Hypocrisy: Supreme Court Slams Bush for 'Transgressing Authority' over State

Ariane de Vogue / ABC News
In a victory for the state of Texas, the Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 that President George W. Bush cannot force the state to reconsider a death penalty case, even if the conviction violated an international court's ruling. Jose Medellin, a Mexican national, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1994 for raping and killing two teenage girls in Houston. Taking the side of Medellin, Bush issued a statement admitting that the United States had breached the applicable article of the Vienna Convention, and determined that state courts had to abide by the treaty. Texas had argued that the president's actions in the case were intrusive on the sovereignty of the states. Greg Abbott, attorney general of Texas, argued that Texas could not be forced to reopen the cases because "the presidential memorandum transgresses the authority of Congress, of the judiciary and of the states." Abbott used strong language to outline Medellin's crimes, which include participating in the gang rape and strangulation of two young teenage girls, Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena. Read more...

Posted by Editor at March 25, 2008 02:15 PM