Senate Wants Report on Mexicans Sitting on Death Row in United States EFE
go to original April 4, 2013

The United States has long had an uneasy relationship with the International Court of Justice, which primarily arbitrates legal disputes among UN member nations that recognize its jurisdiction. The United States disagreed with the court's stance that it failed to fulfill its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations in 2005 in cases involving Mexican nationals on death row. Recently, the United States has increased its engagement with the ICJ especially with respect to individuals who are facing the death penalty in the United States, making considerable efforts to come into compliance, despite serious obstacles within its own constitutional system. (cfr)

MEXICO CITY - The Senate has asked the Foreign Relations Secretariat for a report on the number of Mexicans on death row in the United States and efforts being made to provide them with legal assistance.

Human rights activists have expressed concern about a possible "wave of executions" of Mexicans in the United States, Sen. David Monreal, who sponsored the measure, said, without explaining the source of the information.

The goal is to learn about the situation of Mexicans on death row in the United States and provide them with more legal assistance so their human rights will not be violated, the senator said.

Mexico just marked nine years since the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, issued a ruling ordering the United States to review the cases of scores of Mexicans sentenced to death in that country.

The ICJ ruled on March 31, 2004, in the Avena and Other Mexican Nationals case that Humberto Leal Garcia's rights had been violated.

The ICJ, which is based in The Hague and is the United Nations' highest judicial organ, ruled that U.S. authorities should review the death sentences of 51 Mexicans.

The international judicial panel found that Leal and the other Mexicans were denied the guarantee under international law to be informed of their right to consular assistance to mount a defense in court, a right established under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention.

Leal was executed by the state of Texas by lethal injection in July 2011.

The Mexican was put to death after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant a stay of execution and Texas Gov. Rick Perry declined to use his power to delay the execution for 30 days.

The Mexican government, the Obama administration and dozens of former U.S. officials, diplomats and military officers all urged Perry to suspend the execution pending a vote in Congress on a bill to comply with the 2004 ICJ decision.

The 38-year-old Leal was sentenced to death for the 1994 kidnapping, rape and murder of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda.

As of 2011, 58 Mexicans were on death row in the United States, of whom 39 were part of the Avena case, the National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, said.
 

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