The rapes and murders of Jennifer Lee Ertman and Elizabeth Christine Peña, two teenage girls from Houston, Texas, aged 14 and 16, respectively, occurred on June 24, 1993.

The case was also notable in that the state of Texas rejected attempts by the International Court of Justice to halt several perpetrators' executions.

[1] Although the girls were just over one year in age difference, both sets of parents approved of their friendship, with Peña's father viewing Ertman—a modest girl who had only recently begun experimenting with makeup—as a "positive influence" on his daughter, later recollecting that, shortly after the two became friends at Waltrip High School, Peña "just straightened up her act" following a brief streak of teenage rebellion in his daughter before her 1992 enrollment at the school.

As both girls exited the car, Peña assured her mother she and her friend would be home by their agreed 11:30 p.m.

[3] When the pair realized they were going to be late returning home, they decided to leave the party to conform to the curfew both had promised their parents.

Villarreal then sat alongside the other gang members, relaxing, talking, trading insults and compliments, and drinking beer.

Both girls were raped and beaten by all of the gang members with the exception of Medellín's 14-year-old brother, Venancio, on a minimum of four occasions.

[n 2] According to trial testimony, both Peña and Ertman repeatedly glanced in the direction of one another several times throughout their ordeal in likely gestures of concern and despair.

According to later testimony, on one occasion, Peña glanced in the direction of her younger friend as she was raped by Efrain Pérez and began weeping as she observed Ertman.

[7][1] As Ertman was murdered, Peña was forced to watch her friend's death as other gang members held a ligature around her neck.

At first, Peña desperately attempted to appease her abusers as she wept, offering her phone number so they could "get together".

In response, Cantu tackled and repeatedly kicked the girl in her face and body, dislodging three teeth and fracturing several ribs.

[5] Leaving the crime scene, Cantu handed Venancio Medellín a Goofy wristwatch taken from Ertman's body, saying, "Take this, I don't want it.

[20] Four days after the murders, the girls' bodies were found in the park during hot weather conditions.

[22][23][24] At sentencing, the offenders were remanded to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) system.

Peter Anthony Cantu, José Ernesto Medellín, Derrick Sean O'Brien, Efrain Pérez, and Raul Omar Villarreal received death sentences.

He received a 40-year prison sentence, the maximum for a juvenile, for the sexual assault of Jennifer Ertman.

Following Roper v. Simmons, when the Supreme Court of the United States banned the executions of people who committed crimes while they were below 18 years of age, the death sentences of Pérez and Villarreal were automatically commuted to life in prison.

In response to accusations from anti-death penalty advocates that capital punishment is a cruel and unusual form of punishment, Peña's father later remarked O'Brien's death had occurred peacefully, "in twenty seconds", adding: "I wish to God that my daughter could have died that easily.

[36] Governor Perry rejected calls from Mexico and Washington, DC, to delay the execution, citing the torture, rape, and strangulation of two teenaged girls in Houston 15 years before as just cause for the death penalty.

[37] During his lifetime, Randy Ertman advocated strongly against granting parole to Venancio Medellín.

[44] Ertman had wanted to have Andy Kahan, the City of Houston's crime advocate, to witness the executions of O'Brien and Medellín.