Human Rights Commission Calls for Stay of Execution for Nicaraguan Man on Texas Death Row

(UPDATE: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has grant­ed Bernardo Tercero a stay of exe­cu­tion to per­mit him to lit­i­gate evi­dence that a lead pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness tes­ti­fied false­ly against him.) The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a unit of the Organization of American States, has called on Texas offi­cials to stay the exe­cu­tion of Nicaraguan cit­i­zen Bernardo Tercero (pic­tured), who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Texas on August 26. Under inter­na­tion­al treaties on con­sular rela­tions, for­eign cit­i­zens (includ­ing Americans abroad) must be afford­ed access to their gov­ern­men­t’s con­sulate at the time of their arrest. The IACHR has ruled that Texas’ fail­ure to respect these treaty oblig­a­tions denied Tercero ​“his right to con­sular noti­fi­ca­tion and assis­tance [and] deprived him of a crim­i­nal process that sat­is­fied the min­i­mum stan­dards of due process and a fair tri­al” required under Inter-American human rights treaties. The IACHR also con­clud­ed that Tercero’s court-appoint­ed coun­sel ​“com­mit­ted seri­ous mis­takes that affect­ed his right to defense” and that pro­ce­dur­al rul­ings by the courts in his case denied Tercero the ​“pos­si­bil­i­ty to have his sen­tence effec­tive­ly reviewed.” The Organization of American States issued a state­ment say­ing that, ​“Should the state of Texas car­ry out this exe­cu­tion, it would be com­mit­ting a seri­ous and irrepara­ble vio­la­tion of the basic right to life” guar­an­teed in American human rights instru­ments. As of June 9, 2015, 139 for­eign nation­als were on death rows across America, with 61 in California and 22 in Texas. 

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has con­tact­ed Texas Governor Greg Abbott to ask for clemen­cy for Tercero. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry refused to stop exe­cu­tions of four Mexican cit­i­zens whose con­sular rights were also vio­lat­ed. In addi­tion to the alleged vio­la­tion of Tercero’s con­sular rights, Tercero’s appeal attor­neys say he had inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion at his tri­al, and that evi­dence of pos­si­ble men­tal ill­ness and intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty was never investigated.