José Medellín

Who was José Medellín?

José Ernesto Medellín, born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, was a Mexican national who was executed by lethal injection for the murder of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña in Houston, Texas.

Medellín was convicted of raping and killing 16-year-old Elizabeth Peña and 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman in June 1993.

His case gained notoriety when Mexico sued the United States in the International Court of Justice on behalf of 51 Mexican nationals asserting that, in these cases, the US had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which requires that local authorities inform foreign nationals being held on criminal charges of their right to consult with their country’s diplomats. That court ruled that the United States was obliged to have the defendants’ cases reopened and reconsidered. The Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear the case on May 1, 2007.

The Bush administration briefed the Supreme Court on the obligation to comply with international treaties. On March 25, 2008 in Medellín v. Texas, the US Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration's arguments and cleared the way for Texas to execute the sentence. The ICJ subsequently ruled that the United States had violated its treaty obligations.