The world is a little cleaner these days, not much but a little bit.
Humberto Leal Garcia, convicted in 1994 of the brutal rape and murder of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda, received a lethal injection in Texas. It only took 17 years for this scumbag to receive what he deserved!
Humberto Leal Garcia, B.I.H. (Burn In Hell!)
Why did this case make the national news? Mostly because Obama decided that it was politically favorable to side with a brutal murderer against the laws of the State of Texas and the decision of a criminal court.
At the base of all the hoopla about this piece of garbage being executed is the fact that when apprehended, the good Leal was not informed that as an illegal alien and Mexican national, he could avail himself of the legal help of the Mexican consulate. So what!
The Obama administration decided it was politically advantageous to ask the state of Texas to stay the execution while the Supreme Court looked at the issue, not because Obama gives a rat's ass about Leal's fate, but because Obama needs the vote of illegal aliens in November 2012.
Even the United Nations got in the discussion citing international law. Now that Leal has finally been executed, the UN is telling foreigners to stay away from Texas. A good suggestion, in my opinion, that illegal aliens should pay attention to.
But SCOTUS told Obama and the UN to pound sand in a narrow 5-4 decision.
And Texas told Obama and the UN to go pound sand as well.
Now Leal is dead and the world is a slightly better place.
Saddening part is that former president George W. Bush also supported, during his administration, the position of Obama and the UN.
Another bad point against W.
Just my thoughts!
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Erm...maybe he deserves the death penalty, maybe not. However, when did it become okay for Texas (much less any state in the United States) to <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/07/in-texas-a-death-penalty-showdown-with-international-law/241480/>violate international law</a>?
ReplyDeleteThe matter of this country abiding by international laws is not new...but no matter where one stands in the case of this particular prisoner, I find it a sad and pathetic thing when the U.S. is actually violating laws that even North Korea and Iran honor.
Humm, where should I begin?
ReplyDeleteLet me start with this: screw international law! Yeah, that's a good place.
North Korea and Iran? and exactly when did they begin to look more civilized than America?
North Korea, a closed society that starves its very citizens in order to prop up a tyrannical regime. We don't even know how many people are executed on a consistent basis. When did they exactly obey international law?
Iran, on the other hand, a pure example of civilized society, so civilized that a recent report states that they are on a good path to a record year for executions, with a noted increase of what we in America consider minors. Yup, my friend, two excellent examples you brought.
And on the first line of your post"...maybe he deserves the death penalty, maybe not..." I find it difficult to find a much more deserving piece of garbage.
Than there is the small detail that by the time this guy committed his little "indiscretion" he had been an illegal alien in America for years, since childhood. So it was ok for him to illegally benefiting of what our country offers, but as soon as he decides he wants to rape a young girl, than he deserves to be considered a Mexican.
Or maybe you think that the girl had it coming? Or maybe he was just a victim of the evil US?
No, he's dead, the world is a better place for it and, in conclusion, screw international law!
No, I'm not about victim blaming in the least. No, I'm not suggesting that he was innocent - because he wasn't.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with your celebratory view of his death penalty isn't that I disagree with his conviction. It's a little word called hypocrisy - see, you don't have to *like* a law in order to be expected to abide by it - so saying "screw international law" is morally wrong. We, as a nation, helped to frame that law, and we condemn other nations for the very same types of acts we're guilty of committing. That is known the world over as hypocrisy - and we are GUILTY of it in the worst way.
The international laws that we helped to write and enact, we are expected to adhere to. There are guidelines for international crimes committed on US or foreign soil, SP. This is NOT the Old West...vigilante justice is not what the American justice system is about, and it rarely amounts to anything resembling justice. On this count, we're behaving in ways that are worse than countries we call "barbaric and inhumane". If you don't like having Iran and North Korea given as examples of better behavior on this count, then maybe you ought to consider why it's been given. Had this crime been committed elsewhere by ...oh, say a Moroccan in the Netherlands, we would expect that criminal justice be handled by adherence to international law. Period. It really is that simple.
Nothing whatsoever to do with the man's guilt and the crime he was accused of committing. I don't hear anyone really questioning THAT. I hear people questioning the application of justice - which it was NOT. I don't particularly care if he was an illegal alien or not. Doesn't matter. We broke the law just as much as he did. And now? He's dead. Great...we're back to an eye for an eye justice? SP - an eye for an eye makes us all blind.
And you find it difficult to find a more deserving person of death? Hmmm, from what I've read of the case of Adria Sauceda the murder was NOT premeditated. The rape was (and that is a horrific crime, yes) - and yes, he killed her...brutally. However, capital cases are generally based on FIRST degree murder (and let's remember that there are different types of killing under the eyes of the law). I can think of MANY cases that are FAR more deserving of capital punishment - unless you thought somehow I am opposed to the death penalty. I'm not. At all. I am, however, extremely particular about who I believe should be on death row. Ted Bundy springs to mind as a man who was FAR more worthy than this guy of the death penalty.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the multi-comments...I am in and out of the house this morning. My last reply to your above-comment ~
ReplyDeleteTo answer your other two questions posed:
North Korea - you hit it on the head with "its very citizens" ~ AND NK is not a signed member of the Geneva Conventions. With the comparative crime we're talking about, look to the case of Euna Lee...yep, North Korea did the right thing with people who were NOT NKorean citizens.
