Jesus Ledesma Aguilar
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Jesus Ledesma Aguilar (28 November 1963 – 24 May 2006) was a Mexican national who became the 365th person executed by the state of Texas. His execution sparked an international incident between the United States and Mexico, which led to a lawsuit filed by Mexico against the United States in the International Court of Justice, in which the court found that Texas prison officials had denied Aguilar his right to see a Mexican consular official as specified in the Geneva Conventions.
Aguilar was convicted by a Texas court of murdering two people, Leonardo Chavez and Annette Chavez, on 10 June 1995 with a handgun and sentenced to death on 5 July 1996. He did not know his victims. The couple's son said he witnessed the murders and testified against Aguilar at trial. He filed numerous appeals and requests for stays of execution, all of which were denied. He was executed on 24 May 2006 at 6:32 p.m. CST by lethal injection, despite his continued claims of innocence and protests by the government of Mexico that he was denied his right under the Geneva Conventions to a visit by a Mexican consular official.
The ICJ found that the United States "has breached its obligations to Mr. Avena and 50 other Mexican nationals and to Mexico under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations." As a result of the court's ruling, Texas officials now provide official notification to the Mexican government if a Mexican national is arrested and incarcerated in a Texas jail, and allow consular officials to visit Mexican nationals in prison.
