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Post by marion on Jun 26, 2006 16:55:37 GMT -5
'Railroad Killer' faces execution
'I'm eternal. I'm going to be alive forever,' Angel Resendiz says
Monday, June 26, 2006 Posted: 2041 GMT (0441 HKT)
Angel Resendiz, known as the Railroad Killer, apparently believes he is immortal.
WEIMAR, Texas (AP) -- The railroad tracks that gave birth to this small South Texas town over a century ago more recently brought terror and horror.
The gruesome slayings of a prominent minister and his wife at their home, and an equally violent murder of an elderly woman in her rural home a few miles away, are among at least 15 killings by the man known as the "Railroad Killer."
Angel Maturino Resendiz hopped freight trains and committed random acts of carnage across the country, earning him a spot on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.
He is set to die by injection on Tuesday.
"I don't believe in death," Resendiz, 46, told The Associated Press in 2000, shortly after arriving on death row. "I know the body is going to go to waste. But me, as a person, I'm eternal. I'm going to be alive forever."
A Houston judge last week rejected claims by Resendiz's lawyers that mental delusions make him ineligible for execution. He's set to be the 13th inmate executed this year in Texas.
Resendiz was convicted of the rape-slaying of Claudia Benton, a Houston-area physician killed in her home a week before Christmas 1998. Resendiz has been linked to eight slayings in Texas, two each in Illinois and Florida, and one each in Kentucky, California and Georgia.
"I don't think everybody is looking forward to it, but he took three good people out of this town," says Cecil Ellison, 74, who for 49 years has run a Texaco service station across from the Weimar United Church of Christ.
Minister and wife slain
Church members arrived for the regular Sunday service on May 2, 1999, but there was no sign of their pastor, Norman "Skip" Sirnic, 46, or his wife, Karen, 47, the church secretary. The couple lived in a house at the back of the church property, adjacent to the railroad track that bisects Weimar, about midway between Houston and San Antonio.
Investigators later determined Resendiz raped Karen Sirnic after obliterating her face with a sledgehammer. He then stole the couple's pickup truck. Some of their jewelry later would be found at Resendiz's home in Rodeo, Mexico.
The town of fewer than 2,000 residents was stunned again when just weeks later, four miles west of town, police found Josephine Konvicka, 73, in her blood-soaked bed with a pickax buried in her forehead.
In a town where a homicide hadn't occurred for generations, where the message on the silver water tower a block from the church proclaims "Weimar Welcomes You," people were terrified.
"I had little ladies come into the office bringing me rusted guns and asking me: 'Chief, show me how to use this thing,"' Weimar Police Chief Bill Livingston said. "Gun sales went up dramatically."
Tracking a serial killer
Authorities began making connections.
Mark Moorhead, a Texas Department of Public Safety intelligence officer, had been looking at the Sirnic case and was talking with Drew Carter, a Texas Ranger who was working the Benton case.
"I was struck by two things and neither had to do with railroad tracks," Moorhead said. "Whoever was coming into these residences brought nothing with them. They were using what was available."
The killer, who he believed was a transient, also covered his victims. Moorhead found the two elements "way too bizarre and too unique to be overlooked."
Moorhead suggested Carter run DNA tests comparing the killings.
A week later, the Texas Ranger called him back.
Resendiz was their man: They were looking for a serial killer.
The investigation gathered steam as other states began trying to connect unsolved murders to Resendiz. A Kentucky slaying from 1997 was added to the toll. The FBI put Resendiz on its Ten Most Wanted list.
On June 2, 1999, the U.S. Border Patrol picked up Resendiz for illegal entry at Sunland Park, New Mexico, near El Paso, Texas. Unaware the man, who used numerous aliases, was on the FBI list as Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, they returned him to Mexico. But he quickly recrossed the border and again used freight trains to move around.
"It doesn't cost money and once you know the routes, they're faster than Greyhound," Resendiz told the AP in 2000.
