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Friday, July 8, 2011

Garcia v. Texas, 564 U.S. ___ (2011)

Petitioner Humberto Leal Garcia was a Mexican national who has lived in the United States since before the age of two. In 1994, he kidnapped 16-year-old Adria Sauceda, raped her with a large stick, and bludgeoned her to death with a piece of asphalt.  When he was arrested, the officers failed to inform him of his consular rights, to which he was entitled under the Vienna Convention.  He was nevertheless convicted of murder and sentenced to death by a Texas court.  He appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States for a stay of his execution.

Garcia - and the United States, who joined his petition - argued that he was entitled to a stay of execution because the International Court of Justice had held that arrests for foreign nationals must be accompanied by consular warnings.  This ruling has been implemented in the United States by executive order, and is now the subject of pending legislation before the United States Senate.

The majority held that its prior decision in Medellín v. Texas, 552 U. S. 491 (2008), in which the Court held that neither the ICJ decision nor the President’s Memorandum purporting to implement that decision constituted directly enforceable federal law.  It also declined to consider Garcia's potential remedies under legislation that had not yet been passed (and that has been pending for seven years.)

Justice Breyer dissented, and was joined by justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan.  They wrote that Garcia's execution would place the United States in irreparable breach of its duties under international law.


Read the NYTimes Article.

leal garcia v. texas 564 u.s

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