Texas Halts Execution of Nicaraguan Citizen After Appeal

Now, a Nicaraguan man who prosecutors say was in the United States illegally when Berger was gunned down more than 18 years ago is set for execution Wednesday evening for shooting the 38-year-old during the robbery in which two men fled with about $400 from the cash drawers.

“Melissa Hooper, a lawyer with Human Rights First, an organization that has represented Tercero in the case, said a petition for a stay has been filed with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals”.

“Mr. Tercero brutally murdered Robert Berger at a dry cleaner in Houston in front of the victim’s three year-old daughter”, spokesman John Wittnman said in a statement quoted by NPR.

A demonstration on Monday in Managua, Nicaragua, protesting the scheduled execution of Bernardo Tercero.

Tercero’s current lawyers contend that he suffers from post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression and that he has shown signs of psychosis along with limited brain function.

This undated handout photo provided by the Texas Department of…

The impending execution has sparked protests in Tercero’s home country of Nicaragua, which abolished capital punishment in 1979, following the ascendency of the leftist Sandinista rebels.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has asked for mercy for Tercero and rejected his sentence.

[Justices Breyer and Ginsburg: “It is highly likely” the death penalty is unconstitutional]. The Commission also concluded that he did not have a possibility to have his sentence effectively reviewed due to the limitations imposed by federal laws and the interpretation of the national courts. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed there was grounds for an appeal and stayed Tercero’s execution. Mr. Tercero’s legal claims have been rejected by both state and federal courts on at least five occasions. Judge Lawrence E. Meyers is listed as the only dissent in the order. Texas leads all states with 10 inmates put to death so far this year.