Humberto Leal Garcia, Mexican murderer, died from a lethal injection he was , 38.

Humberto Leal García, Jr. was a Mexican inmate on death row in the U.S. state of Texas for the May 21, 1994, rape, torture, and murder of Adria Sauceda in San Antonio.^[2] Despite calls from U.S. President Barack Obama, the U.S. State Department and Mexico on Texas for a last-minute reprieve, Leal was executed by lethal injection as scheduled on July 7, 2011.



(January 16, 1973 – July 7, 2011)

Early life and crime

Leal, a mechanic,^[3] was born in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico,^[4] and moved to the United States when he was two years old.^[5][6] He suffered from brain damage and was sexually abused by a priest as a child.^[7]
On May 21, 1994, Leal kidnapped, raped, and murdered 16-year-old Adria Sauceda.^[8] The girl had been at a party and become intoxicated, and a group of men gang-raped her. Leal is said to have offered to drive her home, and the two struggled when Sauceda tried to get out of the car a little distance away from the party.^[9] Official court documents state "There was a 30- to 40-pound asphalt rock roughly twice the size of the victim's skull lying partially on the victim's left arm; Blood was underneath this rock. A smaller rock with blood on it was located near the victim's right thigh.” There was also a stick 15 inches (380 mm) in length extending out of her vagina, with a screw at the end.^[10] Leal claimed that she fell and hit her head.^[9] No one was charged in the gang rape.^[9]

Case and trial

Leal was never informed that, as a Mexican national, he was entitled to assistance from the Mexican consul.^[10][11] However, at the time of his arrest he did not reveal his Mexican citizenship, and the issue of consular access was not raised during the trial.^[12] Critics of the decision to execute him said that he incriminated himself, which a better lawyer might have advised him not to do, and that he had other legal difficulties, including the court-appointed lawyer's failure to challenge questionable evidence.^[2][11][13] The jury convicted him after 45 minutes of deliberation.^[2] Texas maintained that he confessed before his arrest and so a change of legal counsel or strategy would have made no difference.^{[citation needed]}
As Texas law does not allow the death penalty for murder alone if the victim is over age five, prosecutors had to prove, in order for Leal to be sentenced to death, not only that he had killed Adria Sauceda, but that the murder was committed in the course of another felony offense—in this case, rape and kidnapping.^[9] Leal's lawyers criticized the lack of DNA evidence supporting the sexual assault charges.^[13]
Defenders of Leal stated that the original case relied partly on controversial and flawed methods such as bite mark analysis and the use of luminol to detect blood.^[14][15]

Legal controversy

The failure to inform Leal of his rights created legal controversy. In 1998, he appealed his death sentence on the grounds that police had not informed him that he could call the Mexican consulate. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had already upheld the sentence in February of that year, but international law had not been considered in the ruling.^[16]
A 2004 ruling by the International Court of Justice (in Avena and Other Mexican Nationals (Mexico v. United States of America)) found that he and about 50 other Mexican nationals condemned to execution in the United States had been denied their right under the Vienna Convention to be told that they may contact their consular officials. A 2008 Supreme Court decision declared the international court's decision binding, but said that it was necessary that Congress pass a law obliging states to comply.^[17]

As the date scheduled for Leal's execution approached, the Obama administration made a number of comments concerning the execution, saying that it would cause "irreparable harm" to US interests abroad, including the demonstration of "respect for the international rule of law," and "have serious repercussions for United States foreign relations, law-enforcement and other co-operation with Mexico, and the ability of American citizens traveling abroad to have the benefits of consular assistance in the event of detention."^[11][18]

Supreme Court case

The administration submitted a 30-page^[11] brief to the Supreme Court asking them to stay Leal's execution while Congress considered legislation relating to the right of foreign nationals on death row to contact their consulate for legal aid. On July 7, 2011, the court ruled 5–4 that Congress had had adequate time to do so, and wrote in an unsigned majority opinion that it would not "prohibit a state from carrying out a lawful judgment in light of unenacted legislation." Justice Stephen G. Breyer, in his dissent, which the other three dissenting justices joined, wrote that the execution would damage American foreign policy interests and that the court should defer to the executive branch's traditional prerogative with regard to foreign relations.^[17]

