A new video pre­pared with inter­na­tion­al sup­port dis­cuss­es the impor­tance of for­eign embassies lend­ing sup­port when cit­i­zens of their coun­tries face the death penal­ty in the United States. According to Ambassador Joao Vale de Almedia, Head of the European Union Delegation to the U.S., ​“Foreign nation­als are par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble in death penal­ty cas­es. They’re most like­ly not to know the lan­guage per­fect­ly, and cer­tain­ly not know the way jus­tice is admin­is­tered in that par­tic­u­lar coun­try. So it’s only nor­mal that they require par­tic­u­lar atten­tion and help.” Article 36 of the Vienna Convention for Consular Relations, a bi-lat­er­al treaty that the U.S. has signed and rat­i­fied, requires that for­eign nation­als arrest­ed in the United States (or else­where) be told of their right to com­mu­ni­cate with their con­sulate for assis­tance. The video fea­tures Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador Bianca Jagger, as well as Ambassador Almedia and oth­er legal experts, who describe some of the prob­lems that for­eign cit­i­zens face in the jus­tice sys­tem and how con­sular offi­cials can be of assis­tance. There are about 136 for­eign nation­als on U.S. death rows from 37 different countries.

The video was pro­duced by Reprieve, a London-based orga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides effec­tive legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion and human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance to peo­ple fac­ing the death penalty.

(“Foreign Nationals Facing the Death Penalty in the U.S.,” Reprieve, May 18, 2012). See Foreign Nationals. Listen to DPIC’s pod­cast on International issues.

Citation Guide