With Mexican convict Osvaldo Torres set to be put to...

With Mexican convict Osvaldo Torres set to be put to death in the US state of Oklahoma in three weeks, his family and local politicians, buoyed by a ruling from the International Court of Justice, began stepping up activities they hoped would prevent the execution. The execution of Torres, a 29-year-old born in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, was scheduled for May 18 after court found him guilty of the 1993 murder of a married couple. Torres' relatives said Thursday that the sentence was unjust, pointing out that in March the court at The Hague urged the United States to review the death sentences imposed on 51 Mexicans, including the one against Torres. "Due to the irregularities in his trial, Osvaldo began to study law in prison, and now he is heading his own defense," Brenda Torres, his cousin, told EFE. The Mexican Foreign Ministry was preparing to wage Torres' defense and had said it expected Washington to heed the international court's ruling, which found US authorities did not notify him and the other Mexicans of their right to legal help from their consulate as mandated by the 1963 Geneva Convention on Consular Relations. According to Brenda Torres, her cousin was sentenced to death even though the slain couple's son testified Torres "did not fire" the gun that killed his parents. In July 1993, Torres, Jorge Ochoa and another friend went to the couple's home, where "an argument" prompted Ochoa to kill both of them, Brenda Torres said. "During the trial, Ochoa pretended to be crazy to avoid conviction, and the other guy was sentenced to life in prison," said Brenda Torres, adding that the US court convicted her cousin "because he is Mexican."