices that the Texas court is undermining the
president's efforts to conduct foreign policy.
Setting a precedent?
Cruz, who will argue the case for Texas, called Bush's
unprecedented attempt to issue orders to the judicial branch -
and the state courts in particular - "breathtaking. It is
emphatically not the province of the president to say what the
law is," he said. "If this president's assertion of authority is
upheld in this case, it opens the door for enormous mischief
from presidents of either party. What might these presidents be
inclined to do if they had the power to flick state laws off the
books?"
Meanwhile, Randy and Sandra Ertman, the parents of one of
Medellin's victims, also have weighed in. In a court brief filed
on their behalf by the California-based Criminal Justice Legal
Foundation, the Ertmans argue that their 14-year-old daughter's
rights, and the rights of other victims, will be given short
shrift if the justices further delay the "already long-overdue
execution of this well-deserved sentence." "This case has
produced much lofty discussion about international law and the
separation of powers. We must not forget, though, that this case
is about a real crime against real people," they wrote. "Enough
is enough."
OTHER DEFENDANTS
Besides Jose Medellin, the five others involved in the 1993
rape-murder of Houston teenagers Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth
Peņa were:
Derrick Sean O'Brien: Executed in 2006
Peter Cantu: Awaiting execution, no date set
Efrain Perez, Raul Villarreal: Sentences commuted to life in
2005 after Supreme Court outlawed executions for those under 18
at the time of their crimes
Venancio Medellin: The younger brother of Jose Medellin, who was
14 at the time and pleaded guilty in juvenile court, is serving
a 40-year sentence
Tue 5/1/2007
U.S. SUPREME COURT / Ertman-Peņa killer will get case heard /
Mexican citizen on death row for '93 rape-murders
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider
whether one of the six killers of Houston teenagers Jennifer
Ertman and Elizabeth Peņa should escape execution because he was
denied a chance to get legal assistance from the Mexican
Consulate. As requested by the Bush administration, the high
court will hear arguments in the fall on the case of Jose
Medellin, a Mexican citizen sent to Texas' death row in the
notorious 1993 rape-murder case. A decision, expected by summer
2008, may resolve a long-running debate over the protection
offered to accused foreigners by a treaty known as the 1963
Vienna Convention. The debate has strained relations between the
United States and Mexico and could determine the fate of more
than 50 Mexicans on death row in the United States, including
more than a dozen in Texas. It also could affect the treatment
of about 6,000 U.S. citizens accused of crimes each year while
traveling or living abroad, who also are protected by the
treaty.
Siding with the killer are the Mexican government, a group of
international law experts and the pro-death penalty White House,
which considers a Texas court's decision in Medellin's case an
affront to the president's sole authority to conduct foreign
policy. Harris County Assistant District Attorney Roe Wilson
said Medellin is not a great example of the foreigners that the
Vienna Convention was meant to protect because he spent the bulk
of his life in Houston from about age 6. "When you talk about
the Vienna Convention, you envision someone visiting another
country and not knowing anything about the country's legal
system," Wilson said Monday. "And that's not true in his case.
He grew up in Houston and was not by any stretch of the
imagination a foreigner in a foreign land." Wilson said
Medellin's experience in the criminal justice system, which
began when he was in middle school, should have given him a
clear understanding of the law and of his rights.
Mexico sued the U.S. over the consular issue in the
International Court of Justice, or World Court, at The Hague,
the United Nations' top court for international disputes. In
February 2005, after the World Court ruled that the convictions
of Medellin and 50 other Mexican prisoners violated the treaty,
President Bush ordered new state court hearings for the
defendants. A few days later, he also withdrew the U.S. from the
part of the treaty that gives the World Court final say in
international disputes.
In November, a unanimous, all-Republican Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals said the Republican president had overstepped his
authority in ordering the state court reviews. The Texas court
said the judicial branch, not the White House, should decide how
to resolve the cases. It also said Medellin wasn't entitled to a
new hearing because he failed to complain at trial about any
violation of his consular rights. Medellin then appealed to the
Supreme Court. The Bush administration has said in court papers
that while it disagrees with the World Court's decision in the
matter, it intends to keep its promise to abide by it. The Texas
court, the administration now argues in its
"friend-of-the-court" brief supporting Medellin, is undermining
Bush's determination of how the United States will comply with
its treaty obligations. "The authority to decide whether this
nation will comply with a (World Court) decision, and if so, how
compliance should be achieved, falls on the president," the
administration told the justices.
Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, who represents the state in
the case, disagreed. He said in writing Monday that Medellin
"voluntarily confessed to the brutal gang rape and murder of two
teenage girls and his conviction has been upheld at every stage
of the legal process." The president's intervention in the case,
Cruz said, "exceeds the constitutional bounds of presidential
authority."
The high court agreed to take Medellin's case once before, but
dismissed it in 2005 after Bush ordered the state court reviews.
Ertman and Peņa were sexually assaulted, strangled and beaten to
death in a northwest Houston park on June 23, 1993, by members
of a youth gang known as the "Black and Whites" who were
initiating a new member. The girls' bodies were found four days
later. Medellin and four other gang members were convicted of
capital murder in the case and sentenced to death.
Ertman's father, Randy Ertman, said he no longer invests much
energy or emotion into his daughter's killers' court cases. "No
matter what he does in his life," he said, "he will always be
responsible for the deaths of Elizabeth Peņa and my daughter."
Randy Ertman witnessed O'Brien's execution last year and intends
to attend the execution of Peter Cantu.
THE OTHER CASES
Besides Jose Medellin, whose appeal was accepted by the U.S.
Supreme Court on Monday, the five other men involved in the
notorious 1993 rape-murders of Houston teenagers Jennifer Ertman
and Elizabeth Peņa were:
Derrick Sean O'Brien: Executed in 2006.
Peter Cantu: Awaiting execution; no date set.
Efrain Perez and Raul Villarreal: Sentences commuted to life in
prison in 2005 after the Supreme Court outlawed executions for
those who were under 18 at the time of their crimes.
Venancio Medellin: Younger brother of Jose who was 14 at the
time of the killings; pleaded guilty in juvenile court and is
serving a 40-year sentence.
Thu
11/16/2006
Court: Bush overstepped in capital cases / Judges say he had no
authority to order hearings for 46 Mexicans
Texas' top criminal court rebuffed President Bush on Wednesday,
ruling that he overstepped his bounds last year when he told
state courts to give new hearings to more than a dozen death row
inmates from Mexico. The unanimous opinion from the
all-Republican Court of Criminal Appeals was the first decision
in dozens of cases pending across the nation that rely heavily
on the president's unusual intervention on behalf of 46
condemned Mexican inmates. "We hold that the President has
exceeded his constitutional authority by intruding into the
independent powers of the judiciary," Judge Michael Keasler
wrote for the nine-member court.
Though the context was different, the Texas judges' logic
faintly echoed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year
that threw out the tribunals that Bush created to try terrorism
suspects. In both cases, the courts said Bush erred in acting
unilaterally. In other respects, the Texas court seemed to draw
a new limit on presidential power and, for that reason, one
expert said its decision could draw the scrutiny of the nation's
highest court.
The Texas ruling specifically addressed Jose Ernesto Medellin, a
gang member convicted of participating in the 1993 murder and
rape of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Peņa, 16, in Houston.
But the decision is expected to dictate the results in 12
similar cases filed by others on death row in Livingston. Bush
waded into the process last year after the International Court
of Justice, the judicial arm of the United Nations, decided that
arrests of the Mexican inmates had violated the Vienna
Convention on Consular Relations. Specifically, the World Court
said they deserved new hearings - not necessarily new trials -
because they weren't told they could contact the Mexican
consulate upon arrest, a requirement of the 1967 treaty.
Bush, allowing his support for capital punishment to bow to
diplomatic interests, said the United States would recognize the
World Court ruling out of respect but not because it had to.
This directive, spelled out in a short memo to the U.S. attorney
general, represented an unprecedented usurpation of the
judiciary's job of interpreting and applying the law, including
treaties, the Texas court ruled.
Crucial to the judges' analysis was the fact that Bush acted
alone, without explicit approval from Congress and without first
reaching an agreement with Mexico to resolve this treaty
dispute. Additionally, the court said, Medellin wasn't entitled
to a new hearing because he had failed to complain at trial
about the violation of his consular rights.
Sandra Babcock, who represented Medellin and frequently works on
behalf of the Mexican government in capital cases, described the
court's refusal to grant her client the hearing as a mistake
with international implications. By denying him even that
opportunity, the Texas court has undermined the security of
Americans abroad who depend on the Vienna Convention for
protection," she said.
