Mexicans on Death Row (review)

Although published in Mexico several years ago, this book is especially timely, following on the heels of the controversial Texas execution of Mexican national Humberto Leal in July 2011. Written by the former Consul General of Mexico based in Houston, Texas, Mexicans on Death Row should be read by anyone interested in the debate over the death penalty, particularly in Texas. During his three years in that position, Ricardo Ampudia was on the front lines trying to save the lives of several Mexican nationals facing the death penalty. Of these, the case of Ricardo Aldape is at the core of the book. A native of Monterrey, Mexico, he was sentenced to death for the first-degree murder of a Houston police officer in 1982.

The first chapter offers an historical and international overview of the death penalty, including its history in Mexico. The following chapter is devoted to the American death penalty. The third chapter delves into the challenges in protecting Mexican citizens abroad. Much of this chapter chronicles the evolution of the general consular function and an analysis of specific cases of Mexicans sentenced to death in the United States. The last two chapters are in-depth examinations of the two high-profile penalty cases.

When it comes to the death penalty, Ampudia insinuates the United States has more in common with China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia (countries that accounted for more than 90 percent of executions in 2004), than Mexico, which has not executed anyone since a soldier for treason in 1961. Ampudia suggests that in recent years, due to the lack of security, there are many in Mexico who would like to bring it back.

Much of the book is taken up by the familiar arguments of the death penalty debate. The author does a good job of demonstrating how the American death penalty is applied in a "racially discriminatory manner" (60). He covers a number of ongoing controversies in the United States dealing with the execution of minors, women, and the mentally ill; however, I have found no sources that support his claim that Karla Faye Tucker was pregnant when she was executed (73). I would also disagree with his notion that the guillotine was among the forms of execution designed "to inflict the greatest possible suffering" (3).

Throughout the book I found a number of factual errors, some of them pretty egregious. For example, he cites the first use of the electric chair in 1880, a decade earlier than it actually was (7); that California "Red Light Bandit" Caryl Chessman was executed for the kidnapping and death of the Lindbergh baby (instead of Bruno Hauptmann) almost thirty years earlier (53); and confuses Ellis I unit, that houses death row, with the actual death chamber at the Huntsville Walls unit twelve miles away (123: n.22). He also confuses the years in which the United States held a moratorium on the death penalty and when it was reinstated (128).

What separates this book from others on the Texas death penalty is the valuable perspective of a foreign national in the midst of the debate over the execution of non-American citizens. The coverage of the historical evolution of the Mexican death penalty and its abolition will be of special interest to readers unfamiliar with the constitutional development of the abolition of the death penalty in Mexico. What's more, Ampudia demonstrates that the debate over the death penalty has at times upset U.S.-Mexico relations, especially in 2002, after Governor Perry refused to stay the execution of a Mexican national, leading then-President Vicente Fox to cancel a trip to Texas and to refuse to greet President George W. Bush on his subsequent visit to Mexico. In the end, this book should be essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the international implications of the Texas death penalty.