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| This handout image provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Edgar Tamayo. Attorneys for the Mexican national on Texas death row for the slaying of a Houston police officer hoped a civil suit, challenging what they argued is an unfair and secretive clemency process in the nation’s most active capital punishment state would block the inmate’s scheduled execution this week. Tamayo, 46, was set for lethal injection Wednesday evening, Jan. 22, 2014, in Huntsville. |
HUNTSVILLE, Texas
(AP) -- The execution of a Mexican national was at least
temporarily put on hold Wednesday as the U.S. Supreme Court considered
appeals to keep 46-year-old Edgar Tamayo from the Texas death chamber.
Tamayo's
execution had been scheduled for 6 p.m. CST Wednesday for the slaying
20 years ago of a Texas police officer, Guy Gaddis, 24. The state still
could execute Tamayo before midnight if the Supreme Court rules in its
favor.
Texas officials have opposed appeals to
stop the scheduled lethal injection, despite pleas and diplomatic
pressure from the Mexican government and the U.S. State Department.
Tamayo's
attorneys and the Mexican government contend Tamayo's case was tainted
because he wasn't advised under an international agreement that he could
get legal help from his home nation after his arrest.
Legal assistance
guaranteed under that treaty could have uncovered evidence to contest
the capital murder charge or provide evidence to keep Tamayo off death
row, Mexican officials have said.
Records show the consulate became involved or aware of the case just as his trial was to begin.
Secretary
of State John Kerry previously asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott
to delay Tamayo's punishment, saying it "could impact the way American
citizens are treated in other countries." The State Department repeated
that stance Wednesday.
But Abbott's office and
the Harris County district attorney opposed postponing what would be
the first execution this year in the nation's most active capital
punishment state, where 16 people were put to death in 2013.
The
high court was considering at least two appeals. One focused on the
consular issue. The other was related to whether Tamayo was mentally
impaired and ineligible for the death penalty. The execution warrant
remains in effect until midnight.
Tamayo's
lawyers went to the Supreme Court after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals said an appeal this week renewing an earlier contention that
Tamayo was mentally impaired and ineligible for execution was filed too
late.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday rejected Tamayo's request for clemency.
"It
doesn't matter where you're from," Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said.
"If you commit a despicable crime like this in Texas, you are subject to
our state laws, including a fair trial by jury and the ultimate
penalty."
Gaddis, who had been on the force
for two years, was driving Tamayo and another man from a robbery scene
when evidence showed the officer was shot three times in the head and
neck with a pistol Tamayo had concealed in his pants. The car crashed,
and Tamayo fled on foot but was captured a few blocks away, still in
handcuffs, carrying the robbery victim's watch and wearing the victim's
necklace.
At least two other inmates in circumstances similar to Tamayo's were executed in Texas in recent years.
The
Mexican government said in a statement this week it "strongly opposed"
the execution and said failure to review Tamayo's case and reconsider
his sentence would be "a clear violation by the United States of its
international obligations."
Tamayo was in the
U.S. illegally and had a criminal record in California, where he had
served time for robbery and was paroled, according to prison records.
"Not
one person is claiming the suspect didn't kill Guy Gaddis," Ray Hunt,
president of the Houston Police
Officers' Union, said. "He had the same
rights as you and I would have.
"This has been looked at, heard, examined and it's time for the verdict of the jury to be carried out."
Tamayo
was among more than four dozen Mexican nationals awaiting execution in
the U.S. when the International Court of Justice in The Hague,
Netherlands, ruled in 2004 they hadn't been advised properly of their
consular rights. The Supreme Court subsequently said hearings urged by
the international court in those inmates' cases could be mandated only
if Congress implemented legislation to do so.
"Unfortunately, this legislation has not been adopted," the Mexican foreign ministry acknowledged.