Roe Wilson, a Harris County prosecutor who handled the appeal,
described the Texas decision as unremarkable in light of a
Supreme Court ruling in June that indicated U.S. law trumped the
World Court ruling. We follow our laws, and under our law, you
don't exclude a confession if there's been a violation of the
Vienna Convention," she said.
Second-guessing
Julian Ku, a professor of international law at William & Mary
School of Law in Williamsburg, Va., said some of the ruling's
reasoning might be vulnerable to second-guessing because it
seemed to break some new ground. The judges suggested that if
Bush first had reached a formal agreement with his counterpart
in Mexico, he might now have the necessary authority to order
state courts to give the inmates new hearings. "That argument
alone is likely to attract the attention of the Supreme Court,"
Ku said.
The White House and Justice Department had no immediate comment.
Neither did the office of Mexican President Vicente Fox, but the
court's ruling was predictably unwelcome in Mexico. "It is a
violation of human rights, and I strongly reject this decision,"
said Maria Eugenia Campos Galvan, a congresswoman from the
border state of Chihuahua and a member of the Foreign Relations
Committee.
Kent Scheidegger of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which
argued on Texas' behalf, said in a statement that the consular
flap has needlessly delayed justice. "While the constitutional
issues here are important, underneath them is a patently
meritless claim delaying a long overdue execution," he said.
Wed 07/12/2006
O'Brien executed for rape-murders / Killer apologizes to the
families of Peņa and Ertman
HUNTSVILLE - As the parents of his victims wordlessly watched,
their faces just inches away from the glass that separated them
from the execution chamber, killer-rapist Derrick O'Brien went
to his death Tuesday, expressing deep sorrow for his crimes. One
of six men convicted of the 1993 rape-murders of Jennifer
Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Peņa, 16 - teens who stumbled into a
drunken midnight gang initiation rite - O'Brien, 31, was the
first to die. Two others await execution, and three more,
juveniles at the time of the crime, are serving prison terms for
the attacks.
"I am sorry. I have always been sorry," O'Brien said as he lay
on the gurney, awaiting for the lethal flow of drugs to begin.
"It is the worst mistake that I ever made in my whole life. Not
because I am here, but because of what I did. I hurt a lot of
people - you and my family." Adolfo Peņa, Elizabeth Peņa's
father, later said the apology "doesn't mean anything to me.
Maybe he is sorry. God only knows that," Peņa said as his wife,
Melissa, sat silently at his side. "He's probably up there
talking to him right now. So it really didn't mean much to me
what he said. ... It doesn't make me feel any better. Maybe he
was sorry, but it's just a little late for that, right?"
Peņa, who wore a T-shirt bearing photographs of the dead girls,
said only the execution of all six killers - an event he
recognized is not possible - might bring him closure. "These
kids deserve to die," Peņa said. "There's no excuse for what
they did. I don't want to use the a-word, but they're animals. I
wouldn't do this to my worst enemy. ... I want to thank you from
the bottom of my heart that we finally got justice for my
daughter. I just wish I had her for 13 more years."
Randy and Sandra Ertman, parents of the second victim, did not
talk with reporters. But Andy Kahan, Mayor Bill White's crime
victims advocate, spoke on their behalf, saying they expressed
satisfaction with O'Brien's execution. "They were really glad
after 13 years that they finally got the execution," Kahan said.
"They can close that chapter."
The lethal drugs, which O'Brien's lawyer unsuccessfully argued
constituted cruel and unusual punishment, were administered at
6:12 p.m. - shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down his
final appeal. He was declared dead seven minutes later. "He just
closed his eyes," Peņa said, "and went to sleep."
As the execution began, three women witnessing the procedure at
O'Brien's request crowded near the window of a second witness
room. "I love you," one cried as a second tried to comfort her.
"I'll always love you." As O'Brien lapsed into unconsciousness,
the woman cried inconsolably, repeating again and again that she
loved him. rison officials could not identify the woman.
2 others face execution
O'Brien was the 14th killer executed in Texas this year.
Also facing execution in the rape-murders are gang leader Peter
Anthony Cantu, 30, and Jose Medellin, 31. Death sentences for
Raul Villarreal and Efrain Perez, both 30, were commuted to life
in prison because they were juveniles at the time of the
killings. Venacio Medellin, 14 at the time of the attacks, is
serving a 40-year sentence.
