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Supreme Court rules against foreign-born prisoners (Important decision!)

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, June 29, 2006

The U.S. Supreme Court brushed off appeals Thursday by foreign-born prisoners who said police had violated an international treaty by failing to tell them of their right to contact their consulate after being arrested.

The court's 6-3 ruling is likely to affect thousands of inmates nationwide, particularly in states such as California with large immigrant populations. The majority, in an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, made it clear that they gave the Vienna Convention treaty and its interpretation by the World Court little weight in state criminal prosecutions.

Roberts noted that President Bush withdrew the United States last year from a provision of the Vienna Convention, signed by 169 other nations, that recognized the World Court's authority to decide disputes between nations over the meaning of the document.

"It is doubtful that our courts should give decisive weight to the interpretation of a tribunal whose jurisdiction in this area is no longer recognized by the United States,'' Roberts said in rejecting the World Court's view of a defendant's rights. He also said the treaty "has nothing whatsoever to do with searches or interrogations'' and "does not guarantee defendants any assistance at all.''

The ruling comes in the wake of conservative attacks on the court in recent years for citing foreign law in support of decisions that prohibited executions of juveniles and overturned state laws against homosexual conduct. The author of both those rulings, Justice Anthony Kennedy, joined Roberts' opinion Wednesday.

Specifically, the court resolved two issues in prosecutors' favor Wednesday:

-- If defendants give statements to police who have failed to notify them of their right to call their consulate, the statements can be used as evidence at their trials.

-- If defendants fail to claim violations of the treaty before a deadline set by state law, they forfeit those claims.

Dissenting Justices Stephen Breyer, John Paul Stevens and David Souter said the ruling weakens the treaty's protections for all foreigners, including Americans abroad.

"It increases the difficulties faced by the United States and other nations who would, through binding treaties, strengthen the role that law can play in assuring all citizens, including American citizens, fair treatment throughout the world,'' Breyer wrote.

California has its own law, in effect since 2000, requiring police to advise foreigners of their right to contact their consulate when they are held for more than two hours, said Tom Dresslar, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer. He said the law does not contain any penalties for noncompliance.

Twenty-eight states, including California, signed arguments supporting prosecutors in Oregon and Virginia, where the two cases decided by the court arose. The states contended the treaty gave no rights to private citizens and could be enforced only by national governments, an issue the court did not decide.

The Vienna Convention, ratified by the United States in 1969, includes a requirement that authorities promptly tell a foreigner in custody that he or she may contact a foreign consulate. At the foreigner's request, authorities must also inform the consulate that one of its citizens is under arrest. The treaty says each nation must give those rights full effect but does not specify consequences for violations.

Foreign governments, several of which filed briefs in Wednesday's case, said consulates can help their citizens understand their rights in an unfamiliar system and can often help locate witnesses and evidence.

In past cases, the Supreme Court has allowed several foreign-born prisoners to be executed despite their contentions that their rights under the treaty were violated.

The Vienna Convention has affected other capital cases, however. The World Court, in a suit by Mexico, ruled in 2004 that the United States had violated the treaty in the cases of 51 death row inmates in eight states, including 26 in California. Shortly before withdrawing from World Court jurisdiction, Bush ordered the states' courts in February 2005 to review the cases and decide whether to overturn the death sentences.

Most of those capital cases are still unresolved. A consequence of the new ruling is that the defendants can't challenge the prosecutors' use of statements they made to police.

Wednesday's cases are Sanchez-Llamas vs. Oregon, 04-10566, and Bustillo vs. Johnson, 05-51.

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.