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News and Developments 2005: Foreign Nationals

SUPREME COURT Agrees to Hear Cases with Death Penalty Implications

Posted: November 08, 2005
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On November 7, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear cases in two areas that could have broad implications for many defendants facing the death penalty.  In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, No. 05-184, the Court will rule on the constitutionality of the military tribunals established by President Bush following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.  A U.S. District Court had halted the military trial of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who had been captured in Afghanistan, because the trial violated domestic law and U.S. international treaty obligations.  This decision was overturned by the U.S.

NEW RESOURCE: Foreign Nationals on U.S. Death Rows

Posted: September 21, 2005
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The latest edition of the Consular Rights in America newsletter is now available.  The newsletter discusses legal and political developments concerning citizens of other countries who are in prison or on death row in the U.S.  Issue 29 contains excerpts from the Texas Lawyer of recent arguments before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in the case of Jose Medellin, a Mexican citizen on death row in Texas.  This case has already been the subject of arguments before the U.S.

Foreign Nationals, Part IV

Posted: June 07, 2005
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   As of February 15, 2005

Information provided by Mark Warren of Human Rights Research*

Supreme Court Gives President's Order First Chance to Resolve International Death Penalty Dispute

Posted: May 23, 2005
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Supreme Court The Supreme Court today dismissed as “improvidently granted” the case of Jose Medellin, a Mexican national on death row in Texas primarily because President Bush has interevened and ordered state courts to abide by a ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In an unsigned decision, the Justices decided not to review this case as a matter of federal habeas corpus law.

Death Row Inmate's Mental Health Crumbles Even As Relief May Be Near

Posted: May 03, 2005
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During 25 years on Texas' death row, Cesar Fierro's mental health has deteriorated to the extent that his attorney hardly recognizes him. Since being sentenced to death in 1980, his mother has died, his brother has died, his wife divorced him and his daughter stopped visiting him. Gradually, he refused to even speak with his lawyers.

Oklahoma Judge Finds Foreign National Was Denied Right to Contact Consulate

Posted: March 23, 2005
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An Oklahoma County District Judge has determined that Osbaldo Torres, a Mexican foreign national who was once on Oklahoma's death row, should have been told before his trial that he had a right to contact his home country's consulate. Judge Twyla Mason Gray also found that Torres had ineffective counsel at his trial. Her findings stem from a December hearing held at the request of the State Court of Criminal Appeals.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ABOUT MEDELLIN v. DRETKE

Posted: March 16, 2005
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World Court

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ABOUT MEDELLIN v. DRETKE
[To be argued before the Supreme Court on March 28, 2005]

Who is Medellin?

Jose Ernesto Medellin is an inmate on Texasí death row. At the time of his arrest for murder, he was a Mexican citizen and hence protected under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR).

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT MEDELLIN V. DRETKE

Posted: March 16, 2005
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Continued from DPIC's home page:

Why is Medellin v. Dretke before the Supreme Court?

Most Mexicans on death row in the U.S. were denied their rights under the VCCR, and the government of Mexico brought a suit before the ICJ as provided in the Optional Protocol.  That lawsuit, brought on behalf of Medellin and 53 other Mexican nationals who had been sentenced to death in the United States, is referred to as the Avena case.

U.S. Abandons Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations

Posted: March 10, 2005
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The Bush administration has pulled out of the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, an international agreement that has been in place for more than 30 years and that the United States initially supported to protect its citizens abroad. In recent years, the provision has been successfully invoked by foreign nations whose citizens were sentenced to death by U.S. states without receiving access to diplomats from their home countries, events which served as the basis for President Bush's decision to withdraw from the agreement.

President Bush Orders Courts to Give Foreign Nationals on Death Row Further Review

Posted: March 07, 2005
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The White House has ordered state courts to consider the complaints of 51 Mexican foreign nationals on death row in the United States. This Executive Order is an abrupt international policy shift for the Bush administration and comes just weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to consider  what effect U.S. courts should give to a ruling in favor of the 51 foreign nationals by the United Nations' highest tribunal, the International Court of Justice at the Hague.