Justices to rule on Hague reach

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to take up an unusual death penalty case that puts President Bush, the Mexican government and a rapist and murderer from Houston on the same team in a legal battle against the state of Texas.

At issue is whether Texas must abide by a ruling from the International Court of Justice in the Hague and reconsider a death sentence meted out to a convicted killer who is a native of Mexico.

The lead plaintiff, Jose Medellin, has been on death row since 1994 for raping and strangling two teenage girls in Houston.

The outcome also could affect the fate of 28 Mexican natives who are under death sentences in California.

Three years ago, the Mexican government won a ruling from the international court holding that U.S. officials had violated a treaty requiring that the consulate be notified when Mexican citizens were arrested and held for serious crimes.

American tourists and students studying abroad may be familiar with this treaty, known as the Vienna Convention. It protects the rights of Americans when they are abroad. But police and local prosecutors in this country did not routinely abide by the treaty when they arrested and detained suspects who were not U.S. citizens.

Mexico objected most strongly when the death penalty was at issue because it opposed capital punishment. In its suit before the international court, it cited 51 Mexican nationals who were on death row in the United States and said it had not been notified during their legal proceedings. The Mexican government said it would have, at minimum, supplied lawyers to argue against the imposition of a death sentence.

Two years ago, in something of a surprise, President Bush and the State Department told Texas officials they had to take steps to comply with the decision in the Hague.

Neither Bush nor the international court said what had to be done.

The decision said only that the United States had to “provide, by means of its own choosing, review and reconsideration of the convictions and sentences of the Mexican nationals.”

The Texans refused to comply, and the Texas courts ruled that Bush had no authority to interfere with the state’s handling of its criminal cases.

That prompted a new appeal to the Supreme Court, which on Monday agreed to hear the matter in the fall.

California prosecutors, like their counterparts in Texas, have refused to comply with the international court order.

Referring to the state’s 28 Mexican natives under death sentences, David Kravets, a spokesman for California Atty. Gen. Edmund G. Brown Jr., said: “Our position is that they do not deserve a new trial. They were adequately represented at the time of their trials.”

However, the California Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on the issue.

The U.S. Supreme Court had first taken up the issue two years ago, but pulled back after Bush told Texas officials they had to comply with the ruling in the Hague.

Now, the justices said they would hear the case of Medellin vs. Texas and rule on whether the president had the authority to order state officials to comply with an international court order.

david.savage@latimes.com