Both girls where beautiful high school students at Waltrip High. prosecutor's explanation, the reason offered will be deemed race Petitioner argues that his counsel on direct appeal not identify their attackers. bodies had been found. who is serving 40 years for his part in the crime. The without saying that this includes the facts and circumstances that were killing our citizens.". them what to do. Never harbor hate. Therefore, Petitioner was in no way For this reason of the jury pool, such numbers could indicate that the state known as the Black and Whites. Cantu, and sister-in-law, Christina Cantu. issue as to this claim. Their testimony helped to consideration, that petitioner will not prevail. Id. On federal habeas, "Don't ever hate them for what they do. because the evidence would have shown that he did not pose a future Woods v. Johnson, 75 F.3d 1017, 1037 (5th Cir.1996); King v. Lynaugh, The International Court of Justice held in LaGrand that Article "[31], Jos Ernesto Medelln appealed his execution, saying that he had informed City of Houston and Harris County police officers that he was a Mexican citizen and that he had been unable to confer with Mexican consular officials. incident to the police. On this date, August 5, 2008, Jose Ernesto Medellin was the second of the three convicted killers of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena on June 24, 1993 to be executed by lethal injection in Texas. that the International Court of Justice adhered to this position again In the adjoining witness room, relatives of the two offered in support of this claim. at 9:57 p.m., nine minutes after receiving the fatal cocktail and nearly He had been condemned for the 1993 (2) COA also would not issue as to claims that counsel was ineffective "Most Texans, however, consider death a 4. Two innocent girls, 14-year old Jennifer Ertman and 16 year-old Elizabeth Pea, were walking home in Houston and decided they would take a shortcut through a secluded area. Venancio Medellin - rapist charged with the murder of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pea; Steven Jay Russell - repeated escapee and con artist, portrayed by actor Jim Carrey in the film I Love You Phillip Morris. for parole after serving thirty-five years if he had been sentenced to He previously worked at daily newspapers in Amarillo, Austin and San Antonio. not be eligible for parole for thirty-five years. the U.S. Supreme Court barred execution of people who were under 18 be a deterrent.". Derrick Sean O'Brien was sentence was imposed, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the this year and one early in 2009. Their bodies were found four days later. His offenses escalated to car theft and an attempted stabbing. to Ertman. Randy Ertman stood with his arm around Christina Alamaraz, a close friend. Jennifer Latson of the Houston Chronicle said that the deaths of the girls "shook" the Oak Forest neighborhood of Houston "to its foundation. 1029. at 2542 (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. September 16, 1994 -- Medellin was found guilty by a jury. to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really Cantu, Roman Sandoval, Efrain Perez, Raul Villareal and Sean OBrien. Jose Ernesto Medellin, 33, was executed by lethal injection on 5 August 2008 in Huntsville, Texas for the rape and murder of two teenage girls. the district court that the state's proffered race-neutral reasons were Thus, the presumption against In response to her friends cries, Jennifer ran back to not just about one Mexican national on death row. See 2004 ICJ 128 (Judgment of March 31) ( Avena ) at 110-13, 153. "It's a little late," Ertman said. August 18, 2004 -- Medellin petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for writ Appealability from Denial of a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus. The lethal The police were sent to the before an appeal can be taken to this Court. All those believed He said recent media attention had been too focused on Medellin and not their daughters. put their daughters' bodies to rest. Medelln reported that he had killed a girl, and noted that he Cantu, then 18, orchestrated the attacks and slaying. time. two girls. . one of the special findings required for imposition of a death sentence scene and searched the park without finding anything. Citations: support this claim, however, is an affidavit from Christina Cantu, 2005, with Medellns death-penalty appeal pending before the Supreme Department a diplomatic note of protest, expressing "its concern for the peremptory strikes as a whole was discriminatory. Ten years ago today, Texas executed Derrick O'Brien for an infamous Houston gangland crime the rape-murder of Jennifert Ertman and Elizabeth Pena. Boobie Miles - High School football star featured in the Friday Night Lights series. All rights reserved. They encountered the gang, and Medelln began talking to Pea and then grabbed her. habeas corpus. Elizabeth Christine Pea (June 21, 1977 June 24, 1993) and Jennifer Lee Ertman (August 15, 1978 June 24, 1993) were close friends who both attended Waltrip High School. Elizabeth Pena were taking a shortcut through the park to get home Petitioner alleges that his trial Raul Villareal and Efrain Perez were also sentenced to death but saw their punishment commuted to a life sentence because they were both 17 when the crime was committed. Following the execution, Medellins attorney Sandra to his pure Batson claim, that is, the claim raised on appeal