We have learned that when a place in Texas actually has Chubby Hubby in stock, you should then proceed to buy every single one.
In honor of what would’ve been his 50th birthday, a handful of theaters around the world—including the fine folks over at the Alamo Drafthouse (all weekend!)—are screening this movie.
“Unfortunately, the trial court’s order offers no explanation for its conclusion that DNA testing is not called for in this case,” said Rob Owen, attorney for Hank Skinner and clinical law professor at the University of Texas School of Law. “It will now be up to the Court of Criminal Appeals to give Mr. Skinner’s case the deliberate consideration that is necessary to ensure a correct result.”
I don’t want to sound an overly pessimistic tone … but I have a sneaking suspicion that the appeals court won’t give Skinner’s case the consideration for which his lawyer is hoping. Skinner’s lawyers know this, but it’s not really something they can say to a reporter.
Maybe I’ll be wrong this time; that would be fantastic. But it would also be a fluke, an unusual result in a bizarre system that defies most attempts at predition. And yet pundits — from Texas — continue to claim that the system is working. It’s not. It’s fundamentally broken. The cases that make this clear are far more numerous than the unusual cases where courts actually offer some remedy for the errors that have taken place.
On this particular case, you can find more here. And here. And here.
A petition that asks the state of Texas to test the DNA evidence is here.
Burnt Orange Report looks forward to seeing Rick Perry put “under the national microscope”:
Over the coming months, the media’s going to talk a lot about whether Perry can unite the evangelicals, secessionists, and let-them-eat-cake corporate fat-cats like his Texas predecessor George W. Bush. What they might NOT talk about as much are the horrifying statistics and human costs of Perry’s record, including high rates of poverty and uninsured children, a relentless attack on teachers and public education, escalating costs of college attendance, and an evisceration of the social safety net here in Texas.
And while the media might rave about his record of “job creation,” they might not remember that the vast majority of those jobs are minimum-wage jobs that don’t help working-class folks escape the cycle of poverty or create sustainable economic growth for the middle class. They might give some quick lip-service to his flirtation with secession, or his comments that he wants to put major policy decisions in God’s hands. But they probably won’t get down into the weeds - not just yet, anyways - of the real Rick Perry, the man who politicized the forensic science commission to cover up for executing a potentially innocent man; the man who cares more about shoving a vaginal probe in every abortion-seeking woman than funding public schools and employing teachers; the man who in eleven long, long years has done an awful lot of harm to an awful lot of people. And while many of us are proud of Texas, proud of our history and heritage, of the many great folks we’ve produced, we’re not proud of Rick Perry or what he’s done to our state.
Even proponents of capital punishment are opposing the planned execution of Humberto Leal:
Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, a treaty ratified by 173 nations, establishes that whenever the authorities arrest a foreign national, they must advise her that she has the right to have her consulate notified of her detention. This applies to foreign nationals arrested in the United States as well as to Americans detained abroad. American foreign exchange students, missionaries and others who have been wrongly detained overseas often say that the assistance of the consulate is more important than the advice of a foreign lawyer. American consulates can help them contact family members, obtain evidence back home, and assist in obtaining competent legal representation.
But when Texas authorities arrested Humberto Leal García, a Mexican national with no prior criminal convictions, they tried, convicted, and sentenced him to death without ever informing him of his consular rights and without notifying the Mexican consulate of his plight. On March 31, 2004, the International Court of Justice held that the United States had breached its obligations under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention in the case of Mr. Leal and 50 other Mexican nationals on death row. The ICJ held that, as a remedy for the violations of Article 36, the United States must provide judicial “review and reconsideration” of Mr. Leal’s conviction and sentence to determine whether, and how, he was prejudiced by the violation of his consular rights.
Without the assistance of the Mexican consulate, Humberto Leal received disgracefully inadequate legal representation. One of his trial attorneys has been reprimanded or suspended from the practice of law on multiple occasions as a result of ethical violations. Mr. Leal was convicted on the basis of junk “bite mark” science, since discredited by the National Academy of Sciences, and patently unreliable forensic evidence. Although the prosecution’s case was reed thin, his defense failed to effectively challenge any of this evidence. During his sentencing hearing, which lasted only a single day, Mr. Leal’s attorneys failed to present any of the profoundly mitigating evidence that later came to light with the assistance of the Mexican government. The jury that sentenced Mr. Leal to death never learned that he was the victim of horrific sexual abuse by his parish priest, which had severe and lasting effects. Jurors never realized that Mr. Leal had struggled to overcome learning disabilities and frontal lobe brain damage and spent his childhood dodging neighborhood gangs and beatings from his parents. Based on the distorted, incomplete picture of Mr. Leal provided by the prosecution, he never stood a chance.
Former President Bush directed the Texas courts to review Mr. Leal’s conviction and sentence in accordance with the ICJ’s decision, but Texas refused. The United States Supreme Court has found that while the U.S. has an international legal obligation to comply with the ICJ’s decision, only Congress can implement the decision by passing legislation. Congress is now poised to do just that - but Texas has announced that it nonetheless intends to go forward with Mr. Leal’s execution. A stay of execution is essential to prevent an irreparable breach of the United States’ treaty commitments, and to protect the rights of all Americans who rely on the protections of the Vienna Convention. And unless Mr. Leal receives a reprieve, he will die before he ever sees justice.
Much more about Leal’s story here:
The right to consular access is something that U.S. citizens abroad rely on “literally every day,” Huffman said. “We’ve already got one irrevocable violation of that international obligation, and that’s something that is taken very seriously by our international partners.
“To do that again? It’s hard to dismiss it as an aberration if it happens again.”
Should the U.S. continue to disregard its obligations under the Vienna Convention, American travelers risk losing what Bellinger called “one of the most important rights that Americans have if they’re arrested abroad.” And they’ll only have Texas, and our unresponsive Congress, to blame.
You can sign a petition here.
I’m guessing this is not the voice of Ann Richards.
Today I paid $20 to acquire a piece of paper that proves my head is not up my ass.
