...K P F T news

LEAD-IN BY SHALINI TRIPIPATHI: Texas Death Row INmates scheduled to be executed last month recieved stays, making July the first month this year that there were no state-mandated lethal injetions. This month, Texas Death Row is in the spotlight once again. Renee Feltz reports:

STORY: A man scheduled to die by lethal injection on August 14 on Texas' death row is straining international relations with the United States. The Mexican government has provided funding to reopen the investigation into the case of Mexican national Javier Saurez Medina.

Attorney Sandra Babcock is the director of the Mexican Capital legal aid program that is leading the reinvestigation. She explains Mexico's initial reaction to Medina's case upon his arrest in 1998:

"The Mexican governement heard about the arrest, recognized that he had a Hispanic surnane, called the Dallas County authorities, believe it was the prosectuors office, asked if he was a Mexican national and they were told that he was Cuban. And in fact, they were misinformed three different times about his nationality."

Mexico is concerned about the failure Texas to inform Medina of his right to seek consular assistance - a right garunteed by the Vienna treaty on consular relations. . Lydia Brandt is the attorney now representing Medina:

The Mexican consulate would have provided substantial assistance to Javier and I believe that thye would have been able to provide both funding and the necessary resources so that this information thats just being developed now could have been developed fourteen years ago.

Medina was convicted of killing Larry Cadena, an undercover police officer in Dallas, Texas, during a 1988 drug bust. The prosecution painted the murder as a robbery of a drug dealer gone bad, leading to a charge of felony murder, punishable by the death penalty. Medina's original trial was conducted without the assistance of the Mexican consulate. He was represented by a court appointed attorney who did not speak Spanish, and there were no Latinos on the Dallas county jury. Due to the language barrier between the court and Medina's parents, mitigating evidence from his personal history was never presented.

"About a year or two before this particular crime was committed, he had been with several friends at a party and there was a drive-by shooting and he saw another boy about his age who was just picked off by a gun and shot right in front of him, shot dead. The psychologist Dr. Weinstein has opined that Javier was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. And so when he pulled the trigger and shot officer Cadena after having heard what he thought were shots, it was this panic reaction."

Both attorney's also criticized the prosecution for using unreliable eyewitness testimony from a separate case for which Javier was never tried or convicted. This information was used during the penalty phase of the trial to demonstrate future dangerousness, and further convince the jury to level a death sentence.

The Texas Board of pardons and parole had indicated it is aware of the request by Medina's attorneys for a stay. If he receives a stay, his case will be appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, where Brandt will present the new evidence.

In addition to the Mexican government, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has issued a precautionary measure calling for a stay in Medina's case. The commission is the only institution allowed by the U.S. government to investigate human rights abuses in the United States. Their recommendation for a stay is made to the state department, which then advises the Texas governor and the board of pardons and parole. Currently the board has made no indication of what its decision will be, or at what time before August 14 it will issue its decision.

Medina's case, and with it, Texas death row practices, are also attracting attention beyond Mexico. The European Union has criticized the manner in which his execution dates have been imposed as cruel and unusual punishment:

"He has been living under an execution date for several of the years he has been on death row. He's had 14 seperate execution dates which were imposed not because he was manipulating the system but because Texas has a practice of setting execution dates simply as filing deadlines. There's no legitimate purpose for them, but it does create a kind of psychological torture that we're also aruging is contrary to international law."

Death penalty opponents like Rick Halperin are not surprised that the Mexican government involved itself in Medina's case. He cites Texas' past history in relation to the state's violations of international law.

"It just doesn't seem to care that it executes mentally retarded people, juviniles, foreign nationals without regards to their rights. It just doesn't really seem to indicate any willingness to want to comply with any international norm. And as such, it always rightfully so, comes under intense scrutiny and deserved criticism by people in this country and abroad."

Marco Nunez, the Mexican consulate's spokesperson in Houston, told KPFT news that Mexico is not asking for Medina's freedom. He stated that in cases like this, we have to react. The Mexican government believes in the United States legal system, but believes that in this case proper legal procedure was not followed. Sandra Babcock, also speaking on behalf of the Mexican consulate, remains optimistic.

"I think that we are entering a new era where internatinonal law is assuming greater and greater importance. With the war on terrorism, the United States can't assume an isolationist posture. The international community doesn't look at what Texas does and say oh, well thats just Texas, that's not the United States. What Texas does has an effect and will reverbarate thought the international community, and will reflect poorly on the United States."

Renee Feltz, KPFT News Houston

E-mail Renee Feltz at chickpea_@ziplip.com