Execution and reactions

After 16 years of appeals, Leal was executed by lethal injection at 6:21 pm C.S.T. on July 7, 2011. He admitted responsibility for the crime and said he was sorry,^[19] and his final words included "Viva México".^[10] Leal's last meal consisted of fried chicken, pico de gallo and guisada tacos.^[20]
On July 8, a spokesman for Texas governor Rick Perry stated "If you commit the most heinous of crimes in Texas, you can expect to face the ultimate penalty under our laws."^[21] Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the United States, said that "the government of Mexico has never called into question the heinous nature of the crimes attributed to Mr. Leal and in no way condones violent crime," but condemned the execution; Sarukhan had earlier tried to contact Perry, who would not take his call.^[3][21]
Euna Lee, an American journalist who was arrested in North Korea in 2009, criticized the United States' failure to comply with the Vienna Convention, saying that she believed "prompt consular access" protected her from physical mistreatment while a prisoner, and that the decision in the Leal case would encourage foreign governments to violate the rights of American citizens abroad.^[22]
Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that Leal's execution undermined "the role of the International Court of Justice, and its ramifications [were] likely to spread far beyond Texas."^[21]

 

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Olav Versto, Norwegian journalist and editor (Verdens Gang), died when he drowned he was , 60,

Olav Versto was a Norwegian journalist and editor, primarily known for his work for the newspaper Verdens Gang  died when he drowned he was , 60,.

(31 July 1950 – 7 July 2011)

Education and career

Versto received a cand.mag. degree from the University of Oslo in 1976.^[1] He started his career in the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation in 1977, and was hired as a subeditor of Verdens Gang, Norway's largest newspaper, in 1987. From 1994 to 2008 he was the political editor of Verdens Gang. After that he became the editor of the op-ed section of the newspaper.^[2]
Olav Versto hailed from Vinje, and was the grandson of Olav Aslakson Versto and son of Aslak Versto, both politicians. He was himself politically involved, and was a forceful activist for the failed campaign for Norwegian European Union membership in 1994.^[3] In his later years, Versto was involved in the debate over the conflict between Islam and the West.^[4] In 2003, he went far towards supporting the US-led invasion of Iraq, a controversial stance in Norway at the time.^[5]
Versto was married to Kari Storsletten, journalist in the newspaper Aftenposten. The two were in 2007 ranked as number four among the most powerful media couples in Norway, by the online business newspaper NA24.^[6]

Death

Versto was found dead in the harbour of Farsund on 7 July 2011.^[2] Police believe he may have slipped on the rain-soaked floor of his boat and fell into the water.^[7]
Following his death, Versto was praised by several prominent figures, including Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, former Prime Ministers Gro Harlem Brundtland, Kjell Magne Bondevik, Kåre Willoch and World War II veteran Gunnar Sønsteby.^[8]

 

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Dick Williams, American baseball player and manager (Oakland Athletics), Hall of Famer, died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm he was , 82

Richard Hirschfeld "Dick" Williams was an American left fielder, third baseman, manager, coach and front office consultant in Major League Baseball died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm he was , 82. Known especially as a hard-driving, sharp-tongued manager from 1967–69 and 1971–88, he led teams to three American League pennants, one National League pennant, and two World Series triumphs. He is one of seven managers to win pennants in both major leagues, and joined Bill McKechnie in becoming only the second manager to lead three franchises to the Series. He and Lou Piniella are the only managers in history to lead four teams to seasons of 90 or more wins. Williams was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008 following his election by the Veterans Committee.


