Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
US Execution Breached International Law: World Court
THE HAGUE - The execution of a Mexican national in Texas last year breached U.S. obligations under international law, the World Court held on Monday.
The court said its 2004 judgment, in which it ordered the United States to review the death sentences of a number of Mexican nationals, remained binding.
"The United States continues to be under an obligation to fully implement it," said the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court.
The proceedings go back to 2003, when Mexico brought a case against the United States, arguing that 51 of its citizens sentenced to die in U.S. jails had not been informed of their right to consular assistance.
This right typically means diplomats can visit and give legal advice to their nationals in detention.
Texas executed one of the Mexicans covered by the original ICJ judgment, 33-year-old Jose Medellin, by lethal injection on August 5. He had been convicted of the 1993 rape and murder of 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena in Houston.
U.S. President George W. Bush had ordered Texas to review Medellin's case but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Bush had no authority to do so.
"There are still 42 Mexican nationals who ... still need to get review and reconsideration. We now have the ICJ ruling for us to keep on insisting on the U.S. international obligations," said Joel Antonio Hernandez Garcia, legal adviser of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico.
Several other Mexicans have had their cases reviewed.
"This is an opportunity for the Obama administration to show the world that it will respect the rule of law, even when it's politically unpopular at home," David Fathi of Human Rights Watch said.
The United States accepts that the original 2004 ruling places on it a binding legal obligation, said John Bellinger, legal adviser at the U.S. Department of State, adding it was disappointing the court had held that Medellin's execution violated international law.
"Mr. Medellin has had numerous reviews of his case ... It is worth noting that his absence of consular notification was in fact specifically reviewed by a number of state and federal courts," Bellinger said.
Under the Vienna Convention, foreign nationals have a right to talk to consular officers after their arrests.
When Medellin's execution became imminent, Mexico again sought relief from the Hague-based court and won a ruling on provisional measures last year.
But the ICJ has dismissed most of its new legal arguments intended to force the U.S. federal government to act on the issue.
Bellinger said he did not believe that the case and the U.S. withdrawal from an optional protocol to the Vienna Convention would put U.S. citizens abroad at greater risk.
"We remain absolutely committed to providing consular notification inside the United States and we expect that our nationals around the world will be provided consular notification," he said.
(Editing by Andrew Roche)
- Posted in
24 Comments so far
Show AllI am pushing Obama to recognize the World Court.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/thefuture
I need help.
When I saw the headline, I said, "Which one?". The death penalty needs to be abolished.
DAMN RIGHT!
Cambodian court sets date for first Khmer Rouge trial
Of course Pol Pot and company killed nearly two million people in Cambodia
- the same number as Bush/Cheney have killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Humbaba wrote:
Pol Pot...killed nearly two million people...the same number as Bush/Cheney have killed....
COMMENT:
Worthy observation.
Pol Pot seems to have been driven primarily by ideology, GWB/Cheney primarily by raw naked greed. It matters not a wit to the dead, but between ideology and greed, I'm inclined to find greed the more loathsome.
"U.S. withdrawal from an optional protocol to the Vienna Convention "
What in the hell??? Well, then again, under Bush and Co. our country hasn't followed international treaties and agreements anyway. But, ugh, this makes me want to puke into a shoe...which will then be chucked at Bush.
The US has NEVER recognized the authority of the World Court. Did you know that the US was convicted of terrorism by the International Court? Look up Nicaragua v United States.
The United States doesn't recognize the authority of anyone but themselves and Bush/Cheney went one further: they didn't even recognize the authority of the U.S. Constitution.
The history of the US Government shows that it has never given much respect to treaties.
The USA treaties signed with the native peoples of this land have continuously and contemptuously been broken. The ruling elite look at the laws as a means to an end, i.e. power and profit.
But doesn't might make right?
Medellin was a scumbag, and deserved execution. Mexico's case would be stronger if leading figures from both the PRI and PAN (the two biggest parties) would stop calling for a death penalty for kidnappers.
So that makes the individuals that run the Texas justice system "better" scumbags?
Pan
What do they know! or SO! ,"Texas is a independent state" and they do pre eptive thingees
just as the humanitizerer GW has pointed out.
The Countrys and states that execute the most are??? and they are the places you would most want to live? China Iran more.
Don`t go soft get em string em up ? why have trials messy they are and so what if your Attorney was asleep not my fault I`ve got a career to build.
Check out Canadian stats on % of guilty verdicts are ?( not!) and must be higher in the U.S.
Justice and Liberty for Some?
I for one wouldn't mind seeing Texas leave the Union.
The Texans wanted to be admitted to the US, and the future Confederate states wanted its admission, as a slave state; and when it was admitted, they reintroduced slavery, which had been abolished under Mexican rule.
