On the recordJuly 6, 2011
Madam Speaker, 16-year-old Adria Sauceda was abducted, raped, and strangled in 1994. Her skull was crushed with a rock and her nude body was left with a stick protruding from it on a dirt road in San Antonio, Texas. Fifteen years ago, Humberto Leal, a Mexican national, was convicted of the grisly murder and sentenced to death by a Texas jury. Tomorrow, he is to be executed in Texas. But the Mexican government and the administration say that Texas violated an international treaty and should have allowed Leal to see a Mexican consulate when he was arrested. So the administration has asked the Supreme Court to stop the execution. However, the Supreme Court has already ruled that States are not bound by such international treaties unless Congress intervenes. Our Federal Government ought to have as much concern and compassion for murder victims as it does for their foreign killers or Mexico's feelings about the death penalty. Justice should not be denied for Adria Sauceda. And that's just the way it is. ____________________
