Posts Tagged ‘death penalty’
The Latino Who Wanted to be President Kills the Death Penalty in New Mexico
9:14 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Justice| New Mexico| crime · Comments Off
19 Mar 2009
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson may not be president or be in the Obama cabinet, pero he’s not letting that get him down and made a really positive move for all people in the United States. Yesterday he signed a law that abolishes the death penalty in New Mexico.
Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime”…
“Faced with the reality that our system for imposing the death penalty can never be perfect, my conscience compels me to replace the death penalty with a solution that keeps society safe.”
Studies have shown that the death penalty does not deter crimes and ends up costing tax-payers more.
The New Mexico ban goes into effect on July 1st and is not retroactive, meaning that it will only apply to crimes committed after that date. This part is problematic to me. Why not commute the death sentences to life imprisonment? I am not an legal expert pero perhaps there is a legal reason for not making the law retroactive? Currently there are two men on New Mexico’s death row.
New Mexico becomes the 15th state to nix the death penalty.
Via / The Latin Americanist
Texas Thumbs Nose to International Community, Set to Execute Mexican National
11:33 am By Maegan La Mala · Controversia| Justice| States| Texas| mexico · Comments Off
4 Aug 2008
Last we told you about a plea from the Mexican courts to the U.N. for intervention in the impending executions of 5 Mexican nationals in the state of Texas. Today, at least one of them is a mere 24 hours away from death. The State of Texas has chosen to ignore international clamor and discard allegations that the suspect was never allowed the right to speak to his consulate while under arrest. The Houston Chronicle reports:
At issue is Texas’ refusal to hold a hearing to determine whether Medellin’s defense was harmed by his inability to confer with Mexican consular officials at the time of his arrest. A suspect’s right to talk with his consulate is guaranteed by the United Nations’ Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to which the United States is a party.Medellin insists he told both Houston police and Harris County officers that he is a Mexican citizen. Prosecutors say the killer never informed authorities of his nationality.
In a sworn statement, Medellin said he learned that the Mexican Consulate could possibly help him in 1997, four years after his arrest. He unsuccessfully petitioned the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on the issue in 1998.
Lethal injection of Latino tortuous, not instantaneous
12:49 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Florida| Justice · 3 Comments
15 Dec 2006
Death by lethal injection is supposed to be one of most “painless” methods of execution of prisoners condemned to this fate. But this apparently was not the case in the execution of Ángel Nieves Díaz, a Latino prisoner in Florida. It took two injections to kill him and witnesses claim that his death was anything but painless:
The execution yesterday of Puerto Rican Angel Nieves Díaz has revived controversy over the use of lethal injection as a method of execution for prisoners in the state of Florida, as the the prisoner needed two doses of the lethal cocktail, which prolonged his agony for a full 34 minutes.Nieves Díaz, sentenced to death for a 1979 murder, took 34 minutes to die because, according to the state’s prison department, he suffered a kidney condition that impeded his body from metabolizing chemical subtances quickly.
Morales: Intervention, for now
12:52 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California| Justice · Comments Off
21 Feb 2006
Michael Morales was set to become the first Latino executed in California since the death penalty was reinstated in the 70s. Last night, he had what he believed would be his last meal, and probably didn’t sleep through what he thought was to be his last night on earth. Today, he was to take a lethal injection and die. But that didn’t happen. Anesthesiologists who were to assist in the execution claimed that there was too great a possibility that Morales return to consciousness during the procedure, prolonging suffering:
Doctors said the ruling raised serious questions about the possibility of having to intervene in the execution “if any evidence of either pain or a return to consciousness arose.”
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- Pedro Julio Serrano on the Murder of Lopez Mercado
- Bay Area Community Members to Hold Vigil and Release Statement about Murders in Maryland and Puerto Rico
- Transgender Day of Remembrance and Latin@s
- Dear Troll(s):
- Puerto Rican, Latino Clergy, Theology Professors, Community Members To Condemn Brutal Hate Killing of Gay Puerto Rican Man
- Vigils for Justice y en Memoria de Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado
- Russell Athletic rehires fired union organizers
- When Things Go Wrong…Terribly Wrong.
- Official VivirLatino Statement on Lou Dobbs Leaving CNN
- Sexual Violence Against Women in Immigrant Detention
