NEW PROGRAM TO ASSIST MEXICAN NATIONALS FACING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN US

Mexican consular officials recently announced the development of a new program designed to assist Mexican nationals in the US who face the possibility of capital punishment.  There are 45 Mexican nationals on death rows in the US, and the new program provides $300,000 to provide legal assistance. 

The program, called the Legal Assistance to Mexican Nationals Sentenced to Capital Punishment, is based in Minnesota, and is the first program of its kind in the US to be funded by a foreign government.  Demand for such a program has increased in the recent past, as more and more foreign nationals find themselves facing death sentences in the US.  Many of them were never informed of their rights under the Vienna Convention, which says that people arrested in a foreign country must be told that they have the right to seek assistance from their consulate. 

One of the aims of the program is to ensure that rights under the Vienna Convention are given the same respect as Miranda rights, which are designed to ensure that a criminal suspect knows they do not have to incriminate themselves.  Vienna Convention rights do stand in the same legal position as Miranda rights, because under the Constitution, treaties such as the Vienna Convention are to be given the same effect as federal law.

Along with ensuring that Mexican nationals in the US have their rights under the Vienna Convention protected, there is another reason behind the development of the new program.  While executions in the US have risen to their highest levels since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s, Mexican law does not allow capital punishment.

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