The rape-murders led to changes in Texas law that now allow
relatives of victims to make statements at a trial's conclusion
and witness the execution of killers. "That's a positive that's
come out of a negative," Kahan said. "Seventy-five percent of
families elect to witness executions, and that would not have
been possible except for them (the Peņa and Ertman families)."
Ertman and Peņa, students at Waltrip High School, spent the
hours leading to the attack with friends poolside at a northwest
Houston apartment complex. As their midnight curfew approached,
they debated the fastest route to Peņa's residence. The chosen
path - a shortcut via the railroad tracks through T.C. Jester
Park - brought them into the midst of a drunken gang initiation.
The girls were dragged into a nearby wooded area where, during
the course of an hour, they were repeatedly raped, and then, as
they pleaded for their lives, strangled. Police, acting on a
phone tip from one of the killers' brothers, found the badly
decomposed bodies four days later.
History of violence
During ensuing trials, witnesses testified that O'Brien had a
reputation for drunkenness and violence. On one occasion, a
former teacher told jurors, O'Brien broke another student's jaw.
The future killer openly boasted of his exploits as a car thief.
Court records indicate that O'Brien's mother and grandfather
described him as "cruel" and "intentionally harsh." Defense
counsel did not call O'Brien's relatives to testify. But
O'Brien's final attorney, Catherine Burnett, an associate dean
at the South Texas College of Law, found her client surprisingly
meek. "The portrait the jury saw was that of a terrifying
monster," she said as his execution approached. "The man I know
does not seem to be the defendant in this case."
O'Brien turned down repeated requests for interviews. But on a
Web site provided by death penalty opponents, O'Brien wrote that
"Life is a miracle and therefore precious. Each time one is
taken ... the world loses something special." His observation
was in reference to his own life, not that of his victims.
One day before O'Brien's scheduled May 16 execution, the Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay in order to consider
the condemned prisoner's claim that death by injection
constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The court lifted the
stay two days later.
Mon 07/10/2006
Killer's death date up again / Execution set for Tuesday in '93
rape, slaying of 2 teens at park
It wasn't news to anyone that Derrick Sean O'Brien was bad news.
He fought often at school, once breaking a kid's jaw. Lots of
times he was drunk. Sometimes he carried a knife. He was full of
bluster about his prowess as a car thief. But it was in 1993
that O'Brien hit rock bottom. In January of that year, O'Brien
later admitted, he murdered and tried to rape Patricia Lopez, a
27-year-old mother of two young children, in Melrose Park. And
on June 24, 1993, he took part in the brutal gang rapes and
murders of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Peņa, 16, after
the girls stumbled into a drunken midnight gang initiation rite
in T.C. Jester Park. Tuesday, O'Brien, 31, is scheduled to be
executed for his role in that crime.
The death date is the killer's second this year. In May, O'Brien
received a brief stay as judges considered his claim that death
by injection is cruel and unusual punishment. O'Brien's
attorney, Catherine Burnett, an associate dean at the South
Texas College of Law, filed a new appeal on his behalf with the
U.S. Supreme Court. "I hope the son of a bitch rots in hell,"
Ertman's father, Randy, said last week. "He deserves it."
"It doesn't make me happy," Peņa's father, Adolfo, said in a
recent interview. "But this is the punishment he was given, and
it's justifiable. ... I kind of feel numb in a way, knowing that
I've been waiting so long for this day to come. ... I've been
looking forward to this for a long time."
The murders of
Ertman and Peņa rocked the city in a way that few deaths could.
The Waltrip High School students, balanced at that awkward point
between childhood and young womanhood, spent the hours before
their deaths at a poolside party at a northwest Houston
apartment complex. As their midnight curfew approached, they
debated the best way to Peņa's home. Their normal route would
have taken half an hour, but they chose a well-known shortcut
down the railroad tracks through the park. Minutes after the
girls left the party, they were intercepted by O'Brien and five
other members of the loose-knit gang, who had just concluded a
track-side initiation rite. The girls were pulled from the
tracks, raped and strangled. Court testimony revealed that
O'Brien grunted with exertion as he tightened a belt around
Ertman's neck. Then, after stomping on the girls' throats, the
killers divided the victims' belongings.