Slipped past Border Patrol
Three days after immigration authorities let him go, the beaten body of 26-year-old Houston schoolteacher Noemi Dominguez was found at her home, covered by a quilt made by her mother. Within hours, almost 100 miles away, Konvicka's body was discovered. Dominguez's blood was on the tool used to kill Konvicka.
Then, less than two weeks later, at their Gorham, Illinois., home about 100 yards from a railroad track, George Morber, 80, was shot in the head with a shotgun. His daughter, 51-year-old Carolyn Frederick, was fatally clubbed.
Carter, meanwhile, persuaded Resendiz's sister in New Mexico to get her brother to turn himself in. On July 13, Resendiz surrendered to Carter on the international bridge in El Paso.
Resendiz was taken to Houston, Texas, for trial for beating Benton with a statue, stabbing her 19 times and raping her. Lawyers argued he was insane. A jury found him guilty.
The trains -- as many as 40 a day -- still rumble through town. But other things are different.
"Alarm systems -- we never had alarm systems," said Livingston, the police chief. "Now they're all over town. Night lights. Security lights. There are people who lock their houses now that never did before. It did change. It changed all sorts of things."
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Post by falcon66 on Jun 27, 2006 11:25:10 GMT -5
any word on wether the Supreme Court has stayed his execution? I was reading on another website (not ccadp) that his lawyers are now depending on the Supreme Court to stop his execution on the basis that he does fully understand that he is to be executed
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Post by marion on Jun 27, 2006 16:53:18 GMT -5
Time ticks away for 'Railroad Killer'
Serial killer Angel Resendiz believes he is half man, half angel
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Posted: 2046 GMT (0446 HKT)
Angel Resendiz, known as the Railroad Killer, apparently believes he is immortal.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Texas's Railroad Killer, a drifter who authorities say killed at least 15 people as he made his way around the country by freight train, awaited execution Tuesday.
Angel Maturino Resendiz, 46, was set to die by injection for raping and murdering a physician during the 1998-99 killing spree that spread terror across the Southwest and put him on the FBI's Most Wanted list.
The slaying of Dr. Claudia Benton, 39, was among eight killings in Texas linked to Resendiz. Two more were tied to him in both Illinois and Florida, along with one each in Kentucky, California and Georgia.
Benton was stabbed with a kitchen knife, bludgeoned with a 2-foot bronze statue and raped in 1998 in her Houston home, just down the street from a railroad track.
Authorities realized they were pursuing a serial killer when DNA evidence tied Resendiz to Benton's murder and the killings of a church pastor and his wife who were beaten with a sledgehammer as they slept in their house near tracks outside Houston.
A month later, the Mexican drifter walked across the international bridge at El Paso from Mexico and surrendered to police as part of a deal arranged by his sister.
Benton's husband, George, planned to witness Resendiz's execution "to make the statement that people have to understand what evil really is."
"I tried to figure this guy out -- the type of killer who would choose people at random, lie in wait and watch their houses until it's dark and then kill them with something of convenience from their own house," Benton said. "It's beyond my comprehension. I can't really consider the depths of that human behavior."
The execution would be the 13th of the year in the nation's most active death penalty state.
Several appeals were pending in the federal courts. Resendiz's lawyer argued that Resendiz could not be executed because he did not believe he could die. The condemned man had described himself to psychiatrists as half-man and half-angel.
Mexico's consul general in Houston filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court questioning Resendiz's competency and challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection.
In an interview shortly after arriving on death row in 2000, Resendiz said he recalled the attacks as if were watching something through a tunnel. "Everything you see is in a distance," he said. "Everything is slow and silent."
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jun 27, 2006 19:39:29 GMT -5
murder
Family of death row inmate had hoped to incriminate 'Railroad Killer.'
A new round of fingerprint and DNA testing is mostly complete and shows no sign that serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz was at a South Austin triple murder scene in 1998, Travis County prosecutors announced Monday on the eve of Resendiz's scheduled execution.
Prosecutors in March agreed to order new testing in the case after the family of Louis Perez, the man condemned to die for the Barton Hills neighborhood murders, told them Resendiz might have confessed to the killings from death row in 2002.
