State Dept. Asks Texas to Review Execution
W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 8, 2000 -- The facts of the case are not in dispute.
Miguel Angel Flores, then 20, abducted, raped and stabbed to death
a college student in Hutchinson County, Texas, in 1989. He is
scheduled to be put to death for his crime Thursday.
The case might have escaped notice outside Texas, except thatauthorities there failed to notify Mexican consular officials thatthe Mexican-born defendant had been arrested.
Such notification is required under the Vienna Convention onConsular Relations. Mexican officials did not learn of Flores’ fateuntil a year after his death sentence was handed down in 1990.
The notion that the legal process against Flores was stackedagainst him as a result of the omission has become an issue inU.S.-Mexican relations and generated critical comment from a numberof foreign governments.
State Dept. Weighs InIt also triggered a highly unusual appeal by the StateDepartment to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles that itconsider a request for clemency that Flores has been seeking.
“Foreign citizens are uniquely vulnerable when confronted withanother country’s legal system,” says Mark Warren, who monitorsdeath penalty cases for Amnesty International. “Consular access isessential to ensure that foreign nationals facing prosecutionreceive fair and humane treatment under the local legal system.”
Jose Antonio Zabalgoitia, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy,says the absence of consular notification left Flores’ defense inthe hands of a court-appointed attorney who showed little interestin his case.
“If at start of case the consulate had been informed, theconsul would have assured he would have got adequaterepresentation,” Zabalgoitia says.
Warren says Flores’ lawyer presented no character witnesses anddidn’t tell the jury that Flores had no prior criminal record. Hesays Flores has served as a prison trusty on death row withoutincident.
Zabalgoitia adds that the psychological evaluation of Flores wasdone by a psychologist “who did not bother to interview him.”
Flores asked the Supreme Court for a stay of execution, but therequest had not been acted on as of Tuesday.
From Other Countries to Death Row
It turns out that the Flores case is not isolated. According toWarren’s figures, 90 foreign-born U.S. residents from 31 countriesface the death penalty. In only three of the cases, he says, hasthere been compliance with the Vienna Convention.
He says local U.S. jurisdictions are not complying with therequirement, partly because violations carry no penalty.
A State Department official who follows the issue could notconfirm Warren’s figures but said the department has made aconcerted effort to notify all 19,000 U.S. jurisdictions witharrest authority of their responsibilities under the ViennaConvention. That task is being carried out by a special officecreated in 1997 by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday theprocedural missteps by Texas authorities were not “sufficientcause for the sentence to be overturned.”
At the same time, the department sent a letter to the TexasBoard of Pardons and Paroles asking that it “give carefulconsideration to Flores pending clemency request, including takinginto account apparent Vienna Convention violations.”
The letter noted that Texas Gov. George W. Bush doesn’t haveauthority to grant clemency without a positive recommendation fromthe board. Bush and the board are reviewing the case, thegovernor’s office said Monday.
Mexico has been receiving outside support for its efforts onFlores’ behalf. Letters to Texas authorities have been written insupport of Flores by the ambassadors of France, Argentina, Spain,Switzerland and Poland.
Germany, meanwhile, is preparing to sue the United States in theInternational Court of Justice in the Hague over the execution oftwo brothers in Arizona last year. State officials had not advisedthem of their consular rights. Opening arguments in the case areexpected to begin next week.