Mexican citizen Edgar Tamayo Arias was executed last Wednesday night in Texas for the fatal shooting of a police officer, despite pressure from the Mexican government and U.S. State Department to reconsider.

Tamayo’s execution by lethal injection marks the first of 2014 for Texas, a state that carried out 16 executions last year, according to The Bureau of Justice preliminary statistics. In fact, since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, Texas has been the most active death penalty state with 509 executions – roughly 37 percent of the 1,360 total executions that have taken place nationwide.

While capital punishment has been a divisive issue for years, Tamayo’s case was especially controversial.  In January 1994, Officer Guy Gaddis was transporting Tamayo and another suspect from a robbery scene. Tamayo, who was carrying a concealed pistol, reached for the weapon and shot Gaddis three times in the back of the head. Tamayo fled on foot and was arrested a few blocks away. Despite the heinous nature of his crime, the Mexican government claimed Tamayo’s trial was tainted because he had not been properly informed of his right to diplomatic assistance following his arrest.

This right, granted by a 1963 international agreement known as the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, “requires all countries who signed it to provide foreign nationals accused of a crime with notice and an opportunity to seek assistance from their consulate.” The Mexican government called Tamayo’s case “a clear violation by the United States of its international obligations.”

According to Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, “assistance would likely have been critical. Language barriers and intellectual disabilities hampered his [Tamayo’s] ability to receive a fair trial. It might have made the difference between an execution and a more appropriate means of holding him accountable.”

Tamayo’s case is not the first in which allegations of a violation of consular rights have been raised. Within the past five years, the state of Texas has executed two other Mexican citizens amid disputes regarding international rights. Jose Ernesto Medellin and Humberto Leal Garcia Jr., both convicted of rape and murder, were executed in 2008 and 2011 respectively.

Tamayo’s lawyers and supporters were not the only ones questioning Texas’ legal procedures. In 2004, the International Court of Justice – the primary judicial body of the United Nations – ruled that the United States had violated its obligations under the Vienna Convention. According to the ICJ, the U.S. had failed to inform Mexican consulates immediately after the arrests of nearly 50 Mexican citizens, Tamayo included. In what became known as the “Avena decision,” the ICJ ordered the U.S. to reconsider the convictions and sentences of the Mexican nationals. In 2005, then-president George W. Bush backed the ICJ, calling for states to abide by the court’s ruling. In the end however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 2008 Medellín v Texas case that “although the ‘Avena decision’ is a binding obligation under international law, without a statute from Congress the president does not have the power to force states to comply with ICJ rulings.” Without the proper legislation, Texas was essentially free to circumvent international law.

While Texas is not bound by the Vienna Convention, Rust-Tierney points out that Texas’ decision may challenge the U.S. Constitution. She states, “the Constitution places the authority to define and engage in foreign policy with the federal government [and also] some argue that by refusing to follow the dictates of the Vienna Convention, Texas is setting international law and policy.”

Even more troublesome, the legal ramifications from the Tamayo case could have an impact for Americans who find themselves in legal trouble overseas. In a letter written to Texas Governor Rick Perry last month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged him to grant Tamayo a new hearing, calling the decision to set an execution date “extremely detrimental to the interests of the United States.”

Kerry wrote “I want to be clear: I have no reason to doubt the facts of Mr. Tamayo’s conviction, and as a former prosecutor, I have no sympathy for anyone who would murder a police officer [but] this is a process issue I am raising because it could impact the way American citizens are treated in other countries.”

In the end, despite appeals and diplomatic pressure, Texas would not back down. According to Lucy Nashed, spokeswoman for Gov. Perry, the state was simply enforcing its laws. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from – 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.”

Twenty other foreign citizens, including 11 Mexicans, remain on death row in Texas.

[CNN] [Fox News Latino] [The Guardian] [LA Times]

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Matt DiCenso (@MattDiCenso24)

Featured image courtesy of [Zaldylmg via Flickr]

Matt DiCenso

Matt DiCenso is a graduate of The George Washington University. Contact Matt at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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