One final DNA test remains, on hairs found at the murder scene. It will be about 6 weeks until that test is completed, but Assistant District Attorney Buddy Meyer said prosecutors decided to release the preliminary results after receiving a flurry of media calls Monday related to Resendiz's execution.
"We have always been confident in the verdict in the Louis Perez case, and we remain confident," Meyer said.
Perez, 44, of Austin, was convicted in 1999 of killing friend Michelle Fulwiler; her roommate, Cinda Barz; and Barz's 9-year-old daughter, Staci Mitchell, in their home on Rock Terrace Drive.
During the trial, prosecutors showed jurors evidence that Perez left his shoes, socks and a bloody handprint at the scene and told them that DNA matching Perez's was found under the fingernails of Barz and her daughter.
In March, prosecutors and police sent dozens of items gathered at the scene - including pantyhose and a cast-iron skillet that prosecutors said Perez used to strangle and bludgeon his victims - to a Department of Public Safety lab. DNA found on those objects was tested against state and national databases of known offenders, including Resendiz, Meyer said.
Also tested were DNA and fingerprints found in 1998 but not matched to anyone, he said. Resendiz wasn't convicted until after Perez's trial, so his DNA was not in databases when the testing was done.
Other than some new matches to Perez, the testing yielded no hits, Meyer said. He was not more specific on any new links to Perez.
Hairs found on Staci's body and elsewhere in the house remain to be tested.
The DPS lab in Austin doesn't do that type of testing, so the hairs were sent to the University of North Texas in Denton for analysis, Meyer said.
Perez has maintained his innocence, and his family last year went to prosecutors suggesting a link to Resendiz, the infamous "Railroad Killer" who is charged or suspected in at least 14 killings near railroad tracks in several states. He was sentenced to die for killing a Houston-area doctor in her home.
Perez's sister, Delia Perez Meyer, no relation to Buddy Meyer, said Resendiz told an investigator working for Perez's lawyer in 2002 that he killed 2 women in Austin. FBI timelines do not account for Resendiz's whereabouts at the time of the Barton Hills murders.
When the testing was ordered, Perez's appeals lawyer, Alexander Calhoun, said hairs found on Staci's body presented his client's most compelling case for an innocence claim. Calhoun could not be reached for comment Monday.
(source: Austin American-Statesman)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jun 27, 2006 21:43:13 GMT -5
Parole board and federal judge don't halt today's lethal injection of a man linked to 13 deaths
Angel Maturino Resendiz moved a step closer to execution Monday when a federal judge in Houston and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected efforts to spare his life.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal declined the killer's appeal that his execution be halted because the chemicals used in lethal injection cause a torturous and protracted death. She also refused to issue a "certificate of appealability" in connection to a petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
Separately, the pardons board rejected in two unanimous votes his bids for a 180-day reprieve and a commutation of his death sentence to life without parole.
Maturino Resendiz, 45, is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. today for the December 1998 rape-murder of West University Place medical researcher Dr. Claudia Benton.
Appeals on the killer's behalf remained active before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Returned to death row
In Monday's decision, Rosenthal noted that Maturino Resendiz's lethal injection arguments had not been filed in a timely manner in keeping with case law set by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"Resendiz simply failed to advance this claim in a way that would allow its development without seriously impinging on Texas' right to enforce its constitutionally valid judgment," she wrote.
Regarding the habeas corpus matter, Rosenthal noted that she had rejected a previous habeas corpus petition from the killer, and the issue had been referred to the 5th Circuit. Maturino Resendiz then sought a certificate of appealability, which would have authorized him to immediately appeal Rosenthal's decision to the higher court. That request was rejected.
Maturino Resendiz was returned to death row at Livingston's Polunsky Unit on Friday after efforts to have him declared incompetent met defeat in Judge William Harmon's 178th state District Court.
No final meal
Maturino Resendiz, who has declared that he is half-man, half-angel and cannot be killed, wrapped up loose ends Monday as the hours ticked down. First, he told prison officials that he wanted his body donated to science. Then he changed his mind, saying he wanted his mother to claim his remains.
