Post by marion on Jun 25, 2006 2:21:15 GMT -5
Mexico to fight 'Railroad Killer' execution
Associated Press
June 23, 2006
MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government announced today that it plans to fight the execution in the United States of a Mexican man known as the "Railroad Killer" based on the argument that he is mentally unstable.
Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez has sent a letter to the Texas parole board opposing the execution by injection of Angel Maturino Resendiz, 46, whose defense lawyers have said is mentally unfit because he allegedly believes he is half human and half angel.
The Foreign Relations Department also is preparing legal protests against the execution, scheduled for Tuesday, the agency said in a news release.
"According to international law and the current practice in the States, mentally ill people should not be subject to the death penalty," the news release said.
Resendiz was convicted of the rape-slaying of Claudia Benton, a Houston, Texas-area physician killed in her home a week before Christmas 1998. Resendiz also has been linked to eight slayings in Texas, two each in Illinois and Florida, and one each in Kentucky, California and Georgia.
He became known as the "railroad killer" because he hopped on freight trains and committed random acts of carnage around the U.S. His crimes put him on FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.
A Texas judge ruled this week that Resendiz was mentally competent to be executed.
Associated Press
June 23, 2006
MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government announced today that it plans to fight the execution in the United States of a Mexican man known as the "Railroad Killer" based on the argument that he is mentally unstable.
Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez has sent a letter to the Texas parole board opposing the execution by injection of Angel Maturino Resendiz, 46, whose defense lawyers have said is mentally unfit because he allegedly believes he is half human and half angel.
The Foreign Relations Department also is preparing legal protests against the execution, scheduled for Tuesday, the agency said in a news release.
"According to international law and the current practice in the States, mentally ill people should not be subject to the death penalty," the news release said.
Resendiz was convicted of the rape-slaying of Claudia Benton, a Houston, Texas-area physician killed in her home a week before Christmas 1998. Resendiz also has been linked to eight slayings in Texas, two each in Illinois and Florida, and one each in Kentucky, California and Georgia.
He became known as the "railroad killer" because he hopped on freight trains and committed random acts of carnage around the U.S. His crimes put him on FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.
A Texas judge ruled this week that Resendiz was mentally competent to be executed.