(May 7, 1929 – July 7, 2011)

Biography

Playing career

After growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, and Pasadena, California, Williams signed his first professional contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, and played his first major league game with Brooklyn in 1951. Initially an outfielder, he separated a shoulder making a diving catch early in his career, weakening his throwing arm. As a result, he learned to play several positions (he was frequently a first baseman and third baseman) and became a notorious "bench jockey" in order to keep his major league job. He appeared in 1,023 games over 13 seasons with the Dodgers, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Athletics and Boston Red Sox. A right-handed batter and thrower, Williams had a career batting average of .260 with 70 home runs.
He was a favorite of Paul Richards, who acquired Williams four different times between 1956 and 1962 when Richards was a manager or general manager with Baltimore and the Houston Colt .45s. Williams' stay in Houston during the 1962-63 offseason was brief, because he was soon traded to the Red Sox for another outfielder, Carroll Hardy.
His two-year playing career in Boston was uneventful, except for one occasion. On June 27, 1963, Williams was victimized by one of the greatest catches in Fenway Park history. His long drive to the opposite field was snagged by Cleveland right fielder Al Luplow, who made a leaping catch at the wall and tumbled into the bullpen with the ball in his grasp.^[2]

Managerial career

An "Impossible Dream" in Boston

On October 14, 1964, after a season during which Williams hit a career-low .159, the Red Sox gave him his unconditional release. At 35, Williams was at a career crossroads: Richards gave him a spring training invitation but no guarantee that he would make the 1965 Astros' playing roster; the Red Sox offered Williams a job as playing coach with their Triple-A farm team, the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League. Looking to begin a post-playing career in baseball, Williams accepted the Seattle assignment. Within days, a shuffle in 1965 affiliations forced Boston to move its top minor league team to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League. This caused Boston's Triple-A manager, Edo Vanni, a Seattle native, to resign in order to remain in the Pacific Northwest. With an unexpected opening for the new Toronto job, Williams was promoted to manager of the 1965 Leafs. As a novice pilot, Williams adopted a hard-nosed, disciplinarian style and won two consecutive Governors' Cup championships with teams laden with young Red Sox prospects. He then signed a one-year contract to manage the 1967 Red Sox.
Boston had suffered through eight straight seasons of losing baseball, and attendance had fallen to such an extent that owner Tom Yawkey was threatening to move the team. The Red Sox had talented young players, but the team was known as a lazy "country club." Williams decided to risk everything and impose discipline on his players. He vowed that "we will win more ballgames than we lose" — a bold statement for a club that had finished only a half-game from last place in 1966. In spring training he drilled players in fundamentals for hours.
The Red Sox began 1967 playing better baseball and employing the aggressive style of play that Williams had learned with the Dodgers. Williams benched players for lack of effort and poor performance, and battled tooth and nail with umpires. Through the All-Star break, Boston fulfilled Williams' promise and played better than .500 ball, hanging close to the American League's four contending teams — the Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox and California Angels. Outfielder Carl Yastrzemski, in his seventh season with the Red Sox, transformed his hitting style to become a pull-hitter, eventually winning the 1967 AL Triple Crown, leading the league in batting average, home runs (tying Harmon Killebrew of the Twins), and RBI.
In late July, the Red Sox rattled off a ten-game winning streak on the road and came home to a riotous welcome from 10,000 fans at Boston's Logan Airport. The Red Sox inserted themselves into a five-team pennant race, and stayed in the hunt despite the loss of star outfielder Tony Conigliaro to a beanball on August 18. On the closing weekend of the season, led by Yastrzemski and 22-game-winning pitcher Jim Lonborg, Boston defeated the Twins in two head-to-head games, while Detroit split its series with the Angels. The "Impossible Dream" Red Sox had won their first AL pennant since 1946. The Red Sox extended the highly talented and heavily favored St. Louis Cardinals to seven games in the 1967 World Series, losing to the great Bob Gibson three times.
Despite the Series loss, the Red Sox were the toasts of New England; Williams was named Major League Manager of the Year by The Sporting News and signed to a new three-year contract. But he would not serve it out. In 1968, the team fell to fourth place when Conigliaro could not return from his head injury, and Williams' two top pitchers — Lonborg and José Santiago — were injured. He began to clash with Yastrzemski, and with owner Yawkey. In September 1969, with his club a distant third in the AL East, Williams was fired with nine games left in the season.

