The Huffington Post features a blog from Sandra Babcock, the attorney for Texas death row inmate Humberto Leal (“Texas Execution Could Risk Americans’ Safety Abroad,” June 9, 2011). Leal faces a July 7 execution date, in spite of the fact that he was denied the right to contact the Mexican consul upon his arrest – a right afforded to him by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. In her post, Babcock writes:
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.
Please take action today! Sign a petition in support of clemency for Humberto Leal:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/save-humberto-leal/
Learn more about his case at www.humbertoleal.org.
More about his clemency appeal at https://tcadp.org/get-involved/stop-executions/