Mexican national set to be executed this fall

Mentally ill migrant’s lawyers say putting him to death violates international treaty

A mentally ill Mexican national with claims of brain damage is set for execution in November, more than two decades after he was convicted of killing his wife and two youngest children near the southern border.

Robert Moreno Ramos is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Nov. 14, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel.

The 64-year-old immigrant was sent to death row in 1993 for the slayings of his wife, Leticia, and their children, Abigail and Jonathan, who were found buried beneath the bathroom floor in the couple’s Hidalgo County home.

For years, his lawyers have contended that his execution would be a violation of international treaty as he wasn’t properly notified of his right to tell the Mexican consulate about his arrest and request legal assistance from his country. On top of that, they argue, Ramos had abysmal legal representation during trial and jurors never learned about his severely abusive childhood, brain dysfunction, bipolar disorder and low IQ.

In February 1992, a neighbor in Progreso heard screams coming from the Ramos home. It wasn’t

until two months later that investigators unearthed the family’s remains.

That April, Ramos was picked up on an outstanding traffic ticket, then questioned without a lawyer. Eventually, he gave authorities the OK to search his home — and they found blood inside.

Under further questioning, records show, Ramos drew police a map to the bathroom, where the bodies were buried.

But Ramos told investigators he didn’t kill his wife and children. Instead, he said that he came home to find his family slain and decided to hide the bodies so his surviving eldest son wouldn’t find out.

He didn’t get a lawyer until three months after his arrest, according to defense filings. During his trial, prosecutors argued that he’d beaten to death his wife and two children with some type of blunt instrument and then married another woman days later.

Defense lawyers argued in the 1993 case that unknown drug dealers committed the triple slaying. After the state introduced testimony implying he’d killed his first wife in Mexico, Ramos was convicted and sentenced to death in a matter of hours.

In the punishment phase, attorneys for Ramos didn’t cross-examine the state’s witnesses, offered no evidence and didn’t ask the jury to spare their client from the death penalty, according to court records.

Mexican authorities learned of Ramos’ arrest through news reports nearly a year after the fact, according to court records. During appeals, attorneys for Ramos said that late notification could have made a difference because Mexico often provides extra defense support in capital cases and might have done so had they known sooner.

But the state argued that extra help from Mexico wouldn’t have resulted in a different outcome.

On appeal, Ramos raised concerns about earlier bad lawyering and alleged that the state had violated Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by not telling him about his right to speak to his nation’s consulate.

Ultimately, the courts refused to grant him relief in part because the Vienna Convention is only enforceable between countries — it’s not up to American federal courts to enforce the application of international treaties in individual criminal cases.

More than 15 years ago, Ramos was one of 54 deathrow inmates named in a complaint to the United Nations World Court, when Mexico accused the U.S. of violating international treaties and asked for a stay in all of the cases. The international court decided the prisoners should get their cases reviewed. But the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 deemed that decision unenforceable, unless Congress takes legislative action.

Neither Ramos’ defense counsel nor Hidalgo County prosecutors responded to requests for comment Friday.

The case bears some similarities to that of Ruben Cardenas, another Mexican national who was executed last year amid international outcry and claims of global treaty violations.

Despite pushback from Mexico and Cardenas’ claims of innocence, the 47year-old was put to death in November for the murder of his teenage cousin.

“It is as if the United States were thumbing its nose at the government of Mexico and the United Nations,” Sandra Babcock, a Cornell Law School professor specializing in international issues surrounding capital punishment, told the Chronicle last year. “And when I say the U.S., I should be clear that we’re talking about Texas.”

The Lone Star State has executed eight men this year, and another seven — including Ramos — are scheduled for the remainder of 2018.