The Texas Supreme Court rejected a new petition by Víctor Saldaño, an Argentine national who has spent about 30 years on death row. His lawyer, Benjamin Wolff, sought a transfer to a psychiatric hospital, citing Saldaño’s mental condition and testimony gathered in Argentina.
Wolff argued that Saldaño has serious mental-health problems and that Texas should account for the harm caused by decades on death row. Saldaño’s mother, Lidia, said she recently received a letter from her son, the first in a long time. She said he remembered his niece and asked for money to buy items from the prison vending machines.
Saldaño was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of a shopkeeper in Texas. His original sentence was overturned after state authorities acknowledged that testimony based on racial stereotypes had been used, a retrial in 2004 again imposed a death sentence. Separately, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has called on the United States to remove him from prison and place him in a psychiatric hospital.
Juan Carlos Vega, Saldaño’s lawyer before the commission, told the Argentine newspaper that he considers both proceedings affected by racial bias. That is the defense’s position, the report says the state has not implemented the commission’s recommendation. The latest rejected petition, according to the outlet, leaves any further action to U.S. authorities.