Iran, you did it again with "minors" ~ meaning *ITS OWN CITIZENS*. In the comparable case of Iran, have a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/opinion/22thu2.html>look here</a> to what I'm referring to. Right, I had no similar examples...lol...SP, you should know by now that I can and do back up my assertions. Again, we're talking about citizens of one's own country as opposed to citizens of another country.
To the specific crime we're looking at in the Leal case, the crime he committed was admittedly heinous. Sure, he was an illegal alien. Sure, she was 16 and had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by many men that day, and brutally murdered by Leal. There was a lot of alcohol involved all the way around. It was disgusting and barbaric. Yes yes yes...all of that is still true. No, there is not and should not be victim blaming. Yes, Leal was and is punishable by law - international law, even. However, for the state of Texas to execute him is equally illegal under international law, and Rick Perry is a criminal for allowing it to transpire. There were and are proper legal channels he failed to take.
You can mix apples and oranges all day long! Euna Lee: what was her crime? She crossed the border into NK. From your point of view a crime that is comparable to the one committed by Leal?
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, the case of the three hikers who crossed into Iran and who, I believe, are still held there with the exception of the woman that was in the group. Again, how do their crime compare with Leal's?
You may be dismissive of the issue of the scum being an illegal alien, who broke our laws to begin with and continued to do so until he decided that he wanted to have some fun with a 16-year old girl.
What you may call vigilantism, the majority of Americans call justice. If the girl would have been my daughter, than you would have seen real vigilantism. This piece of garbage had his day in court and was convicted according to the laws of our land. Definitely much greater luxury than what he gave Adria Saucedo.
You may not consider the crime as deserving of the death penalty, after all others had raped the girl too and in your words there was a lot of alcohol involved. Is that supposed to make the crime less grave? If it does for you, than we have a fundamentally different understanding of the law. It is not only the Ted Bundys of the world that deserve a date with the executioner.
And just stating to me that the much loved international law Gov. Perry so gravely violated was instituted with the help of the United States does not make me feel any better. It is the criminal concessions that our spineless politicians on a progressive binge have made to the degenerates that walk the halls of the United Nations that have taken us to the edge of the precipice we find ourselves. And to add insult to injury, I am paying for it too!
Personally, I could give a shit about a Moroccan committing a crime in the Netherlands. That nation, like any other, has its own laws. Just as much as I give a shit about, for example, Amanda Knox. If she committed the crime in Italy and she is found guilty, she should be held responsible by Italian judicial standards.
Personally, the criminal is not Perry. Criminals are all those who are in charge and willingly fail to provide security and justice for the American people, and those who support them and their agendas.
The "mixing of apples and oranges" is not about what TYPE of crime. It's about the country's response to a person who is NOT a citizen. You're placing an emotional value on a horrific crime, but failing to separate out response. Mobs do that, too...generally, the result is a lynching or a riot. See how that works? When you say "majority", I feel compelled to remind you that the majority is NOT always correct.
ReplyDeleteWhere was the justice to be found for ALL THE OTHER MEN who had their way with that 16-yr old girl before Leal took her to his truck? Where is the outrage about these sorts of atrocities that happen in other countries, where "justice" is meted out...oh, wait - those never hit our airwaves. (Hint: they do happen...regularly.) Vigilanteism is NOT justice, my friend. It is the law of the jungle...and it rarely results in anything a civilized society can acknowledge honorably as justice.
Make no mistake, SP. I am a mother. If someone were to sexually assault ANY of my children, the legal authorities would have to put ME on trial for murder, because I would kill the person with my bare hands. However, I at least admit that is my own emotions speaking. My children, my emotions. Do I believe that how I would react would be ideal? No...I don't place that much value on myself. It's still raw animal emotion and instinct to protect one's young. However, were one of my sons to be involved in a sexual assault, what would be my reaction? I do not know with certainty. I would want actual legal justice to be served. As in...the letter AND SPIRIT of the law. Not a public lynching.
See, you hit it on the head again about Moroccan & NL. We have our laws...and those laws are supposed to be in accordance with international laws that WE helped to design. Tell me, SP...what is SO EXCEPTIONAL about the U.S. that puts it above the very laws it helped to craft and enact?
Your last paragraph is actually insulting. I won't delve deeply into it, but it is a long-standing problem in this country made by people who insist that those among us who challenge our leaders and refuse to sit back and say "My country, right or wrong" are traitors and criminals. Yeah, I take that a bit personally, because I believe that the CHARGE of a true patriot is to challenge when its leaders act against the law, and against humanity. That doesn't make me a criminal. It makes me a skeptic.
People "like me" do not blame America first. We never have... We do not hate America. We *remember* her. What she is now, and what this discussion underscores, is the fascist bent of the far right-wing in this country that refuses to have the mirror turned back on itself and be reminded that there was another country not so long ago that did this...and we condemned Germany for its actions.
You might have some first-hand memory of those condemnations.
On a more pleasant note, come visit my blog. I've been having some lazy afternoon Sunday fun. ;-)
ReplyDeleteAnother thing to consider ~ Weighing the Death Penalty vs. Life Without Parole ~ please note, this article is not an anti-death penalty write-up. It's simply an interesting take on the subject on a global scale.
ReplyDeleteWhat you said, Semperpapa! All of it!
ReplyDelete