7 MEXICAN-BORN TEXAS DEATH ROW INMATES LOSE APPEALS

the US Supreme Court declined to hear the appeals of seven Mexican-born prisoners condemned to die in Texas, including two who had committed murders in Houston in the 1990s. The court did not comment when it declined to hear the appeals by the seven men. But their execution dates were not expected to be set until the court rules on another death penalty issue: whether lethal injection is constitutional. The seven men are Felix Rocha, 31, convicted of shooting a security guard in a Houston apartment complex in 1994, Virgilio Maldonado, 42, convicted of shooting a man during a 1995 Houston drug robbery, Ignacio Gomez, 38, convicted of shooting three teenage boys in El Paso in 1996, Humberto Leal, 35, convicted of abducting a San Antonio female, raping her and crushing her head in 1994, Ruben Cardenas, 37, convicted of raping and strangling a teenager in Hidalgo County in 1997, Robert Ramos, 53, convicted of killing of his wife and two children at their home in Progreso in 1992, and Cesar Fierro, 51, convicted of robbing and killing an El Paso taxi driver in 1979. Fourteen Mexican citizens are awaiting execution in Texas, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.