The killer has told authorities he plans to go do his death without a final meal.
Among people he has asked to witness his execution are his mother, 2 brothers and a Cleveland, Ohio, woman who claims she is his wife. A Mexican woman identified as the killer's wife and to whom he gave items stolen from murder victims, was not on the list. On the list, though, was his half-sister, Manuela Karkiewicz of Albuquerque, N.M., who was instrumental in arranging his summer 1999 surrender to authorities in El Paso.
DNA and fingerprints
Maturino Resendiz, who operated under as many as 30 fake names, was sentenced to die in 2000 for the slaying of Benton. Authorities said Benton, a Baylor College of Medicine researcher and mother of 2 young daughters, was stabbed and bludgeoned in her home.
Maturino Resendiz was linked to the crime through fingerprints and DNA tests.
He has confessed or been linked through evidence to at least 13 murders, including those of Noemi Dominguez, 26, a Houston schoolteacher; Wei- mar minister Norman Sirnic and his wife, Karen; and Josephine Konvicka, 73, of Schulenburg.
The killer, a Mexican national who viewed himself as an avenging angel on a mission against abortion, homosexuality and child abuse. He often relied on weapons of opportunity a rock, pickax, sledgehammer, an antique iron. The killings occurred during a 2-year period in which Maturino Resendiz crisscrossed the nation by rail.
Killler's insistence
During last week's competency hearing, defense attorney Jack Zimmermann presented testimony that Maturino Resendiz was a paranoid schizophrenic who was psychotic at the time of the killings. The killer's insistence that he will not die, but go into suspended animation to reappear 3 days later in a new body, was cited as evidence of his insanity.
(sourc: Houston Chronicle)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jun 27, 2006 21:47:31 GMT -5
Train-hopping serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz, linked to at least 15 indiscriminate murders near railroad tracks around the country, was headed for the Texas death chamber today.
The Mexican drifter known as the "Railroad Killer" was set to be executed for the slaying of West University physician Claudia Benton 7 1/2 years ago. She was killed during a deadly spree in 1998 and 1999, which earned Resendiz a spot on the FBI's Most Wanted list as authorities searched for a murderer who slipped across the U.S. border and roamed the country by freight train.
Benton, 39, was stabbed with a kitchen knife, struck 19 times with a 2-foot-tall bronze statue and raped in her home eight days before Christmas in 1998 in the Houston enclave of West University Place, just down the street from a railroad track.
Her husband, George Benton, no longer lives in the state but planned to witness Resendiz's lethal injection today.
"The main reason I came to Texas for this is to make the statement that people have to understand what evil really is," he told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "And the death penalty, this sort of conclusion to heinous killers, is the appropriate solution."
The execution would be the 13th of the year in the nation's most active death penalty state.
Claudia Benton's death is among 8 in Texas linked to Resendiz, 46. 2 more were tied to him in both Illinois and Florida, and 1 each in Kentucky, California and Georgia.
Several last-day appeals were filed to try to block the punishment, delaying the scheduled 6 p.m. CDT execution time while the U.S. Supreme Court considered them. Resendiz's lead appeals lawyer, Jack Zimmermann, argued that Resendiz, who described himself as half-man and half-angel, told psychiatrists he couldn't be executed because he didn't believe he could die.
"We don't execute people who are insane, we don't execute people who don't realize they're going to be executed," Zimmermann said.
In addition, the Houston-based consul general of Mexico filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court questioning the Mexican national's competency and challenging the constitutionality of the lethal injection process as cruel and unusual punishment. Capital punishment is not allowed in Mexico.
"I just think, particularly at this time, for the citizens of Mexico, they should be outraged and ashamed their government is championing the cause of this killer and spending their national resources on his appeals, hiring even a special attorney," George Benton said.
Late this afternoon, several people from the Mexican consul general's office in Houston were in Huntsville but did not see Resendiz.
"We do look after the rights of Mexican nationals," Consul General Carlos Gonzalez said. "We watch to make sure the law is applied fairly to a Mexican national."
