Humberto Leal Garcia executed in Texas despite White House appeal
Texas has executed a Mexican-born man after the US supreme court and the state’s governor, Rick Perry, spurned appeals from Barack Obama to spare the convicted murderer’s life in order to protect US interests abroad.
Humberto Leal Garcia was executed by lethal injection for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl despite appeals of senior diplomats, military officials and prominent politicians who said the execution could jeopardise the lives of Americans.
Shortly before Leal was led into the death chamber in Huntsville the supreme court rejected by 5-4 an appeal from the White House to block the execution on the grounds it was in breach of an international convention governing the treatment of foreigners who are arrested and would therefore do “irreparable harm” to America’s interests.