MEXICO. MEXICO TO ASK TEXAS TO COMMUTE MEXICAN PRISONER'S DEATH SENTENCE

the president of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission asked Texas officials to commute a death sentence to life in prison for Angel Maturino Resendiz, a Mexican prisoner convicted of raping and killing a Houston doctor. Jose Luis Soberanes made the request in a letter to the Texas parole board, the commission said in a news release. The board could only make a recommendation to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the only official with the authority to commute the sentence.
Soberanes asked for life in prison for Resendiz, who was scheduled to be executed on May 10 for the 1998 murder of Dr. Claudia Benton, 39.
Resendiz, now 45, turned himself in to a law enforcement official in El Paso, Texas, in 1999. During his May 2000 trial, Resendiz asked for the death penalty. After his conviction he pledged to drop all his appeals to hasten his execution, but later changed his mind.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected his appeal in March 2004. The court had previously affirmed his 2000 conviction and death sentence. Resendiz was known as the "railroad killer" because he had been linked with 14 murders in Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Illinois -- all near railroad tracks.
Resendiz's defense attorneys argued that he was innocent by reason of insanity.