O'Brien was at the crime scene four days later when police,
alerted to the bodies' location by the brother of a gang member,
began their investigation. Unobtrusively, the killer stood among
spectators who gathered in the park. Ertman's father also was in
the crowd. Days later, O'Brien was arrested. He will be the
first of the convicted gang members to be put to death. Others
facing execution are Peter Anthony Cantu, described as the
gang's leader, and Jose Ernesto Medellin, both 31. Death
sentences for two others - Efrain Perez and Raul Omar Villarreal
- were commuted to life in prison when the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that those who were minors when they committed murders
could not be executed. The sixth gang member, Venacio Medellin,
who was 14 at the time of the murders and testified against the
others, received a 40-year sentence.
"Don't say time makes things better," Peņa's father said. "It
never goes away. It's never going to go away. The hurt is still
the same. I still find myself crying just out of the blue."
Thu 06/29/2006
High court axes foreigners' plea / Denial of suspects' claims of
consular rights violations could affect Texas case
In a ruling
that could have implications for a Houston death row case, the
U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against foreign suspects
who want to suppress statements they gave to police during
interrogations when they were not informed of their right to
contact consulate officials from their home countries. The court
ruled 6-3 that Mexican Moises Sanchez-Llamas' and Honduran Mario
Bustillo's rights under the Vienna Convention were not violated
because the treaty's consulate-notification provision does not
apply to searches or interrogations.
Those cases originated in Oregon and Virginia, respectively. But
the court's ruling could affect a Texas death-penalty case as
well. Mexican national Jose Ernesto Medellin raised the same
issue of Vienna Convention violations in his appeals. Medellin
was one of six defendants convicted in the 1993 rape and murder
of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Peņa, 16, in a northwest
Houston park. "The court could have used Jose's case a long time
ago to hand down the same ruling they handed down today,"
Medellin's attorney, Michael B. Charlton, said from his office
in El Prado, N.M. "That pretty much ends Vienna Convention
claims on confession claims but not on the other issues," he
added. Medellin's case is under review by the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals after President Bush's edict last year for
courts in Texas and other states to review his and 50 others
involving foreign nationals who raised consular violation
claims. But the court's decision does not relate to Bush's
order.
In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts specified
that Article 36 of the Vienna Convention "secures only a right
of foreign nationals to have their consulate "informed" of their
arrest or detention - not to have their consulate intervene, or
to have law enforcement authorities cease their investigation
pending any such notice or intervention." Under the convention,
ratified by the United States in 1969, when a national of one
country is detained by authorities in another country,
authorities must notify the consular offices of the foreigner's
home country when requested. Roberts also wrote that a detained
foreign national, "like everyone else in our country, enjoys
under our system the protections of the Due Process Clause." He
set aside, however, the matter of whether police must advise
defendants of their legal options. Roberts was careful to
stipulate that the ruling "in no way disparages the importance
of the Vienna Convention."
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote that the
decision runs afoul of the treaty's interpretation "not only
with the treaty's language and history, but also with the
(International Court of Justice's) interpretation of the same
treaty provision." Justices John Paul Stevens and David Souter
joined in the dissent. Breyer wrote that the ruling may weaken
respect abroad for the rights of foreign nationals and
diminishes the treaty's proviso that foreign nationals are
deserving of fair treatment throughout the world. A spokesman
for the Texas Attorney General's Office, which is handling the
Court of Criminal Appeals case involving Medellin, declined to
comment about the potential impact of the court's ruling.
Thu 05/25/2006
Ertman, Peņa murderer set to die on July 11 / Appeals court had
granted, then reversed, a stay for teens' killer
A man whose execution for the murders of two teenage girls was
blocked recently has been rescheduled for the death chamber on
July 11. State District Judge Jan Krocker set the new execution
date for Derrick Sean O'Brien, one of six gang members convicted
in the 1993 slayings of Waltrip High School sophomores Jennifer
Ertman and Elizabeth Peņa. O'Brien, 31, originally was set to
die on May 16, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a
stay of execution. The appeals court reversed course the next
day, voting 5-4 to lift the stay and dismiss O'Brien's claim
that Texas' lethal-injection procedure would violate his Eighth
Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
O'Brien would be the first of Ertman's and Peņa's killers to
die. Four others also were condemned, but two later saw their
sentences commuted to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme
Court banned the execution of those who were juveniles when they
committed murder. Another gang member, who was 14 at the time of
the attack, received a 40-year sentence. Ertman, 14, and Peņa,
16, were walking home through a wooded area in northwest Houston
on the night of June 24, 1993, when they were gang-raped and
tortured, then strangled and stomped. Their bodies were found
four days later.
