[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 26


MEXICO:

Mexican government files brief in U.S. death penalty case


Mexico has filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court
seeking to help block the execution of a Mexican national, the Foreign
Relations Department announced Wednesday.

In a news release, the department said it filed the brief on Tuesday to
support Jose Ernesto Medellin, who was sentenced to death for raping and
murdering 2 teenage girls in 1993 in Texas.

The brief argues that the United States should accept the ruling of the
World Court that the sentences of Medellin and 50 other Mexican death row
inmates should be reviewed because U.S. officials ignored their Geneva
Convention right to consular representation when they were arrested.

However the United States does not consider World Court rulings binding.

The Supreme Court last month agreed to hear Medellin's appeal.

Supporters of a review for Medellin argued that U.S. failure to enforce
rights for foreigners in the United States would endanger Americans
arrested abroad, who depend on similar rights to contact U.S. diplomats
for help.

(source: Associated Press)