Mexican delegation aims to stop man's execution

Wednesday, May 5th 2004, 5:39 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Mexico's ambassador to the United States and four members of the Mexican Senate are expected to attend a clemency hearing this week to argue that a recent World Court ruling should stop a Mexican citizen from being executed in Oklahoma.

Osbaldo Torres is among 51 Mexican nationals on death row across the United States who were denied the basic right to contact their consulate for legal assistance under the 1963 Vienna Convention, according to a ruling by the United Nations' Court of International Justice.

Torres, 29, is the first defendant to seek relief under the court's March 31 ruling.

Charlie Price, a spokesman for the Oklahoma attorney general's office, said the office has continued on with the case, despite the ruling.

"It's still going forward at this point," Price said.

Mexican Ambassador Hon. Carlos de Icaza has asked to speak Friday during Torres' clemency hearing before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board.

Torres, a native of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, faces a May 18 execution if the board denies his request and his appeals are unsuccessful.

Mexican Sens. Silvia Hernandez, Miguel Sadot Sanchez, Hector Osuna and Raymundo Cardenas are also expected to attend the hearing, according to a letter sent to the parole board from the Mexican Consulate.

Attorneys for Torres argue that he and his family were never told they could contact the consulate for assistance in his defense. Torres' parents, who illegally crossed from Mexico into the United States in the mid-1980s, saved their earnings from Torres' father's welding job and his mother's cleaning work to pay for their son's legal defense.

The Torres family didn't contact the consulate until Torres had been on Oklahoma's death row for nearly a year.

Torres was convicted in 1996 of burglary and first-degree murder for the deaths of Francisco Morales and Maria Yanez. The couple were shot and killed as they lay in bed in their Oklahoma City home.

Torres' first trial ended when the jury could not reach a verdict. In his second trial, Torres and co-defendant George Ochoa were both found guilty and sentenced to death for the 1993 murders.

Mexican officials are also expected to argue that the state had shoddy circumstantial evidence linking Torres to the murders.

"This is a case of innocence," said Sandra Babcock, a Minneapolis attorney working on the case for the Mexican government. "The fact that Mexico has reviewed Oklahoma's death penalty cases and he is the least culpable to be put to death, that makes this case special and worthy of attention at a higher level."

A witness who testified that Torres took a gun from his car and tucked it into the waistband of his pants later recanted her testimony. On appeal, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that there was no evidence to directly link Torres to the couple's deaths.

While he didn't see the shooter's face, Morales' 11-year-old son described Ochoa as the shooter.

Physical evidence of Torres' involvement in the crime has also come into question.

Fired Oklahoma City police chemist Joyce Gilchrist testified that blood found on Torres' shirt was consistent with Torres, Ochoa or Morales. When Torres' attorneys later requested the clothing for DNA testing, it could not be found.

"I think she was probably lying," Babcock said. "Apparently the shirt has disappeared, and there's no way to disprove what she said. But you have to assume that she was either lying or exaggerating."

Gilchrist was fired in 2001. Two men who were imprisoned based on her testimony have been exonerated.