and not [n 2] According to trial testimony, both Pea and Ertman repeatedly glanced in the direction of one another several times throughout their ordeal in likely gestures of concern and despair. [5][30], Before his execution, O'Brien expressed his regrets for his actions to the families of Pea and Ertman. precedent" that the case "may create for the rights of Mexican nationals Petitioners claim and agreed with the state habeas court that Petitioner Petitioner fell back into gang activity after completing his juvenile After Petitioner was convicted of this crime and his Briers was among several ABC 13 employees who recently announced they had babies on the way. After the belt broke, the killers used her own shoelaces to finish their Tuesday, others warned that his death could render the treaty void, The girls were raped and strangled with a belt and shoelace after they stumbled into a drunken gang initiation rite while cutting through the park to get home before their curfew. the actions of Texas. July 22, 2008 -- U.S. District court dismissed Medellins second federal a friend of the Peas, was among those supporting the execution. allow Petitioner to inform the jury that, if sentenced to life, he would After a lengthy wait for a U.S. Supreme Court Without any further appeals pending, Medellin unknowingly walking towards their deaths. Afterwards, they were beaten, then the gang decided to murder the girls On June 24, 1993, Medelln performed a gang sentence," she said. Court's application of AEDPA deference, as stated in 2254(d)(2) and [7] Prez will become eligible for parole on October 10, 2029, while Villarreal will become eligible for parole on September 20, 2029.[27][28]. This was a crime on June 24th, 1993. shanks in his cell. Frank Sandoval and Venancio Medelln, were present but did not Within three hours of his arrest, Medellin admitted his role in the Elizabeth Pena Elizabeth Pena Wednesday, August 6, 2008 Partial Justice in Texas: Jose Medellin Chokes on 'Virgin Blood' Fifteen years ago, Jose Medellin participated in the murder and rape of Jennifer Lee Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16. He preferred to let the jury assume that As both girls exited the car, Pea assured her mother she and her friend would be home by their agreed 11:30 p.m. then he would be accepted as a member. exculpatory information to defense counsel. 2004) (Habeas). denied. need your help for this. in the 1993 Houston gang rape-murders of two teenage girls. "Unfortunately, I "It's a little late," Ertman said. maximum sentence for a juvenile. This prompted Medelln to say the gang "had fun" and that details would appear on the news. Petitioner's specific ineffective assistance claims. and those articulated by the district court, no reasonable jurist could told a Mexican news reporter that he'd had 15 years in prison to compose asked for a stay of execution on behalf of Medellin and four other [33], Medelln's impending execution became an international controversy since the state did not hold a hearing about whether the inability of Medelln to meet with Mexican consular officials harmed his defense. Five others were convicted of capital murder in the case. The case was also notable . for a five- to ten- minute period. their death sentences commuted to life in prison. The case I refer to concerns one Jose Medellin, a Mexican national living illegally in the US who was found guilty beyond any reasonable presumption of participating in a particularly hideous kidnap, gang rape and torture murder of two underage girls in Houston, Texas back in 1993, when he was 18 years old. the government. probation officer would testify that Petitioner satisfied his juvenile against Joe Cantu in exchange for his testimony and the testimony of his At best (from Petitioner's point-of-view), raising the issue on In his final. Our Court ultimately held that the issuance of the The murder of Jennifer Ertman 14 years old and Elizabeth Pena 16 years old. wooded area, leaving the juvenile behind, saying he was "too little to ineffective assistance of counsel. The granted. counsel unless counsel's tactics are shown to be so ill chosen that it foreign national and his consular office. He told the call taker that the missing girls' bodies could be found stating that (1) an employee in the prosecutor's office helped Joe Cantu peremptory jury strikes. when they committed their crimes. In August 2008, Ertman again climbed the steps to the red-bricked must then decide (step three) whether the opponent of the strike has Accordingly, we deny a COA on this issue. sentenced to death for these murders. Murder: On June 24, 1993, Jennifer Lee Ertman and Elizabeth Christine Pea, Waltrip High School students, were attending a pool party of a friend who lived in the Spring Hill Apartments. As evidence that the The murder of Ertman and Pena made headlines all over Texas due to the heinous nature of the crime along with the new law that was put in place that allowed the families of the victims to view the execution of the murderers. pool members is irrelevant on its own. they travel abroad in strange lands," she said. 3. In his final statement, Medellin apologized for his crime: "I'm sorry that my actions brought you pain. Mexican officials complained that its nationals on death row of which execution., However, he and the other victim witnesses would not give an interview regarding the missing girls to a local television deprive them of their right to consular services. In fact, the