DEAD Jennifer Ertman, WHY did I not see her name in this article? Is she Forgotten? Oh yeah, she was 14 years old and Medellin and co.gang raped and Murdered her TOO. The Rape-"Always two guys on her for an hour,"-Before Mr. Medellin strangled her to death with shoelaces. He'd of used the belt he strangled Elizabeth Pena to Death with but it broke during the homicide.
Mr. Medellin expressed his remorse, "F*%^#+G B*^&H wouldn't die, it would have been easier with a gun."
What's a Double Homicide? They were just kids anyway. So what if those two babies were Gang-Raped (Tortured) then strangled to Death.
But Let's accord Mr. Medellin EVERY Legal Protection in the world! AND GIVE HIM LIFE! Where he can continue to be in a gang, get fed, watch t.v., laugh, have friends and get medical attention if his tummy starts to hurt or he gets a toothache.
Hey Common Dreamers, I've read countless impassioned Posts literally calling for Cheney's Head. Are Baby Rapers, Killers Better?
In Mexico anyone know what they do to people like this? HaHa. Rights? The cops torture them then execute them if a lynch-mob don't. Yeah. And they don't get a lot of this either.
Right an eye for an eye, good old Old Testament. Maybe we can stone them first. Except as always a lot of Americans only consider justice for themselves. I'm sure that there are plenty of Iraqis, Palestinians, Vietnamese, Afghans, etc.,etc., whose children were blown to bits who believe that the Americans responsible (right up to the President) should be put to death. Tell me which is worse being raped and killed or being blown to bits by a cluster bomb, or an artillary shell or dieing a slow death by Agent Orange? I don't know. I do know rotting in Club Fed for the rest of your life isn't the party you make it out to be.
I don't know this case and I'm sure there is absolutely no doubt of his guilt but please remember the U.S. has put many innocent people to death and they are usually poor and from a minority group.
The way you relish the death of others seems to be almost as sick as the Mexican person put to death.
pw. You say you don't know the case? Well your feelings are pretty strong for not knowing what you are discussing in the specific. I spent about 25 minutes researching the double rape, torture and murder of the little girls.
Your analogy to our government's killing is RIGHT ON. I think we should string up, to name a few, the exec's of Raytheon which makes cluster-bombs, and Tsipi Livni and Rumsefeld and Cheney and Bush and the upper management of General Dynamics who makes the phosphorous bombs too. And I joke not. Judge me freely.
If you think you'll shame me for wanting to see the merchants of Death six feet under you are Dead wrong. Thank You! For bringing them up.
Respectfully pw, azjoe.
Just because people don't embrace the death penalty for this sad individual doesn't mean that somehow they condone his atrocious acts. To get mercy, you must give mercy. Mercy doesn't mean condoning atrocious acts.
Imagine it was your daughter (at any age). Would you really have no problem going to bed each night knowing that monster is breathing and being treated humainly each and everyday, living with the preverted thoughts of what he did to your daughter. When you successfully abolish the death penalty I hope nothing happens to anyones daughters or sons.
Shame on the USA and Israel
Israel and the USA are outside the Law.
So they could care less !!!!
Speaking of Arrogance and disregard for human life check out Tsipi Livni's latest comments about her terrorism:
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=82972§ionid=351020202
When Israel is harmed "the world knows what we do, and they accept it"
The slaughter is "normal for wars".
Sounds to me like she is making a subtle threat with the "the world knows what we do"...stuff.
The United States Constitution mandates that all entities and persons of the USA, to include the US Gov't, the State and Local Gov'ts, and all citizens, residents, et al MUST obey all Treaties signed and ratified by the USA unless such Treaty violate the US Constitution itself.
We are required per International Treaties to contact the foreign nation consulate when ever any foreign national is arrested in the USA and to allow that consulate to speak with the accused as often as they desire and allow them to provide legal service to the accused. Texas, as it often does, has ignored it's requirements under the US Constitution and these Treaties and thus, this Mexican citizen was illegally executed. Additionally, the USA often demands that other nations obey the rulings of the World Court, says that the rulings of this court are binding on all nations, but yet we often ignore it when they rule against us - - utter hipocracy on our part.
Bush, as then President of the USA, had a mandate by law to ensure that the US Govt and all States obey Treaties we have signed and ratified. He failed in doing his duty. He, after Texas refused to back down, should have ordered the US Justice Dept to send US Marshalls to take poccession of the Mexican national from the Texas prison and hold him in a Federal prison to allow the Mexican consulate to see the prisoner. Federal law trumps state law and obeying a Treaty is part of the ultimate federal law, the US Constitution.