The Border Patrol picked up Resendiz for illegal entry in June 1999 near El Paso and released him back into Mexico, saying they were unaware Resendiz who used some 30 aliases was on the FBI's Most Wanted list. He committed four slayings after his release.
Resendiz's killings began with a murder in San Antonio in 1986. Benton's death was among 13 people killed over a 16-month period that ended in June 1999 with a double slaying in Illinois.
A month later, Resendiz walked across the international bridge at El Paso from Mexico and surrendered to a Texas Ranger as part of a deal arranged by his sister in New Mexico.
The sister, Manuela Karkiewicz, was among six people Resendiz selected to watch him die.
Resendiz's first immigration violation occurred in 1976 in Brownsville when he was 16. In 1980, he was convicted of burglary in Dade County, Fla., where he called himself Jose Reyes. Paroled 5 years later, he subsequently was locked up in New Mexico for using an alias to get a passport, then served time again in New Mexico for burglary before he was paroled in 1993. He had other arrests in Louisiana, Missouri and California.
He initially was tied to more than one slaying through DNA matches from the Benton killing and the slayings 4 1/2 months later of Weimar church pastor Norman "Skip" Sirnic, and his wife, Karen.
The couple was fatally beaten May 2, 1999, with a sledgehammer as they slept in their house adjacent to their church and across the street from a railroad track that runs through the heart of their small town about 100 miles west of Houston. Like Benton, Karen Sirnic was raped.
In an interview with the AP shortly after arriving on death row in 2000, Resendiz remembered each of his attacks and compared them to watching something through a tunnel.
"Everything you see is in a distance," he said. "Everything is slow and silent."
He said some murders were in response to the deaths of the Branch Davidians in Waco, others on Serbian atrocities. Others he blamed on his anti-abortion beliefs or because he believed the victims may have been homosexual.
"I tried to figure this guy out the type of killer who would choose people at random, lie in wait and watch their houses until it's dark and then kill them with something of convenience from their own house," George Benton said. "It's beyond my comprehension. I can't really consider the depths of that human behavior.
"Human beings don't treat each other like that."
(source: Associated Press)
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Post by falcon66 on Jun 27, 2006 22:21:01 GMT -5
Drifter dies by injection after U.S. Supreme Court rejects last-ditch appeal
Train-hopping serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz, linked to at least 15 murders near railroad tracks around the country, was executed Tuesday night.
In his final statement, Resendiz asked for forgiveness.
Resendiz, 46, was pronounced dead at 8:05 p.m. Central time.
The Mexican drifter, known as the "Railroad Killer," was executed for the slaying of physician Claudia Benton 7½ years ago. She was killed during a deadly spree in 1998 and 1999 that earned Resendiz a spot on the FBI’s Most Wanted list as authorities searched for a murderer who slipped across the U.S. border and roamed the country by freight train.
The slaying of Benton, 39, was among 8 killings in Texas linked to Resendiz. 2 more were tied to him in both Illinois and Florida, along with 1 each in Kentucky, California and Georgia.
Benton was stabbed with a kitchen knife, bludgeoned with a 2-foot bronze statue and raped in 1998 in her Houston home, just down the street from a railroad track.
Authorities realized they were pursuing a serial killer when DNA evidence tied Resendiz to Benton’s murder and the killings of a church pastor and his wife who were beaten with a sledgehammer as they slept in their house near tracks outside Houston.
A month later, the Mexican drifter walked across the international bridge at El Paso from Mexico and surrendered to police as part of a deal arranged by his sister.
Benton's husband, George, planned to witness Resendiz’s execution “to make the statement that people have to understand what evil really is."
'Beyond my comprehension'
"I tried to figure this guy out — the type of killer who would choose people at random, lie in wait and watch their houses until it’s dark and then kill them with something of convenience from their own house," Benton said. "It's beyond my comprehension. I can’t really consider the depths of that human behavior."
Several last-day appeals were filed, delaying the scheduled 6 p.m. CDT execution while the U.S. Supreme Court considered them. Resendiz’s lead appeals lawyer, Jack Zimmermann, argued that Resendiz could not be executed because he did not believe he could die. The condemned man had described himself to psychiatrists as half-man and half-angel. The high court rejected appeals hours later.
