The U.S. Supreme Court did not grant a reprieve to Jose Ernesto Medellin and executed him last night based on a 1993 conviction for raping and killing two Texas teens.

“I’m sorry my actions caused you pain. I hope this brings you the closure that you seek. Never harbor hate,” Medellin, 33, told those gathered to watch him die. He was pronounced dead at 9:57 p.m. local time.

The Mexican national’s case has drawn international attention from all sides of the political spectrum. Some have taken his case as an example of all that is wrong with U.S. immigration policy and used Medellin as a scapegoat in their anti-immigrant (and let’s be real, anti-Latino) campaign.

Pro-human rights activists globally protested the impending execution, saying it was a violation of international law. Even the Bush administration, State Department, and Attorney General intervened, asking for a delay in the execution.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague sided in 2004 with the Mexican government’s argument that the United States had violated the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by failing to inform the arrested Mexican nationals of their right to seek help from the Mexican Consulate.

Mexico has asked that all 51 convictions be reviewed, creating the possibility for new trials or outright dismissals. The Hague court had ordered the United States not to execute any of five men on death row in Texas while the court reviewed their cases.

But the court, a branch of the United Nations, has no power to enforce its rulings. A spokesman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, has said that “the world court has no standing in Texas.”

The fact that players in the Federal government were asking for the execution to be reconsidered perhaps shows that even insiders understand that the U.S. cannot keep picking and choosing what international standards it will keep and use for it’s own benefit and not expect consequences.

Via / LA Times