USA - Heliberto Chi was executed today in Texas

Heliberto Chi was executed today. He was an illegal immigrant from Honduras who claimed his treaty rights were violated when he was arrested. Chi murdered his former boss, Armand Paliotta, during a 2001 robbery at a store where he had once worked. Lawyers for Chi had claimed in appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court that he should have been told he could get legal assistance from the Honduran consulate when he was extradited from California, where he was arrested, to Texas to face charges. The Supreme Court, ruling about 2½ hours before his scheduled execution time, rejected his appeal without dissent. The arguments in Chi's case, focusing on rights of foreigners under international treaty, were similar to those used unsuccessfully Tuesday by lawyers for Texas prisoner Jose Medellin. In that case, the Supreme Court, with 4 of the 9 justices dissenting, rejected his appeal. Unlike Medellin, Chi was not among some 50 death row inmates around the country, all Mexican-born, who the International Court of Justice said should have new hearings in U.S. courts to determine whether the 1963 Vienna Convention treaty was violated during their arrests. Mexico had sued in the court on behalf of its citizens condemned in the U.S.. Chi's attorneys argued that unlike the Vienna Convention obligations with Mexico, the 1927 U.S. Bilateral Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Rights with Honduras was specifically between the U.S. and Honduras and was self-executing, meaning it didn't require legislation to have effect. They said the treaty also conferred individual rights and incorporated international law into enforceable domestic law. Chi becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 411th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Chi becomes the 18th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1117th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.