Mexico to Ask Court to Stop U.S. Executing Mexicans

Reuters ^ | Monday, January 20, 2003 | Abigail Levene

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Mexico will Tuesday urge the World Court to order stays of execution and retrials for more than 50 Mexicans on death row in the United States.

The move reflects the deep disquiet among some of Washington's closest allies over capital punishment, which has led to protests from leading European states and Pope John Paul.

Mexico, which does not have the death penalty, says the United States violated the Mexicans' rights by failing to tell them they were entitled to consular assistance after arrest.

The 54 were condemned in 10 states including Illinois, where State Governor George Ryan this month took the unprecedented and widely lauded step of commuting the sentences of everyone on the state's death row, declaring the execution system "broken."

Three Mexicans were spared death by the Illinois decision, which came just days after Mexico brought its case to the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague.

A court spokeswoman said Mexico was free to amend details of its application in the light of the Illinois move.

Mexico has clashed repeatedly with the United States over the death penalty in connection with its nationals sentenced to death there.

Mexico's case in The Hague is that the United States violated international legal obligations in its treatment of the Mexicans who should therefore be retried.

The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations obliges local authorities to inform an arrested person without delay of his right to speak to consular officials of his country. Mexico says U.S. authorities breached this convention for the Mexicans.

"Mexico wants to request the U.S. to stay the executions, so that none of these 54 Mexicans is executed before the court comes to a final decision on whether the U.S. violated the Convention," said court spokeswoman Laurence Blairon.

LEGAL URGENCY

The United States and Japan are the only rich, industrial nations to execute convicted criminals: the last person executed in the European Union was guillotined in France in 1977. Pope John Paul has called for a worldwide ban on the death penalty, saying there were practically no cases where it was necessary.

The World Court usually takes years to reach final judgments, which are binding and cannot be appealed. Highlighting the case's urgency, Mexico has said a date may be set as soon as February 14 for one of the executions.

A similar case came before the court in 2001 when the United States was found to have breached the Convention in the case of two German-born brothers executed in Arizona in 1999.

Germany only learned of the situation of Karl and Walter LaGrand -- who stabbed to death a bank manager in a botched robbery -- when they were already on death row, 10 years after the crime and their arrests.

Walter was gassed to death in March 1999, the day after the World Court issued an emergency order to postpone the execution. Karl had been put to death before Germany filed the case.

Mexico recently clashed with the United States on the death penalty when Texas executed a Mexican citizen in August for the 1988 murder of an undercover Dallas police officer despite pleas for his life from the Mexican president.

Following that execution, Fox canceled a three-day trip to Texas in what his spokesman said was meant as "an unequivocal sign of our rejection of the execution."

[Redcloak]

Perhaps if their citizens would refrain from committing capital offenses in the US...

[Bikers4Bush]

The article makes it sound as though the U.S. has no options if they try to tell us to stop. On the contrary, we can gas the guilty as much as we want.

[BenLurkin]

Yes, in fact if they would please keep all their law breakers from entering America.

[Joe Boucher]

I kinda want them to speed up the process and execute more of them quicker.

[dagar]

Regular? or "Extra Crispy?"

[PokeyJoe]

Perhaps if they stayed in Mexico then they wouldn't be subject to US laws.

[anobjectivist]

Hmm...well of course the pope thinks that there is not really a reason to execute someone, but people who have lost family members to murder would think otherwise.

When you kill someone unprovoked and not in self defense, you are infringing on their most basic human right, their right to live. When people commit murder, they deserve to die for their crimes, period. They are just a danger to society by keeping them around. Any calling of punishment inhumane or cruel neglects the reality of murder itself. Murder in itself is cruel and unusual, so why should someone get in a moral bundle when considering the punishment of the guilty?

Now this assumes that our court system works, and for the most part, it seems to do its job. If there is reason to believe that someone in illinois is not guilty, then an investigation should be made, not a blanket removal of the death row.

[dirtboy]

I'm generally against the death penalty, except in cases where the criminal in question is clearly a continuing danger to others. But it's up to me and my fellow citizens to debate the application of the death penalty in this country. The government of Mexico and the pansy-a**ed judges at the World Court in the Hague can go suck cheese...

[Henrietta]

Yeah, if they'd just stop sneaking across the border where they are subject to our laws, then we wouldn't be able to execute them. See how easy the problem can be solved?

[sarcasm]

The United States is simply not safe for Mexican nationals - Fox should demand that they all return home immediately.

[ex-Texan]

F'em all .... In fact, the Mossad ought to be sent on a mission to wipe out the Mexican lawyers sent to Amsterdam to argue for putting a stop to US executions. Just joking ... He, he, he < /sarcasm>

[Bubba_Leroy]

Walter was gassed to death in March 1999, the day after the World Court issued an emergency order to postpone the execution.

I'm glad to hear that the U.S. is giving orders by the World Court the due respect that they deserve.

[Texas Mom]

The United States is simply not safe for Mexican nationals - Fox should demand that they all return home immediately.

Don't expect that to happen real soon.

[Blue Screen of Death]

Ok, if both the perp and the victim are Mexican nationals and the victim was wearing a sign that said "Mexican National... Choose Me".

[marron]

Perhaps immigration activists should pass out pamphlets at the border, warning Mexican nationals that the US is not a safe place to commit felony murder. Possibly the Mexican government could take out public service announcements on Mexican TV warning her citizens likewise that the US is not a good place to commit a capital offense.

[Wallace T.]

What is the Spanish translation for: If you won't do the time, don't do the crime?

[Bill Davis FR]

bump the usa's right to arrest, try, convict and execute killers in the usa

[45Auto]

Mexico, which does not have the death penalty, says the United States violated the Mexicans' rights by failing to tell them they were entitled to consular assistance after arrest.

This is joke, right? Mexico doesn't need the death penalty, at least not "on the books", because it is a police state in which there is no distinction between civil police and military operations; it simply takes miscreants out in the desert and eliminates the problem. No courts, no judges, no expense. Simple, no? And what Mexico does on its southern border vis-a-vis "immigrants", is a far cry from what it wants the US to do on ITS southern border. Hypocrisy.

[45Auto]

Mexican nationals who commit crimes in the USA are given a hell of a lot more 'due process' than they would get in Mexico.