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Posted on 01/21/2003 6:34:03 AM PST by Happy2BMe
Mexico has repeatedly argued with the US over executions
Mexico has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague to stop the United States from executing dozens of Mexicans held on death row.
The Mexican ambassador in The Hague said the dispute was not about the US' right to execute criminals, but about alleged violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
Mexico wants its nationals to be retried, arguing that the US failed to inform the prisoners of their right to access to consular officials.
Along with other American allies, Mexico has repeatedly voiced its concerns over the death penalty in the US.
The latest move comes amid renewed debate about executions, after the outgoing governor of Illinois reduced the sentences of all the state's death row inmates to life imprisonment.
The ICJ's rulings - which sometimes run over a period of years - are binding, but the court has no power to enforce them.
Presidential protest
At the start of the hearing, Mexican counsel Juan Manuel Gomez Robledo told the court that the rights of Mexican nationals under the Vienna Convention were systematically breached by US authorities.
"These repeated violations are particularly perturbing given that they have as a consequence the sentencing of an individual to death," he said.
In a written application, Mexico argued that communication with consular officials could "make the difference between life and death" for Mexicans facing capital punishment.
Mexican officials are seeking an injunction to stop the US from executing any Mexicans while the court considers the arguments on both sides.
Mexico had originally requested a stay of execution for 54 of its nationals, but said on Tuesday that three of them had had their sentences commuted by the governor of Illinois earlier this month.
The death penalty has been a source of tension between Mexico and the US.
Last year, Mexican President Vicente Fox cancelled his visit to the US over Washington's refusal to stop the execution of a Mexican prisoner.
German precedent
The latest case echoes a previous ruling by the ICJ in June 2001 involving the La Grand brothers, two German nationals who were executed in the US in 1999.
The court found that the US had denied the brothers their right to contact the German consulate.
It ordered the US not to go ahead with the execution of Walter La Grand, whose brother Karl had already been put to death.
But Walter was executed nevertheless.
Wonder if Mexico is sorry now they never got the Zimmerman Letter?
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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You also have to love the ICJ's binding, yet unenforcable ruling here. Guess they'll have to have a regime change in Washington to get their way!(sarc)
However, this goes both ways -- and these coutries sure as hell aren't going to like the flip side of it.
Any foreign national who is arrested in the U.S. and charged with a crime must also be charged with an act of war against the U.S. and should be treated as a war criminal. The case will be heard in a U.S. military court, after which the defendant will be either deported to his country of origin (if he is innocent) or held as a prisoner of war (if he is found guilty).
And 1,000 criminal convictions of foreign nationals from a single country in a year will be considered an automatic declaration of war against the U.S. on the part of that country.
Put a system like that in place, and there will no longer be any need to guard the borders. Vincente Fox will be out there himself digging a 500 foot-deep trench from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
With a spoon.
[snortle] Sounds like a plan...
I think I'd be more likely to support "foreign rights" in this context if those countries actually had justice systems analogous to ours. As long as Mexico, for example, retains its wild west pretense to law and order, I have no regard for anything its leaders have to say... They should be thanking us for cleaning out their pond scum; obviously, they're just looking for something to get b!tchy about...
That's because the Mexican Gov't is such a compassionate, caring, and principled bunch.....</ sarcasm>
Is there any more room in the Axis of Evil?
Round up, deport, and then build a wall across the whole length of our border that makes the Great Wall of China look amemic by comparison. ....And electrify it. Too expensive, you say? Not if we use Mexican nationals currently in U.S. prisons as slave labor.
Both were executed for capital murder in a bank robbery. Both had been "long-time" residents of the U.S. prior to the murder, but neither of them ever became American citizens.
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Simple solution:
Deport all illegal immigrants NOW! Followed by all legal Mexican immigrants next week. If the illegals don't like it, they can blame Fox.
New World order..no borders ..USA becomes like most of the rest of the hemisphere ..a banana Republic..
The US constitution will be basically null and void when that the open borders policy is accepted ..
Big news today Hispanics (thanks to the Bushes) are now the largest minority in the US..
NEWSFLASH: The greatest country in the world has laws.
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