Texas executes Honduran man for 2001 murder

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Texas executed a Honduran man on Thursday for a 2001 murder, the second foreigner the state put to death this week.

Heliberto Chi, 29, was condemned for the March 2001 robbery-murder of his former boss at a clothing store in Arlington, Texas.

Chi's lawyers argued in a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court that he should be granted a stay because he had not been notified of his right to consular services.

The court denied the appeal, paving the way for Chi's execution by lethal injection in the state's death chamber in Huntsville.

Lawyers for Mexican national Jose Medellin, convicted for his part in a brutal 1993 gang-rape and murder in Houston, made a similar unsuccessful appeal before his execution on Tuesday.

Medellin's case was taken up by the World Court and the White House but the state of Texas remained unswayed.

The World Court last month ordered the U.S. government to "take all measures necessary" to halt executions of five Mexicans including Medellin because they had been deprived of their right to consular services after their arrests.

In Chi's case, separate from the World Court proceedings, the state argued that upon his arrest, Chi had not immediately identified himself to police as a foreign national.

In a last statement, Chi said: "Jesus receive my spirit."

Texas leads U.S. states in executions, reflecting its conservative political culture and high violent crime rate.

Chi was the sixth inmate executed there this year and the 411th since 1982, when the state resumed executions six years after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment.

(Writing and reporting by Chris Baltimore and Ed Stoddard, additional reporting by James Vicini in Washington. editing by Alan Elsner)