Thu 05/18/2006
Ertman, Peņa killer again faces execution / Case reversed;
another inmate who challenged lethal injection is put to death
In a reversal
with life-or-death consequences, the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals on Wednesday lifted the stay of execution it granted
earlier this week for Derrick Sean O'Brien of Houston, who
likely will be rescheduled for lethal injection for his role in
the notorious slaying of two teenage girls in 1993. "See, we're
back on the ride again, riding up and down," said Melissa Peņa,
mother of one of the girls who was gang-raped, tortured and
strangled. "At least this is some good news. Maybe things will
swing back our way."
The appeals court also denied a claim by another death row
inmate, Jermaine Herron, who was then put to death in Huntsville
for killing a South Texas mother and son nine years ago. Both
men had argued that the state's use of a three-drug cocktail
would cause pain and therefore violate their constitutional
protection against cruel and unusual punishment. After the court
issued its stay for O'Brien on Monday, his attorney and legal
experts wondered whether the move signaled the court's
willingness to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the
issue over lethal injections raised in a Florida case now before
it. Herron's attorneys filed a similar claim late Tuesday. In a
5-4 ruling Wednesday, the Texas court rescinded the stay it had
issued for O'Brien and dismissed his claim that the state's
lethal injection procedure would violate his Eighth Amendment
rights. At issue, in this and a growing number of claims around
the country, is whether an anesthetic administered as part of
the lethal-injection cocktail can fail, and whether the dying
inmate's agony is masked by a second drug that paralyzes the
muscles. The U.S. Supreme Court has so far declined to address
the constitutional question directly. But in a Florida case
argued last month, Hill v. McDonough, the justices pondered a
related procedural issue.
In an opinion issued Wednesday concurring with the majority
vote, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Cathy Cochran
explained that the court postponed O'Brien's execution to look
more closely at the procedural issues as well as the merits of
O'Brien's claim. She wrote that O'Brien failed to do more than
speculate about the "problems or mistakes that "might" occur."
She wrote further that he has not provided evidence that the
three-drug protocol used during executions "is subject to any
realistic risk of unnecessary pain or suffering." On Monday,
Cochran had voted with five other judges to grant O'Brien a
postponement. In a dissenting opinion Wednesday, Judge Tom Price
wrote that the question before the court was not whether
O'Brien's appeal proved an Eighth Amendment violation. It was
the court's job, he wrote, to determine whether the appeal was
appropriately filed as a state habeas corpus petition. "It is
manifestly unfair, in my estimation, to fault the applicant for
a failure of proof without first affording him an opportunity to
present evidence at a hearing or through one of the other
mechanisms that the statute allows for presentation of
evidence," Price wrote. Rob Owen, a University of Texas law
school adjunct professor and death penalty expert, agreed with
Price, saying that the court skirted the procedural question.
"It sounds like Price is criticizing the court saying it has
gone around that question and gone straight to the underlying
constitutional question," Owen said. "He's saying they're
putting the cart before the horse."
Roe Wilson, a Harris County prosecutor, said she will file a
request for a state district court to reschedule O'Brien's
execution. She said she had not received the order Wednesday
afternoon and would not comment further. A new execution date
could be set within 30 days.
The reversal was the latest twist in a case that has already
seen two death sentences commuted to life. O'Brien and four
other gang members were sentenced to death for the June 24,
1993, deaths of Waltrip High School sophomores Jennifer Ertman,
14, and Elizabeth Peņa, 16. Another gang member, a juvenile,
received a 40-year sentence. Last year, two gang members were
spared from the death chamber after the Supreme Court ruled
those who kill when they are younger than 18 should not be put
to death.
Randy Ertman, father of Jennifer Ertman, said he is frustrated
that the waiting process now starts anew. "It's just
nerve-racking," he said. "I don't know what the hell to think
anymore." Andy Kahan, Mayor Bill White's crime victims advocate,
said the court relented because the judges concluded "it would
be foolhardy to put a halt to justice." "It's a bleeping roller
coaste