Versión Español
EspañolMexican citizen Ramiro Hernández Llanas, convicted of a 1997 manslaughter and sentenced to the death penalty, was executed yesterday in Texas. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) and Amnesty International had pleaded to the government of the United States and to Texas authorities to stay the execution. According to both organizations, there were violations of basic rights and racial discrimination during litigation.
Hernández, a Mexican citizen with mental disabilities, was sentenced to death in 2000 for murder and sexual abuse. According to a statement issued by Amnesty International, the prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of a “discredited psychiatrist,” James Grigson, who stated that the defendant was a “sociopath who posed a danger to other inmates.”
Because of the alleged violations of the American Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR granted precautionary measures for Hernández Llanas in late March. Defense lawyers appealed the sentence, claiming that because Hernández’s IQ was lower than 70 points, the defendant could not be subjected to the death penalty.
The United States Supreme Court, however, rejected the appeal. Hernández is the second Mexican executed in the United States in less than three months.
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