Registered: Nov 2003
Location: North Myrtle Beach SC
Posts: 3374

quote:

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Court Tells U.S. to Review Mexican Death Row Cases


THE HAGUE, Netherlands The World Court on Wednesday ordered the United States to review the cases of 51 Mexicans on death row because it had failed to inform them of their right to talk to consular officials shortly after their arrests.


The Mexicans, on death row in more than half a dozen states including California, Texas and Oklahoma, should have their convictions and sentences reviewed by U.S. courts because their rights had been breached, the U.N.'s top court ruled.


Mexico brought a case at the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, last year in which it said its neighbor breached the rights of the Mexican prisoners under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.


The U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, Clifford Sobel, said the United States would review the court's decision.


Speaking to reporters in northern Mexico, President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) called the ruling "a triumph for international law and for human rights."


"We will continue to fight for legal rights, and for human rights, so that the death penalty is not applied to our compatriots," he added.


The condemned Mexicans should be able to seek retrials or sentence reviews as a result of the ruling, Mexico's legal representatives said in The Hague , where the court is based.


Speaking at a news conference in Mexico City, Foreign Ministry legal adviser Arturo Dager said the government had "every confidence that the United States will do everything possible to comply with this ruling."


Dager added Mexico would seek a stay of execution for Mexicans on death row in the United States, three of whom have exhausted the appeals process.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35669

This isn't binding on the US, is it? I don't see why it bothers you so much that a body of legal experts expresses an opinion. Might they be right, even? And the US itself has been content to use trials that don't really have any jurisdiction other than that of possession of the alleged 'criminals'; Nuremberg is the obvious example, but I believe that the US is supporting the trial of Slobodan Milosevic at, er, The Hague.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9455

Airstrikes? At least warmongering adminstrations in the future will have at least one supporter for just about any cause they can come up with.

How would you feel if 51 Americans were set to be executed in Mexico but hadn't been advised that they could contact the USA before trial? If that would bother you, why do have a double standard? If that doesn't bother you, I guess I'd have to ask why.

I'm ashamed of my government when it doesn't act with integrity and honor. It's a personal definition of patriotism that I have.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24796

Hmm...I always thought Hague was Dutch for 'Hell'. Who knew?

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

Have to agree with smug really. Why on earth does a non-legally binding legal opinion in a court that is for the most part supported by the USA in it's work such an annoyance?

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