Thread: Mexico pursues appeal to stay executions in US

Wednesday, Jun. 18, 2008

Mexico pursues appeal to stay executions in US
By ARTHUR MAX

THE HAGUE, Netherlands The U.N.'s highest court begins emergency hearings Thursday on Mexico's appeal to block the execution of its citizens on death row in the United States.

Mexico argues the U.S. government is obliged to enforce a 2004 judgment by the U.N.'s International Court of Justice that Mexicans were denied the right to consular advice after their arrests, as guaranteed by international treaty.

It said the Mexican prisoners should have new court hearings to determine whether the violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention affected their cases.

President Bush accepted the judgment and asked state courts to review the cases. Texas refused.

The issue then went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled last March by a 6-3 vote that Bush had overstepped his authority in ordering state courts to comply with the judgment.

Mexico has asked the court, informally known as the World Court, for an "interpretation" of its earlier ruling to clarify what it meant when it asked the U.S. to "review and reconsider" the cases of the condemned prisoners.

Until that can be done, Mexico asked the court to take urgent action to halt the timetable of executions.

Hearings by the 15-member tribunal were scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

Mexico's application listed five of its citizens slated to die. The first, on Aug. 5, is Jose Medellin, 33, condemned in the gang rape and murder of two teenage girls 15 years ago.

Texas authorities have said Medellin's case has been reviewed by state and federal courts and that he had been given the same right as any American citizen.

But Mexico said in its appeal to the World Court that the U.S. obligation to follow international law also applies to individual states. "The United States cannot invoke municipal law as justification for failure to perform its international legal obligations," it said.

The International Court of Justice is the U.N.'s judicial arm for resolving legal disputes among member states. Its decisions are binding and not subject to appeal, and only rarely have they been defied. Though it has no power of enforcement, the court can report any failure to abide by its decisions to the Security Council.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/917/story/216499.html

THE STATE OF TEXAS CAN AND SHOULD MAKE THE DECISION ON WHAT HAPPENS WITH THESE CRIMINALS. THE WORLD COURT DOES NOT RUN TEXAS....OR USA FOR THAT MATTER. WHY DOES THE WORLD COURT TRY TO PROTECT CRIMINALS? WHERE WAS THE WORLD COURT WHEN THESE CRIMINALS WERE RAPING CHILDREN. IS THE WORLD COURT STANDING UP FOR THESE CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES. **** THE WORLD COURT.

Fry..... there was no mercy for these 2 little girls... the same for the others on death row