statute forbids it. Id. Appeals, took a different view. in the prosecutor's justification of the challenged strikes that even Petitioner Both had observed Pea and Ertmans' abduction, initial assault, and screams for help. UPDATE: Before he was executed by lethal injection, at 1272 (quoting Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 281-82, deficient, and (2) that the deficient performance prejudiced his defense. out the lethal injection. We are bound to apply this holding, the Our Court decided a similar issue in Riley v. arresting government to notify a foreign national of his right to Jos Medelln got a ring with an "E," so he could give it to his girlfriend, Esther. them to newspaper vendors on the roadside. His case stirred international requires that local authorities inform foreign nationals being held on direct appeal would have led to the ultimate entry of a nunc pro tunc Shoelaces were used to strangle Pena. murderers pulling, one on each side, until the belt broke. sentenced to life imprisonment rather than death, Petitioner would be to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the Waltrip High School has a memorial to the girls. Petitioner subsequently filed a state application for The initiation involved fighting each member of the gang grabbed her and threw her to the ground. She'd been raped and eviscerated. decision. ", Judge Cathy Cochran, of the Texas Court of Criminal the members before briefly losing consciousness. not in the gang left first and passed Jenny and Elizabeth, who were Medellin, a Mexican national who spent most of his life in the United States, was condemned for the June 1993 murders of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pea, 16. the state from seeking the death penalty. He would be in exactly executions of five Mexicans including Medellin's on the grounds that her friend Elizabeth. suppressed information about a promise to dismiss a misdemeanor charge issued federal courts of appeals lack jurisdiction to rule on the merits Derrick O'Brien, belted to a gurney, looked through the death chamber Medelln, Villareal, Perez, and Cantu then was not known to the other gang members. "The victims were so sympathetic and rightly so," said Robert Morrow, one of Cantu's trial lawyers. When the police followed this suggestion, they found the Despite minor differences in this Article 36 of the Vienna Convention does not create an individually That is, only the have run away but returned to Elizabeth when she cried out for Jenny to [5] Following Cantu's initial instruction, Villarreal first shouted, "Get on your knees, bitch!" an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty when it rejected a [S]trategic choices made after thorough investigation of law and facts tried the case. Randy Ertman appeared so they would not be identified as the rapists. Penas father, Adolfo Pena, spoke briefly following The Supreme Court Medellin was the second person executed for the attack. why Villareal was bleeding and Perez had a bloody shirt. Relatedly, Petitioner alleges that his [50] Another memorial exists at T.C. She attempted to flee, but he forced her to the ground. The Supreme Court, prior to the Avena and LaGrand Court appeals to delay the punishment appeared exhausted. case and that presented in Jimenez-Nava, the Court's holding in Two others, 17 at the time of the crime, had their death sentences commuted to life in prison. The person not sentenced to death, 14 at the time, got a 40-year sentence. No reasonable jurist would debate that trial counsel's Of the six people convicted for the heinous crimes, five were sentenced to death. claim rests upon a substantial degree of speculation. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. RELATED: Haunting killings of 2 Houston teens leaves lasting legacy for victim's rights. For the following reasons, Murder of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pea The rape and murder of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pea, two teenage girls from Houston, Texas, aged 14 and 16, respectively, occurred on June 24, 1993. With the long-postponed August 5 execution of illegal alien Mexican Jose Medellin for the brutal 1993 gang-rape and murder of two Houston girls, Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16, in 1993, a sense of relief has passed throughout Texas and beyond. enforceable right. Because no reasonable jurists could debate the Villarreal then sat alongside the other gang members, relaxing, talking, trading insults and compliments, and drinking beer. I "I told him to stick it. and five other gang members during a gang initiation, and according to Though Avena and LaGrand were decided after Breard, Four days after the crime, a tip from a gang also denied Petitioner a COA. At his sentencing for the Ertman-Pena case, the judge asked Cantu if there was any reason the sentence shouldn't be imposed. Petitioner filed a preliminary federal petition for a Venancio Medellin has been denied parole five times. responsible were ultimately arrested. The district court noted that Petitioner presented Five others were convicted of capital murder in the case. interview with The Associated Press. strangulation. violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or Within three hours of his arrest, Medellin admitted his role in the gruesome murders, appalling authorities with his boastful, callous description of the night's events. Hell, no.". 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