Rick Halperin
Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:18:34 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
July 27 MEXICO: Mexico foots bill for death defense----U.S. attorneys are hired to help Mexican citizens on trial in capital cases. When a Houston jury recently refused to sentence a Mexican citizen to death for gunning down a Houston police officer, it sparked an uproar in Texas, where in recent years convicted killers have been executed about every other week. The uproar was partly fueled by the fact that the government of Mexico had paid to protect defendant Juan Quintero's life by hiring several prominent American death-penalty lawyers, including noted Denver civil rights attorney David Lane. The case brought the first widespread publicity to a campaign Mexico is waging to protect the lives of its citizens. The Mexican government doesn't recognize the death penalty or even a life sentence without parole. "The Mexican government has an obligation to defend its citizens abroad," said Mexican embassy spokesman Ricardo Alday in Washington, D.C., who couldn't put a cost on the program. Quintero had been deported back to Mexico in 1999 after his conviction for molesting a 12-year-old. Then he snuck back into the U.S. and, in September 2006, shot Houston police officer Rodney Johnson seven times after a traffic stop. Lane, who spent some of March, April and May in Houston working on Quintero's case, said Mexico's program gave Quintero what may have been his best chance at avoiding death. Quintero's lawyers argued that he was insane and had a brain abnormality. "I truly take my hat off to Mexico for funding this program," Lane said. "Defending a death-penalty case can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to more than $1 million. None of these defendants has any money, and the cases fall to public defenders, at the taxpayers' expense." Lane is one of 21 U.S. lawyers hired by Mexico to represent 51 Mexican citizens in the United States currently on death row and another 200 facing death-penalty trials. Since 2000, U.S. lawyers hired by Mexico have represented some 450 defendants. Locally, Lane is assisting public defenders in the murder and kidnapping case against Jose Luis Rubi-Nava, 37, a Mexican citizen facing the death penalty in Douglas County District Court. He's charged with dragging his girlfriend to death behind his pickup truck in September 2006. Colorado has one other Mexican citizen facing the death penalty an inmate at the federal penitentiary in Florence charged with murdering another inmate. Five other Mexicans in Colorado are charged with 1st-degree murder and may face the death penalty, a situation Lane said he is monitoring. Lane accuses Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers, who is seeking the death penalty against Rubi-Nava, of violating an international treaty by not allowing Rubi-Nava to consult with Mexican counsel. He also says Chambers violated the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty by sending investigators to Mexico without permission to investigate Rubi-Nava's background. "Mexico will likely file a formal protest as a result of these two violations," Lane said, adding that it will probably be filed with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "Mexico views Carol Chambers as a human-rights violator." Chambers did not return several phone calls. (source: Denver Post)