Stopping the Execution of Mexican Citizens in the United States

Subject: Stopping the Execution of Mexican Citizens in the United States

Dear Friends:
In light of the execution of a Mexican Citizen by the State of Texas last week, I would like to revive a strategy to stop such executions that I worked on a few years ago with Alvaro Luna: Namely, try to convince the Mexican government to invoke the arbitration clause of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. What follows is the Memorandum I did on this subject that Alvaro delivered to then President Salinas's Human Rights Commission Chairman. But Salinas was more interested in getting NAFTA passed than saving the lives of Mexican Citizens from execution here in the United States.

Now it seems that there is substantial public revulsion in Mexico at the latest execution of a Mexican Citizen in Texas. Therefore, it seems to me that we should be able to work with progressive people in Mexico and other human rights organizations around the world to get the current Mexican government to invoke the Treaty. Also, it seems to me that if the Mexican government does not want to invoke the Treaty on behalf of all Mexican Citizens sitting on death row in the United States, then at a minimum the Mexican government should invoke the Treaty to save the life of the next Mexican Citizen scheduled for execution here in the United States.

Yours very truly,
Francis A. Boyle
Professor of International Law
Board of Directors, Amnesty International USA (1988-92)

Memorandum :

http://lethal-injection-florida.blogspot.com/2008/07/stopping-execution-of-mexican-citizens.html

Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (Voice)
217-244-1478 (Fax)

fboyle@law.uiuc.edu

(personal comments only)