José Medellín

The Bush administration briefed the Supreme Court on the obligation to comply with international treaties. On March 25, 2008, in Medellín v. Texas, the court rejected the Bush administration's arguments and cleared the way for Texas to execute the sentence. The International Court of Justice later ruled that the United States had violated its treaty obligations.

On July 16, 2008, the International Court of Justice asked for a stay of execution on behalf of Medellin and four other Mexican nationals who also did not receive consular notification.

On July 17, 2008, Robert Black, spokesman for Texas Governor Rick Perry, said the state would continue with the scheduled August 5, 2008, execution despite the International Court of Justice order for a stay. "The world court has no standing in Texas and Texas is not bound by a ruling or edict from a foreign court. It is easy to get caught up in discussions of international law and justice and treaties. It's very important to remember that these individuals are on death row for killing our citizens."

Medellín was executed at 9:57 p.m. Central time on August 5, 2008, after a 3-hour delay while the Supreme Court heard a late appeal, which was denied.

His case gained notoriety when Mexico sued the United States in the International Court of Justice on behalf of 51 Mexican nationals asserting that the US had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which requires that local authorities inform foreign nationals being held on criminal charges of their right to consult with their country's diplomats. That court ruled that the United States was obliged to have the defendants' cases reopened and reconsidered. The Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear the case on May 1, 2007.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to change their rules barring reconsideration of such cases. In that decision, one of the court's judges accused the White House of an "unprecedented, unnecessary, and intrusive exercise of power over the Texas court system". In response, the Bush administration entered the case on Medellín's behalf and urged the Supreme Court to overturn the Texas court's decision. The case, Medellín v. Texas, No. 06-984, was argued on October 10, 2007, and decided on March 25, 2008. The US government's brief, filed by Solicitor General Paul D. Clement, told the justices that the Texas court's decision, if not reversed, "will place the United States in breach of its international law obligation" to comply with the International Court of Justice's decision and would "frustrate the president's judgment that foreign-policy interests are best served by giving effect to that decision." Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito, rejected the Bush administration's arguments. Justice Stevens wrote a concurring opinion. Justice Breyer, joined by Justices Souter and Ginsburg, dissented.

Initially, the US government described Mexico's suit as "an unjustified, unwise, and ultimately unacceptable intrusion in the United States criminal justice system." Reversing that position in early 2005, with Medellín's death-penalty appeal pending before the Supreme Court, the White House announced that it would abide by the decision by instructing the states to reconsider the convictions and sentences of the Mexican nationals on death row. The Supreme Court then dismissed Medellín's case to enable the Texas courts to comply with that directive.

Medellín was convicted of raping and killing 16-year-old Peña and 14-year-old Ertman in June 1993.

On June 24, 1993, Medellín carried out a gang initiation at T.C. Jester Park in Houston, Texas, along with five others: Peter Cantu, Ramon Sandoval, Efrain Perez, and Derrick Sean O'Brien. Two others, Frank Sandoval and Venancio Medellín, were present, but did not participate in the initiation. The initiation involved the new member, Raul Villareal, submitting to beatings from the others. After this, the gang members remained in the park, drinking alcohol.

José Ernesto Medellín Rojas (March 4, 1975 – August 5, 2008), born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, was a Mexican national who was executed by lethal injection for the murders of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña in Houston, Texas.