WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday it would hear argument on whether a Texas death row inmate should have been told he could contact the Mexican consul.
The International Court of Justice has ruled the rights of Jose Ernesto Medellin and 48 other Mexicans on death row were violated because they were not advised of that right under the Vienna Convention.
In 1993, Medellin was participating in an initiation for the "Black and Whites" street gang when he and others brutally raped and murdered two teenage girls.
A state jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. State courts affirmed his sentence, and he filed for constitutional review in the federal courts in Houston.
A federal judge and, later, a federal appeals court rejected his constitutional claims.
When Medellin's second attempt at federal review on the Vienna Convention grounds was rejected, his court-appointed lawyers asked the Supreme Court for review.
The European Union, Mexico and a number of human rights groups are supporting Medellin.
