Texas executes Mexican national after court stay rejected

I read somewhere that his first court pointed attorney was incompetent, which is part of the problem, and by incompetent I mean he has already had other complaints filed against him for not properly doing his job and had been reprimanded.

It seems to be a clusterf*** from the start.

I agree that after he told that he was actully a Mexican National and not an American citizen that he should have been informed of his right to contact the Mexican consulate.

A lot of what I have read about this particular case is the fact that he wasn't informed at the time of arrest or during his trail of his rights as a Mexican National.

I had forgotten about that...my mother was one herself.

I suppose I had assumed that it wouldn't take decades to become a citizen. Given the information below (he was 21 when the crime occurred) I would have thought that he would have been a citizen already after basically growing up in the US. Maybe he's one of those people who slipped through the cracks.




**ETA: I posted this before reading the rest of the thread **

This is a wonderful justification for requiring police to ask for proof of citizenship, just so they don't get hit with lawsuits 17 years later, about denying some illegal his 'rights'.

Never-mind... already been covered.

That doesn't make sense. If it is found and confirmed that he is indeed a Mexican citizen, then he has a right to get help from the Mexican government and he can also further appeal the conviction.

It looks like he was denied his rights pretty much.

I'm not sure if he was illegal or not. If his parents never went through the naturalization process, he may indeed be illegal. If his parents did go through the naturalization process, then he would most likely will be a citizen of the U.S, either that, or he himself had to go through the citizenship process.

I agree.

Perhaps at the time of arraignment or even arrest. Not at the point of simply stopping someone to ask them some questions.