Two titles in a row in Oakland

After spending 1970 as the third base coach of the Montreal Expos, Williams returned to the managerial ranks the next year as boss of the Oakland Athletics, owned by Charlie Finley. The iconoclastic Finley had signed some of the finest talent in baseball – including Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Bert Campaneris, Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi – but his players hated him for his penny-pinching and constant meddling in the team's affairs. During his first decade as the Athletics' owner, 1961-1970, Finley had changed managers a total of ten times.
Inheriting a second-place team from predecessor John McNamara, Williams promptly directed the A's to 101 victories and their first AL West title in 1971 behind another brilliant young player, pitcher Vida Blue. Despite being humbled in the ALCS by the defending World Champion Orioles, Finley brought Williams back for 1972, when the "Oakland Dynasty" began. Off the field, the A's players brawled with each other and defied baseball's tonsorial code. Because long hair, mustaches and beards were now the rage in the "civilian" world, Finley decided on a mid-season promotion encouraging his men to wear their hair long and grow facial hair. Fingers adopted his trademark handlebar mustache (which he still has to this day); Williams himself grew a mustache.
Of course, talent, not hairstyle, truly defined the Oakland Dynasty of the early 1970s. The 1972 A's won their division by 5½ games over the White Sox and led the league in home runs, shutouts and saves. They defeated the Tigers in a bitterly fought ALCS, and found themselves facing the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. With the A's leading power hitter, Jackson, out with an injury, Cincinnati's Big Red Machine was favored to win, but the home run heroics of Oakland catcher Gene Tenace and the managerial maneuvering of Williams resulted in a seven-game World Series victory for the A's, their first championship since 1930, when they played in Philadelphia.
In 1973, with Williams back for an unprecedented (for the Finley era) third straight campaign, the A's again coasted to a division title, then defeated Baltimore in the ALCS and the NL champion New York Mets in the World Series – each hard-fought series going the limit. With their World Series win, Oakland became baseball's first repeat champion since the 1961-62 New York Yankees. But Williams had a surprise for Finley. Tired of his owner's meddling, and upset by Finley's public humiliation of second baseman Mike Andrews for his fielding miscues during the World Series, Williams resigned. George Steinbrenner, then finishing his first season as owner of the Yankees, immediately signed Williams as his manager. However, Finley protested that Williams owed Oakland the final year of his contract and could not manage anywhere else, and so Steinbrenner hired Bill Virdon instead. Williams was the first manager in A's franchise history to leave the team with a winning record after running it for two full seasons.

From Southern California to Montreal and back

California Angels

Seemingly at the peak of his career, Williams began the 1974 season out of work. But when the Angels struggled under manager Bobby Winkles, team owner Gene Autry received Finley's permission to negotiate with Williams, and in mid-season Williams was back in a big-league dugout. The change in management, though, did not alter the fortunes of the Angels, as they finished in last place, 22 games behind the A's, who would win their third straight World Championship under Williams' replacement, Alvin Dark.
Overall, Williams' Anaheim tenure turned out to be a miserable one. The Angels did not respond to Williams' somewhat authoritarian managing style and finished last in the AL West again in 1975. They were 18 games below .500 (and in the midst of a player revolt) when Williams was fired in July 1976. While managing the Angels, he once held a practice in the lobby of his team's hotel using only wiffle balls and bats; the point was to demonstrate that his hitters were so weak, they could not break anything in the lobby.

Montreal Expos

When Williams switched to the National League, however, he regained his winning touch. In 1977, he returned to Montreal as manager of the Expos, who had just come off 107 losses and a last-place finish in the NL East. After cajoling them into improved, but below .500, performances in his first two seasons in Montreal, Williams turned the 1979-80 Expos into pennant contenders. The team won over 90 games both years, but finished second each time to the eventual World Champion (the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979 and the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980). The Expos, with a fruitful farm system and young All-Stars such as outfielder Andre Dawson and catcher Gary Carter, seemed a lock to contend for a long time to come.
But Williams' hard edge alienated his players and ultimately wore out his welcome. He labeled pitcher Steve Rogers a fraud with "king of the mountain syndrome" – meaning that Rogers had been a good pitcher on a bad team for so long that he was unable to "step up" when the team became good. Williams also lost confidence in closer Jeff Reardon, whom the Montreal front office had acquired in a much publicized trade with the Mets. When the 1981 Expos performed below expectations, Williams was fired during the pennant drive. With the arrival of his easy-going successor Jim Fanning, who restored Reardon to the closer's role, the inspired Expos made the playoffs for the only time in their 36-year history in Montreal. However, they fell in heartbreaking fashion to Rick Monday and the eventual World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers in a five-game NLCS.

