S.A. teen's killer dies with an apology The murder case of Mexican national Leal had drawn attention internationally.

Name: Humberto Leal Jr. Executed: July 7, 2011 Age: 38 Incident age: 21 Incident date: May 21, 1994 County: Bexar TDCJ arrival: Sept. 1, 1995 Offense: Leal was convicted in the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl who had been at a party he also attended. less Name: Humberto Leal Jr. Executed: July 7, 2011 Age: 38 Incident age: 21 Incident date: May 21, 1994 County: Bexar TDCJ arrival: Sept. 1, 1995 Offense: Leal was convicted in the rape and murder of a 16-year-old ... more Photo: TDCJ Photo: TDCJ Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close S.A. teen's killer dies with an apology 1 / 29 Back to Gallery

HUNTSVILLE — Strapped to the gurney in the death chamber here Thursday evening, Humberto Leal Jr. used his last words to apologize to both his family and the family of his victim, a San Antonio teen.

“I have hurt a lot of people,” he said. “Let this be final and be done. I take the full blame for this. I am sorry and forgive me, I am truly sorry.”

Witnessing his execution was his attorney Sandra Babcock, his sister and three friends.

The family of his 16-year-old victim, Adria Sauceda, wasn't present. Robert McClure, the man who prosecuted Leal in 1995, attended with another Sauceda family friend.

Leal, 38, turned his head and spotted McClure. He nodded in his direction and said, “Mr. McClure.”

The prosecutor responded, “You remember me.”

Leal then began his last statement at 6:10 p.m. and the lethal dose of drugs was administered a minute later.

“I am sorry for the victim's family and what I had did,” he continued. “May they forgive me. I don't know if you believe me.”

Leal ended by saying, “One more thing, Viva Mexico. Viva Mexico.

“Ready warden. Let's get this show on the road.”

He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.

The execution came 17 years after the gruesome sexual assault and bludgeoning death of Adria, who last was seen alive with Leal after a neighborhood party in the early hours May 21, 1994.

The teen's nude body was found on a dirt road that ended in a wooded, secluded area not far from the South Side party. A 35- to 40-pound rock was used to bludgeon her in the face and head. A stick was left protruding from her body.

The execution followed a lengthy legal battle over consular rights that at the end of June included a petition for a stay of execution from the Obama administration to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It came an hour after the high court voted 5-4 to deny all petitions to delay it, saying it was the court's job to decide on law already in place, not what the law may be in the future.

Both the administration and Babcock, Leal's Chicago-based attorney, in separate petitions, cited a bill pending before Congress, the Consular Notification Compliance Act, which would allow federal courts to review cases of foreign nationals on death row.

The International Court of Justice, in a 2004 ruling, had suggested the reviews as a remedy to its finding that the United States had violated the Vienna Convention by not letting 51 Mexican nationals, including Leal, know they could request help from their consulate when they were arrested.

Because Americans abroad have that right, efforts to stop his execution have garnered bipartisan support, his attorneys have argued.

Lawyers for the Texas attorney general's office contend the application to the Supreme Court was meritless and only the latest in a barrage of appeals — all unsuccessful — by Leal since he was sentenced by a jury in Bexar County in 1995.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied a similar request Tuesday to stay Leal's execution.

The Sauceda family has declined to comment on Leal, the crime or the execution.

Leal's earlier appeals in Texas had raised the consulate issue and argued that his attorneys failed to properly prepare for trial, including not talking to potential witnesses and not calling experts to rebut forensic evidence against him.

Testimony at appeal hearings described the forensic evidence as sloppily handled and less conclusive than prosecutors claimed.

In the June filings, Babcock added a new claim, that Leal was raped as a child by a local priest and that it could have been used as mitigating evidence during sentencing.

The state repeatedly argued that the evidence, especially Leal's own statements and those of his brother, overwhelmingly showed guilt.

Leal could have told any of his previous attorneys about the abuse claim regardless of consular access, and Congress twice failed to pass legislation similar to the currently filed consular notification bill, the attorney general's office argued Tuesday

Texas executed José Medellín in 2008 after a similar legal battle in which then-President George W. Bush ordered hearings to determine if access to foreign consulates could have changed the outcome of trials of the 51 condemned men listed in the ICJ ruling. Fifteen on the list were in Texas.

The Supreme Court allowed Medellin's execution, ruling only Congress, not the president, could order such hearings.

Since 2004, both Oswaldo Regalado Soriano and Daniel Angel Plata have had their sentences commuted to life, but neither of those decisions involved the consular issue, according to a public records search. The rest remain on death row, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website.

Two inmates have been moved off death row, one each in Oklahoma and Arkansas, as a result of the ICJ ruling, according to public documents.