The Full Enchilada

Congress is being asked to sign into LAW, legislation to force the US to abide by “International Treaties”. It could be argued that consular access for foreigners is a great thing, and no American is against the US government or states passing such a law of their own accord.

Yet many are against the idea of passing legislation forcing the US, a sovereign nation, to subjugate itself to Treaties/Laws/Legislation created by International countries/groups.

Americans are happy to allow consular access to foreigners accused of crimes and ask other countries to do the same for Americans arrested abroad. It appears that in the case of Humberto Leal, that he chose to pretend he was a US citizen thinking he would have greater protection and ended up being completely wrong, he would have been better off admitting immediately that he was an illegal, even though he had been living in the US since he was about 2 years old. Also, apparently it’s considered ‘racism/profiling’ etc for authorities to ask his citizenship status.

The legislation to be introduced appears to not only be able to buy a lot of time for Humberto Leal, but possibly overturn his death penalty since it has been said it would make the death penalty illegal for any foreigner, legal or illegal, who had been convicted without having been given the opportunity to speak to to his country’s consulate whether he asked for it or not.

The biggest problem facing the white house is that no one is contesting Humberto Leal’s guilt. His guilt is considered fact, that he did indeed abduct the 16 year old girl from the party, violently raped her and then murdered her by smashing her head in with a big 30 pound chunk of asphalt. Humberto Leal’s brother had apparently come to the party asking about a girl, saying that his brother came bloody and saying he had killed a girl.

It was later revealed her body had his bite-marks on her. Because of the iron-clad case against Humbero Leal, the defense’s notion that had he been allowed to contact the Mexican consulate, he might never have been convicted or at least gotten away from the death penalty, gives little reason to the Texas governor to delay or stop the execution. Had there been even the smallest possibility that he was innocent, things would be different.

The bigger issue the federal government is facing is pressure from all these anti-death penalty governments such as Mexico that would like to make sure that their citizens never face the death penalty in the US regardless of their crimes and US federal or states’ laws.

Many or most states, Texas for sure, would claim sovereignty and say they could voluntarily enact laws themselves to allow consular access but would claim International Courts/Law has no binding authority over them even if the federal government accepts them as binding.

The Humberto Leal case has really brought to light, and possible additional scrutiny any pending Congressional legislation that may be seen to undermine US national sovereignty or states’ rights. It will be interesting to see whether the plea to stop his execution and the reasoning behind it will work towards gaining support for its signing or if the spotlight turns from Humberto to the actual words of the legislation and its implications.

Also, perhaps Texas would have been more willing to delay the execution if it had been given assurances the federal government and any legislation that would pass, would not try to prevent them from ultimately carrying out the execution as soon as all the papers were folded.

Humberto Leal has been on deathrow for 15 years, he was born in 1973 and committed the rape and murder in 1994.

Below is one of his Pen Pal request letters that was taken from an anti-death penalty group with website deathrow-usa.us

”
January 1st, 2006
Hello, my name is Humberto Leal Jr., my TDC-ID is 999162. I am a death row prisoner. I have been on death row for 11 yrs.

I am a Mexican Born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1973.

I have been living in the USA since I was about 3 yrs. old.

I speak and understand both English and Spanish well.

I would like to hear from anyone willing to write me. It don’t matter to me who, if its male, female young or older. I am honest. I like to write and receive mail.

My hobbies are listing to football and baseball games. I’ll go shot few baskettball at the rec., but other than that I’ve learned to enjoy reading.

When I was free I never read a book. But finding myself here in a boring cell I started to read and can’t go a week without reading a book.

If anyone wishes to write me. Please do.

Thank you for your time.

My Peace and Respect

Humberto Leal Jr.
“