Mexico's consul general in Houston filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court questioning Resendiz's competency and challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection.
In an interview shortly after arriving on death row in 2000, Resendiz said he recalled the attacks as if were watching something through a tunnel. "Everything you see is in a distance," he said. "Everything is slow and silent."
Resendiz becomes the 13th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 368th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Resendiz becomes the 129th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001.
And Resendiz becomes the 90th condemned inmate to be put to death after being convicted in Harris County. Only the state of Virginia, which has executed 95 inmates since capital punishment resumed there, also in 1982, has carried out more executions than Harris County (Houston).
Resendiz becomes the 24th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1028th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
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Post by marion on Jun 28, 2006 1:24:42 GMT -5
'Railroad Killer' put to death in Texas
By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer 6 minutes ago
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A train-hopping serial killer linked to at least 15 murders near railroad tracks around the country said "I deserve what I am getting" before he was executed Tuesday night.
Angel Maturino Resendiz mumbled a prayer, saying "Lord, forgive me. Lord, forgive me," and acknowledged the presence of relatives watching through a nearby window.
"I want to ask if it is in your heart to forgive me," he said as he looked toward the relatives of victims in another room. "You don't have to. I know I allowed the devil to rule my life."
"I thank God for having patience for me. I don't deserve to cause you pain. You did not deserve this. I deserve what I am getting," he said.
Resendiz, 46, was pronounced dead at 8:05 p.m. CDT.
The Mexican drifter known as the "Railroad Killer" was executed for the slaying of physician Claudia Benton 7 1/2 years ago. She was killed during a deadly spree in 1998 and 1999 that earned Resendiz a spot on the FBI's Most Wanted list as authorities searched for a murderer who slipped across the U.S. border and roamed the country by freight train.
Benton was stabbed with a kitchen knife, bludgeoned with a 2-foot bronze statue and raped in 1998 in her Houston home, just down the street from a railroad track.
Authorities realized they were pursuing a serial killer when DNA evidence tied Resendiz to Benton's murder and the killings of a church pastor and his wife who were beaten with a sledgehammer as they slept in their house near tracks outside Houston.
A month later, the Mexican drifter walked across the international bridge at El Paso from Mexico and surrendered to police as part of a deal arranged by his sister.
Benton's husband, George, witnessed Resendiz's execution "to make the statement that people have to understand what evil really is."
"What was executed today may have looked like a man, walked and talked like a man but what was contained inside that skin was not a human being," he said. "This is not human behavior but something I can only say is evil contained in human form, a creature without a soul, no conscience, no sense of remorse, no regard for the sanctity of human life."
The execution was the 13th of the year in the nation's most active death penalty state.
The execution was delayed almost two hours before the U.S. Supreme Court rejected several last-day appeals. Resendiz's lead appeals lawyer, Jack Zimmermann, had argued that his client, who described himself as half-man and half-angel, told psychiatrists he couldn't be executed because he didn't believe he could die.
The court also rejected an appeal by the Houston-based consul general of Mexico questioning the Mexican national's competency and challenging the constitutionality of the lethal injection process as cruel and unusual punishment. Capital punishment is not allowed in Mexico.
"We do look after the rights of Mexican nationals," Consul General Carlos Gonzalez said. "We watch to make sure the law is applied fairly to a Mexican national."
Mexico's Foreign Relations Department protested the execution.
"The execution was carried out despite the existence of medical evidence of severe mental problems that, in principle, should have excluded the application of this penalty," according to a statement from the agency.
In an interview shortly after arriving on death row in 2000, Resendiz said he recalled the attacks as if were watching something through a tunnel. "Everything you see is in a distance," he said. "Everything is slow and silent."
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Post by marion on Jun 30, 2006 4:41:49 GMT -5
Mexico Could Not Stop Execution of Serial Killer Immigrant
Diego Cevallos, IPS News June 28, 2006
MEXICO CITY - The southern U.S. state of Texas executed a Mexican immigrant Tuesday night after rejecting expert medical opinions that the condemned man was mentally incompetent, and ignoring appeals from the Mexican government to spare the man's life.
