Honduran executed in Texas

A convicted Honduran murderer was killed by lethal injection in Texas roughly 48 hours after a Mexican national met the same fate. “God forgive them, receive my spirit” 29-year-old Heliberto Chi reportedly muttered before he died in front of a small audience including his relatives and the sons of the man he was convicted of robbing and killing in 2001.

Chi was scheduled to be executed last year though that was delayed while the U.S. Supreme Court (USSC) decided on the constitutionality of death via lethal injection. (Their verdict allowing lethal injection was announced in April.)

Much like the defense behind Jose Medellin- who was executed on Wednesday- Chi’s lawyers tried to argue that international law was broken. They argued that local authorities neglected Chi's rights; that notion was ultimately nixed by the USSC:

Chi's lawyers argued in a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court that he should be granted a stay because he had not been notified of his right to consular services.

The court denied the appeal, paving the way for Chi's execution by lethal injection in the state's death chamber in Huntsville…

In Chi's case, separate from the World Court proceedings, the state argued that upon his arrest, Chi had not immediately identified himself to police as a foreign national.

Chi thus becomes the second foreign national to be executed by Texas this week despite interventions by the International Court of Justice and President George W. Bush.

Image- BBC News (“Chi was the 411th Texas inmate to die by lethal injection.”)

Sources- New York Times, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, JURIST, MSNBC,