UN WIRE

Wednesday November 15, 2000

DEATH PENALTY: US Admits To Violating International Law

The United States yesterday admitted that it violated international law by failing to notify two convicted German killers of their international rights, but it accused Germany of attempting to undermine the United States' right to enforce the death penalty.

US government lawyers asked the 15 International Court of Justice judges to reject Germany's demand for legal sanction and reparations over the execution of two German citizens last year.

"Germany, in effect, has invited this court to create a new international legal obligation, one that would necessarily intrude deep into the domestic criminal justice system of any state," said James Thessin, the chief US agent to the court.

He said the United States violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by failing to inform the Germans of their right to help from the German consulate (Associated Press/Toronto National Post, 15 Nov).

However, Thessin charged that the whole case was a German ruse to "litigate the death penalty under the guise of a violation" of the 1963 Vienna Convention governing consular notification.

Germany contends the two men, brothers Karl and Walter LaGrand, were detained for 10 years without the notification of the German consulate, a violation of the Vienna Convention. The brothers were convicted of stabbing a bank manager during a botched robbery in 1982.

Thessin contended that "the consular convention cannot properly be read to dictate to a state how its domestic criminal justice system is to be structured."

Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano stressed that the brothers, who had committed "especially cruel, heinous and depraved" crimes, received a fair trial and a 15-year appeals process.