As many as 70 of the 74 foreign nationals awaiting execution on America's "death rows" were never told of their right to contact their consulate, an omission that is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The Convention was promulgated in 1963 and has been signed by 140 nations including the United States.

One such person currently on death row in Texas is Joseph Faulder, a Canadian national who was convicted of murder in 1977 and sentenced to death. Secretary of State Madeline Albright attempted to persuade Texas Governor George W. Bush to grant Faulder a 30 day reprieve in which to consider the consular access issue, but failed in the face of Gov. Bush's staunch support of the death penalty.

On December 11, the Supreme Court granted an indefinite stay of execution for Joseph Faulder. The stay came only 30 minutes before Faulder was to be executed by lethal injection. The reason for the stay was the failure of police to tell Faulder of his right to assistance from the Canadian consul and the Court's desire to fully study Faulder's claim that his rights under international law were violated.

The failure of police departments to notify foreign nationals of their right to consular assistance is increasingly reaching the courts, although the claim is consistently rejected as a basis for clemency. The issue is beginning to cause some amount of trouble in relations with foreign governments. Over 2500 Americans are arrested abroad each year, and the State Department is growing increasingly concerned that other countries will begin to decline to inform Americans of their rights under the Vienna Convention.

After each execution of a foreign national who was not told of the right to consular assistance, the State Department has issued a formal apology that the police did not follow the Vienna Convention, but has never tried to stop an execution.

Mexico, whose citizens make up almost half of the foreign nationals on U.S. death rows, abolished capital punishment for all crimes but patricide and treason in 1929.

Over the past five years, 7 foreign nationals have been executed in the U.S., including three from Mexico, and one each from Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Cuba.