Medellin Case Summary

• Facts:
In the year 1993, José Ernesto Medellin Rojas (Born March 4, 1975) a Mexican national was arrested in Texas, for being involved and performing a gang-rape and murdering two teenage girls. Medellin was a Mexican national but lived most of his life in the United States. Later, Medellin confessed to the murders and claimed to have informed the police officials that he was a Mexican national (“Medellin v. Texas,” 2015)
To highlight all the facts: o June 24, 1993 Murders taken place o Confession of Medellin to taking part in the rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston, Texas o Conviction – September 16, 1994 with death sentence on October 11, 1994 o Mexican Govt. April 29, 1997 came to know of the Medellin case and intervened

Under the Vienna Convention, Medellin should be given his right to inform/report a consular personnel concerning his detention. According to Medellin, the State (Texas) had violated his rights, which is stated in the Vienna Convention.
Medellin case came back to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals after his petition was declined by Supreme Court and that there were 50 other Mexican nationals deprived of their consular rights. The US had totally violated the rights of the Convention that states, the right to contact or inform his/hers consulate for any crime committed by him/her, who is a foreign national. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) wanted the US to reconsider this issue since the Mexican Government wanted legal action against the US in the ICJ (Hall & Sepulveda, 2007)
Eventually the State Court had Medellin executed in 2008 and this raised even more issues. One of which being, the state law overrules/overwrites an International Treaty obligation of the US. The stir has created ripple effects through-out and countries being a part of the Vienna convention call it hypocrisy. Also, the question arises if the US Presidential power enables him to make a treaty that was disapproved by the senate (“Medellin v. Texas,”