San Diego Padres

In 1982, Williams took over another chronic loser, the San Diego Padres. By 1984, he had guided the Padres to their first NL West Division championship. In the NLCS, the NL East champion Chicago Cubs – making their first postseason appearance since 1945 – won Games 1 and 2, but Williams' Padres took the next three games in a miraculous comeback to win the pennant. In the World Series, however, San Diego was no match for Sparky Anderson's Detroit Tigers, a team that had won 104 games during the regular season (having gone a record 35-5 by late May) and swept the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS. Although the Tigers won the Series in five games, both Williams and Anderson joined Dark, Joe McCarthy, and Yogi Berra as managers who had won pennants in both major leagues (Tony La Russa joined this group in 2004 and Jim Leyland followed suit in 2006).
The Padres fell to third in 1985, and Williams was let go as manager just before 1986 spring training. His record with the Padres was 337–311 over four seasons. As of 2011, he was the only manager in the team's history without a losing season.^[3] His difficulties with the Padres stemmed from a power struggle with team president Ballard Smith and general manager Jack McKeon.^[3] Williams was a hire of team owner (and McDonald's restaurant magnate) Ray Kroc, whose health was failing. McKeon and Smith (who also happened to be Kroc's son-in-law) were posturing to buy the team and viewed Williams as a threat to their plans. With his San Diego tenure at an end, it appeared that Williams' managerial career was finished.

Final seasons in uniform

In 1986, the Seattle Mariners, another perennial loser, called on Williams to be manager. When the Mariners lost 19 of their first 28 games under Chuck Cottier, Williams came back to the American League West for the first time in almost a decade. The Mariners showed some life that season and almost reached .500 the following season. However, Williams' autocratic managing style no longer played with the new generation of ballplayers. Williams was fired from his last managing job with Seattle 23-33 and in sixth place in June 1988. Williams' career won-loss totals were 1,571 wins and 1,451 losses over 21 seasons.
In 1989, Williams was named manager of the West Palm Beach Tropics of the Senior Professional Baseball Association, a league featuring mostly former major league players 35 years of age and older. The Tropics went 52-20 in the regular season and ran away with the Southern Division title. Despite their regular season dominance, the Tropics lost 12-4 to the St. Petersburg Pelicans in the league's championship game. The Tropics folded at the end of the season, and the rest of the league folded a year later.
He remained in the game, however, as a special consultant to George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees. In 1990, Williams published his autobiography, No More Mister Nice Guy. His acrimonious departure in 1969 distanced Williams from the Red Sox for the remainder of the Yawkey ownership period (through 2001), but after the change in ownership and management that followed, he was selected to the team's Hall of Fame in 2006.
Williams's number was recently retired by the Fort Worth Cats. The Cats were a popular minor league team in Fort Worth and Williams played there while he was working his way through the Dodgers system. The Cats merged/disbanded around 1960 but in recent years returned as an independent minor league team. The "New" Cats retired Williams' number.

