The US state of Texas executed a Mexican national despite frantic late appeals based on possible trial irregularities and mental disability, authorities said.
Ramiro Hernandez, 44, was put to death by lethal injection at 6:28 pm (2328 GMT) in Huntsville, Texas.
He was sentenced to die in 2000 for murdering a 49-year-old man who employed him on his ranch in San Antonio. He also repeatedly raped his victim's wife following the murder.
"I have no pain and no guilt. All I have is love. Love will win. Thank you God, I am going with you," prison authorities reported Hernandez as saying just before receiving the lethal dose.
Last week, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from him as one of several Mexicans languishing in US prisons seeking to challenge their sentences on the grounds they were not properly advised of their right to consular assistance after their arrest.
The Vienna Convention, ratified by 175 countries including the United States, dictates that foreign nationals must be able to receive consular assistance when arrested.
Amnesty International appealed to Texas Governor Rick Perry saying that Hernandez was mentally disabled and therefore should not be executed.
In Mexico, Perseo Quiroz, Amnesty International's local branch chief, said: "There is nothing more absurd than an atrocity committed in the name of justice."
Quiroz said Hernandez's execution "was a murder, and a murder based on discrimination."
Last year, Texas accounted for more than a third of all US executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
US states using the death penalty have faced crises over shortages of lethal injection drugs after European firms stopped supplying pentobarbital.
The shortage has prompted many US states to turn to unregulated compounding pharmacies to supply the drugs instead.
Lawyers for many prisoners have said the compounded drugs can cause excruciating pain, putting executions using them in violation of the US Constitution, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment.
Texas authorities say the substances used in its executions have been tested and found to be free of contaminants.
The US state of Texas executed a Mexican national despite frantic late appeals based on possible trial irregularities and mental disability, authorities said.
Ramiro Hernandez, 44, was put to death by lethal injection at 6:28 pm (2328 GMT) in Huntsville, Texas.
He was sentenced to die in 2000 for murdering a 49-year-old man who employed him on his ranch in San Antonio. He also repeatedly raped his victim’s wife following the murder.
“I have no pain and no guilt. All I have is love. Love will win. Thank you God, I am going with you,” prison authorities reported Hernandez as saying just before receiving the lethal dose.
Last week, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from him as one of several Mexicans languishing in US prisons seeking to challenge their sentences on the grounds they were not properly advised of their right to consular assistance after their arrest.
The Vienna Convention, ratified by 175 countries including the United States, dictates that foreign nationals must be able to receive consular assistance when arrested.
Amnesty International appealed to Texas Governor Rick Perry saying that Hernandez was mentally disabled and therefore should not be executed.
In Mexico, Perseo Quiroz, Amnesty International’s local branch chief, said: “There is nothing more absurd than an atrocity committed in the name of justice.”
Quiroz said Hernandez’s execution “was a murder, and a murder based on discrimination.”
Last year, Texas accounted for more than a third of all US executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
US states using the death penalty have faced crises over shortages of lethal injection drugs after European firms stopped supplying pentobarbital.
The shortage has prompted many US states to turn to unregulated compounding pharmacies to supply the drugs instead.
Lawyers for many prisoners have said the compounded drugs can cause excruciating pain, putting executions using them in violation of the US Constitution, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment.
Texas authorities say the substances used in its executions have been tested and found to be free of contaminants.
