Just days before the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Osvaldo Torres, a Mexican for­eign nation­al on Oklahoma’s death row, Governor Brad Henry grant­ed a request for clemen­cy in part because of a recent International Court of Justice deci­sion order­ing the United States to review the cas­es of 51 Mexican for­eign nation­als on death row because they were denied their right to seek con­sular assis­tance fol­low­ing their arrest. Henry’s announce­ment came just hours after the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals decid­ed to stay Torres’ exe­cu­tion and order a new hear­ing in his case. Last week, the Oklahoma Board of Pardon and Parole rec­om­mend­ed clemen­cy for Torres. Although Henry has denied three sim­i­lar rec­om­men­da­tions from the Board since tak­ing office, his deci­sion to com­mute Torres’ sen­tence to life in prison with­out parole marks the first time that the Governor has grant­ed clemen­cy to an indi­vid­ual on death row. In his state­ment, Henry said the International Court of Justice rul­ing is bind­ing on U.S. courts, and that the U.S. State Department had con­tact­ed his office to urge that he give care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion to the fact that the U.S. signed the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which ensures access to con­sular assis­tance for for­eign nation­als who are arrest­ed. ​“The treaty is also impor­tant to pro­tect­ing the rights of American cit­i­zens abroad,” Henry not­ed. In an opin­ion con­cur­ring with the Court of Criminal Appeals major­i­ty deci­sion to hear Torres’ claims that he was denied his access to con­sular assis­tance and that he was rep­re­sent­ed by inef­fec­tive coun­sel dur­ing tri­al, Judge Charles Chapel wrote, ​“I have con­clud­ed that there is a pos­si­bil­i­ty a sig­nif­i­cant mis­car­riage of jus­tice occurred, as shown by Torres’ claims, specif­i­cal­ly that the vio­la­tion of his Vienna Convention rights con­tributed to tri­al counsel’s inef­fec­tive­ness, that the jury did not hear sig­nif­i­cant evi­dence, and the results of the tri­al is unre­li­able.” (The Oklahoman, May 14, 2004) In addi­tion to those on death row in Oklahoma, Mexican for­eign nation­als that could be affect­ed by the ICJ’s rul­ing are on death rows in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, and Texas. None of these remain­ing for­eign nation­als are cur­rent­ly sched­uled for exe­cu­tion. See Clemency. See also, Foreign Nationals.

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