The International Perspective, Part 2

In this two part series, we look at the issue of the death penalty from an international perspective, specifically how that perspective relates to the United States' use and support of capital punishment. The first part of the series summarized the positions of other nations and also looked at international governing bodies and agencies and their doctrine in regards to the death penalty. The second part will focus on how other nations and governing bodies attempt to affect the U.S. position. We will also try to answer the question of whether or not international pressure has an effect on the death penalty and its use in the U.S.

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Despite the United States being a signatory to several prominent international treaties such as the Convention Against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, international law and treaties are usually not binding in U.S. courts. In the past, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly underscored this in a variety cases including, most notably, 1998's Breard v. Greene decision, in which the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the International Court of Justice at The Hague for a stay of execution for a citizen from Paraguay.

However, international law as it pertains to the death penalty can not be completely dismissed in theory or in practice and the influence of international law sometimes does penetrate the U.S. judicial system, albeit very rarely. For example, Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations requires countries to inform foreign national defendants of their right to contact and seek help from their own country's consulate. Recently, the American Bar Association began to require counsel to raise this issue during representation. Also, the State Department routinely distributes information to law enforcement agencies detailing a defendant's right to contact their consulate.

For the most part, though, attempts at directly influencing the death penalty in the U.S. through international law have failed. In reaction to such attempts, the U.S. House of Representatives recently drafted a "constitutional preservation resolution" which states that international law has no legal validity in the U.S. judicial system.

Much more effective than requests to uphold international law is the pressure put on the U.S. by the leaders of other nations. British Prime Minister Tony Blair was credited in 2003 for helping to possibly spare the lives of two British citizens who were being detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as they awaited rulings by a military tribunal. Blair apparently appealed directly to President George Bush during a visit to Washington. In 2002, Mexican President Vicente Fox cancelled a scheduled meeting in Texas with President Bush in protest of a recent execution. "This decision is an unequivocal sign of our rejection of the execution," said a spokesman for President Fox. Although the cancellation had no practical or immediate influence, the ensuing publicity did leave a lasting mark on U.S.-Mexican relations.