Justice denied

Well before the U.S. torture and killing of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan became worldwide news, George W. Bush was the admitted master of prison abuse in Texas.

No governor of Texas had ever executed so many people, the vast majority of them poor. During his time as governor he oversaw more than 155 executions—way more than any other state.

Today 15 Mexicans who were denied their legal right to seek representation and assistance from the Mexican government are on death row in Texas. Throughout the United States a total of 51 Mexicans are on death row; all were denied their right to representation and assistance. This is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, negotiated in 1963 and ratified by the U.S. in 1969. According to the U.S. Constitution, treaties—like this one—”shall be the supreme law of the land.”

One of those prisoners denied his rights in Texas is José Medellín. He appealed to the Supreme Court to have his conviction overturned on the basis of international law signed onto by the U.S. government and therefore supposedly protected under the Constitution.

On May 23, the court turned down his appeal, sending his case back into the state court that had denied him his rights to begin with. The Supreme Court cited a maneuver by the Bush administration, which had publicly requested that the state court review the cases of all the Mexicans on death row in light of an international ruling March 31 that found that all 51 Mexicans on death row in the United States were denied their rights.

The Bush administration may have bent a little in order to be seen as more in synch with its treaty obligations. But maybe not. Because on March 7, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had sent a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan saying her government was withdrawing from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

This is the very protocol that several countries have used to successfully argue before the World Court that their citizens were sentenced to death by U.S. states without receiving access to diplomats from their home countries. (Washington Post, March 10)

Even as the U.S. military moved around prisoners who had been tortured in Iraq and Afghanistan so they would be “hidden” from view, the maneuvers of the Bush administration and the Supreme Court are aimed clearly at delaying justice. And as they know quite well, justice delayed is justice denied.

There is no reason to continue with this charade. Justice demands the immediate overturn of these convictions and the release of all Mexican citizens being held illegally in U.S. prisons.