DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS

Here we go again. Last October, I blogged INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE MEDDLES IN OUR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS (10-19-07) when Mexico went to the U.N.'s International Court of Justice (World Court) to claim that its nationals who were condemned to death for murder in the U.S. were deprived of their rights under the 1963 treaty known as the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

According to the Vienna Convention, whenever a citizen of a foreign country is arrested he must be advised of his right to obtain the assistance of his country's consulate. The World Court, acting on Mexico's request, ordered a halt to the execution of 51 Mexican nationals who were not afforded that right, ruling they must be granted new sentencing hearings. President Bush then ordered Texas and the other death penalty states to comply with the World Court order.

Texas and the other states appealed Bush's order to the U.S. Supreme Court. Last March, by a 6 - 3 majority, it decided that the President was wrong in ordering the States to hold those new sentencing hearings, ruling that the World Court had no right to impose its will on the sovereignty of the United States. (Refer to my blog WORLD COURT AND THE PRESIDENT REBUFFED, 4-2-08.)

Now Mexico and the World Court have done it again. Mexico asked the international tribunal to stop Texas from executing five of its nationals. The World Court complied, ordering the State of Texas to grant those five cold-blooded killers a stay of execution. After our Supreme Court's ruling, what part of "no" does the U.N.'s International Court of Justice fail to understand?

Here are the five sterling Mexican nationals whose executions have been ordered stayed by the World Court:

Jose Medellin, 33. In 1993, he was convicted for the strangulation, rape and kidnapping of two Houston teenagers.

Cesar Fierro, 51. He has been on death row since 1980 for shooting an El Paso taxi driver to death. That's 28 years on death row.

Ruben Cardenas, 38. He was convicted for the 1997 rape, beating and strangulation of his victim.

Hector Garcia, 47. He was convicted for the 1989 killing of a 14-year-old boy during a convenience store robbery in the Rio Grande Valley.

Robert Ramos, 54. He was convicted for the 1992 murders of his wife and their two children, aged 7 and 3.

One would think that Mexico would be loath to embrace any of these five sorry-ass murderers as their nationals. Each of the condemned would easily qualify as a poster boy for the death penalty. Medellin's date with death has been rescheduled for August 5, a date that can't come too soon for the loved ones of the young girls he fatally brutalized - two families that have been waiting 15 years for justice to take its course.

The Governor and the Attorney General of Texas have no intention of complying with the World Court order, and we can be thankful for that. Mexico, which does not have the death penalty, would be well advised to look after its own affairs. In recent years, thousands of its citizens, including police officials and prosecutors, have been killed in the turf wars fought by Mexico's drug cartels..

Mexico and the United Nations should stay out of the domestic affairs of the United States. The World Court should limit its rulings to international border disputes, to war crimes, and to crimes against humanity, none of which apply to any Texas executions. And above all, they should heed the anti-litter campaign slogan - DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS.