The International Court of Justice has grant­ed Mexico’s request for an order to stay the exe­cu­tion of five Mexican cit­i­zens on death row in the U.S. Mexico had request­ed the U.N.‘s high­est court, com­mon­ly referred to as the World Court, to inter­vene because the United States has failed to com­ply with an ear­li­er ICJ judg­ment order­ing a hear­ing to review the tri­als of the Mexican cit­i­zens. The World Court ruled in 2004 that the U.S. vio­lat­ed the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations because it had not pro­vid­ed the Mexican inmates access to their home country’s con­sular offi­cials pri­or to their tri­als.

The ICJ held that the con­vic­tions and death sen­tences of 51 death row inmates required fur­ther review. President Bush acknowl­edged the judg­ment of the ICJ and ordered state courts to review the cas­es. Texas, how­ev­er, refused, and the issue of the President’s pow­er went to the U.S. Supreme Court. Jose Medellin, one of the death row inmates in Texas and a Mexican cit­i­zen, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to enforce the ICJ’s rul­ing and the President’s mem­o­ran­dum. The Supreme Court reject­ed the appeal on March 25, 2008, stat­ing that Bush had over­stepped his author­i­ty. The major­i­ty opin­ion stat­ed that the Constitution, ​“allows the President to exe­cute the laws, not make them.”

The cur­rent rul­ing from the ICJ comes less than three weeks before the first of these inmates, Medellin, is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Texas. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Attorney General Michael Mukasey joint­ly request­ed Texas Governor Rick Perry to review Medellin’s case. Also, a bill has been intro­duced in Congress that would allow relief for those whose Vienna Convention rights have been vio­lat­ed (HR 6841).
(“World court asks US to stay 5 exe­cu­tions”, MSNBC, July 16, 2008). Read the ICJ’s Order. See International, Foreign Nationals and Supreme Court.

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