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A Mexican national, Mario
Benjamin Murphy, was executed on 17 September despite pleas for commutation from
the Mexican authorities.
Mario Murphy was one of six people charged with the 1991 murder of a naval
officer but was the only one sentenced to death. He was 19 years old at the time
of the crime and had no prior criminal convictions for violence. As a citizen of
Mexico, Mario Murphy was entitled under the Vienna Convention on Consular
Relations, which the USA ratified in 1969, to be informed that he had the right
to contact the Mexican Embassy and ask for assistance. At no time from his
arrest to the imposition of his death sentence in 1992 was he informed of this
right. |