Managerial statistics

Team	Year	Regular Season				Post Season
		Won	Lost	Win %	Finish	Won	Lost	Win %	Result
BOS	1967	92	70	.568	1st in American League	3	4	.429	Lost to St. Louis Cardinals
BOS	1968	86	76	.531	4th in American League	-	-	-	-
BOS	1969	82	71	.536	3rd in AL East	-	-	-	-
OAK	1971	101	60	.627	1st in AL West	0	3	.000	Lost to Baltimore Orioles
OAK	1972	93	62	.600	1st in AL West	7	5	.583	Won World Series
OAK	1973	94	68	.580	1st in AL West	7	5	.583	Won World Series
CAL	1974	36	48	.429	6th in AL West	-	-	-	-
CAL	1975	72	89	.447	6th in AL West	-	-	-	-
CAL	1976	39	57	.406	4th in AL West	-	-	-	-
MON	1977	75	87	.463	5th in NL East	-	-	-	-
MON	1978	76	86	.469	4th in NL East	-	-	-	-
MON	1979	95	65	.594	2nd in NL East	-	-	-	-
MON	1980	90	72	.556	2nd in NL East	-	-	-	-
MON	1981	44	37	.543	2nd in NL East	-	-	-	-
SDP	1982	81	81	.500	4th in NL West	-	-	-	-
SDP	1983	81	81	.500	4th in NL West	-	-	-	-
SDP	1984	92	70	.568	1st in NL West	4	6	.400	Lost to Detroit Tigers
SDP	1985	83	79	.512	3rd in NL West	-	-	-	-
SEA	1986	58	75	.436	7th in AL West	-	-	-	-
SEA	1987	78	84	.481	4th in AL West	-	-	-	-
SEA	1988	23	33	.411	7th in AL West	-	-	-	-
Total		1571	1451	.520		21	23	.477	Won 2 World Series

Induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame

Dick Williams was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in December 2007, and was inducted on July 27, 2008.^[4]

Personal life

His son, Rick Williams a former minor league pitcher and Major League pitching coach is currently a professional scout for the Yankees. Before Dick Williams became a Major League manager in 1967, he successfully appeared on the television quiz shows The Match Game and the original Hollywood Squares. According to Peter Marshall's Backstage with the Original Hollywood Squares, Williams won $50,000 as a contestant on the latter show. Marshall's son, Pete LaCock, played nine seasons (1972–1980) in the Major Leagues — but never for Williams.

Arrest

In January 2000, Williams pleaded no contest to indecent exposure charges in Florida.^[5][6] This occurred just weeks before the Baseball Hall of Fame Veterans Committee's vote in that year's inductees.
"What happened to me down in Fort Myers when I was arrested evidently hurt me quite a bit," Williams told the New York Times in a telephone interview. "What came out on that in the papers was not true. I was not masturbating on the balcony. I'm going to issue a statement about it so the explanation goes across the country."^[7]

Death

Dick Williams died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm at a hospital near his home in Henderson, Nevada on July 7, 2011.^[8][9]

 

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Steve Cardiff, Canadian politician, died from a automobile accident he was , 53.

Steve Cardiff was a Canadian politician. He represented the electoral district of Mount Lorne in the Yukon Legislative Assembly died from a automobile accident he was , 53..

Political career

He was first elected to the Yukon legislature in the 2002 general election and re-elected in 2006.^[1] He won convincingly both times.
He was the NDP caucus critic for the Department of Community Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Highways and Public Works, the Department of Justice, the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board, the Yukon Housing Corporation and the Yukon Liquor Corporation. Cardiff shared critic responsibilities for the Department of Economic Development with party leader Todd Hardy, and was the Third Party House Leader.
Prior to becoming Mount Lorne’s MLA Cardiff worked as a certified sheet metal journeyman on industrial, commercial and residential projects in every Yukon community.
For 16 of his 20 years in the sheet metal trade, he volunteered as the local president of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters. He volunteered on the executive of the Yukon Federation of Labour for two years at the same time. He also served on Yukon College’s board of governors, which he did for nine years, acting as chair for his final three. He is an active volunteer with the Mount Lorne Community Association.
In February 2009, Cardiff declared his candidacy for the leadership of the New Democrats, following Hardy's resignation as party leader.^[2] However, he withdrew from the race later in the year for unspecified personal reasons.^[3]
Cardiff was killed in a two-vehicle road accident, one kilometre north of Lewes Lake on the South Klondike Highway, involving a tractor trailer and a small vehicle.^[4]

 

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