"Any execution is a failure of justice, and so was this one. Everything possible was done to prevent it, but the efforts were in vain," Alfonso García, spokesman in Mexico for the human rights watchdog group Amnesty International, said in an interview with IPS.
Mexican immigrant Ángel Maturino died by lethal injection at a prison in Texas, where he had been held since 1999. He was condemned to death for the 1998 murder and rape of doctor Claudia Benton.
Maturino was also implicated in 14 more homicides committed in the 1990s in Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Illinois. All the victims were slain close to railways, earning him the nickname the "railroad killer."
The Mexican foreign ministry released a statement deploring the execution and stating that it "was carried out in spite of medical evidence that he suffered severe mental disturbance, which in principle should have rendered him ineligible for the death penalty."
Maturino's execution, originally set for May 10, was postponed so that psychiatric and psychological tests could be performed. He claimed to be "half angel and half man," and said he had been impelled to murder by an "evil force," and at the same time by "the will of God."
Last week judge William Harmon, of the 178th district criminal court in Houston, Texas, heard the medical evidence. Although four of the five experts were of the opinion that Maturino was insane, the judge ruled that he was "sufficiently competent" and would not be spared the death penalty.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that convicts who are "mentally incompetent" shall not be executed.
"Maturino's case was a very difficult one because he had committed so many brutal crimes, although we maintain the position that he was not mentally fit," said Amnesty International spokesman García.
The administration of Mexican President Vicente Fox lodged a series of appeals with the U.S. justice system attempting to prevent the execution, and even convinced the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in Costa Rica, to ask the United States to postpone the execution until all available legal means had been exhausted.
But neither these actions, nor a telephone call from Mexican Foreign Minister Ernesto Derbez to Texas Governor Rick Perry, pleading for clemency, had any effect.
The Mexican foreign ministry's communiqué said that it had "monitored the case promptly and continuously from the start, and had resorted to every possible domestic and international recourse to preserve Mr. Maturino's life, according to our country's staunch commitment to defend the human rights of its citizens abroad, and its absolute opposition to the death penalty."
Maturino was the sixth Mexican to be executed in the United States since it restored the death penalty in 1976, when the Supreme Court lifted the ban on capital punishment that the court itself had imposed four years earlier. The death penalty remains illegal in 12 of the 50 states in the U.S.
The last Mexican to be put to death by the U.S. legal system prior to Maturino was Javier Suárez, executed in Texas in August 2002. "The failure in the Maturino case will not end our efforts to stop the use of the death penalty in the United States and other countries," human rights activist García said.
Maturino, who before his arrest was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Top Ten Most Wanted List, asked for the death penalty during the trial, rather than a life sentence.
He was born in a small town in Puebla, a state near Mexico City, and grew up virtually as a street child. He was 14 when he first entered the United States as an undocumented immigrant.
He was arrested 16 times in the United States for minor robbery and other crimes, and deported eight times. However, he kept returning to the U.S.
Unlike the cases of other Mexican immigrants in which the failure of the authorities to notify the Mexican consulate of their arrest served a key role in the legal strategy of their defence attorneys, this requirement was duly fulfilled after Maturino was arrested.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled in late March 2004 that the United States had violated the rights of 51 Mexican nationals by sentencing them to death without having provided them with the opportunity for consular assistance at the time of their arrest and trial.
Thanks to this ruling, in 2004 the execution of Mexican immigrant Osvaldo Torres in Oklahoma was prevented, and his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
The other immigrants sentenced to death, and who did not have the benefit of consular assistance, are awaiting review of their cases.
Amnesty International maintains that "the death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment," and constitutes "a violation of the right to life."
"The death penalty is irrevocable and can be inflicted on the innocent. It has never been shown to deter crime more effectively than other punishments," the organisation states.
There were 2,148 known executions in 2005 -- 94 percent of them took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States. In 2004, 7,395 people in 64 countries were sentenced to death, according to Amnesty International.
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