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THE INDIPENDENT
US
found guilty of flouting law on death penalty
By
Imre Karacs in Berlin
28
June 2001
Foreign
prisoners on Death Row in America were given a glimmer of hope yesterday
when the World Court in The Hague found the United States guilty of
flouting international law and ordered Washington to mend its ways.
In
an unprecedented case demonstrating the gulf between Europe and America
over capital punishment, Germany had taken the US to court and won. Judges
in The Hague ruled that the US violated an international convention by
failing to inform Germany when two of its nationals were arrested for bank
robbery and murder. The US was also condemned for defying a stay of
execution issued by the World Court.
The
LaGrand brothers, Karl and Walter, went to the gas chamber in Arizona two
years ago. The authorities in Germany were late to discover their
predicament. Karl died first, followed by Walter 10 days later. He was put
to death a day after the court in The Hague issued an emergency order to
stop his execution. The brothers had been in jail since their botched bank
robbery in 1982.
The
court in The Hague was not mandated to ponder the severity of the young
men's sentence: death for a first offence of murder in Karl's case, and
the same for Walter who had killed no one. But Germany argued that the
brothers' trial might have had a different outcome if they had been
represented by a competent defence.
Under
the 1963 Vienna Convention, Germany should have been informed the moment
its two citizens were arrested. The German consulate, however, learnt of
the LaGrands 10 years after their crime, when the brothers contacted them.
Walter
and Karl had been born in Germany to a German mother, and brought up in
Arizona. They remained German citizens. The United States has now
apologised and set up a department dealing with consular access to
foreigners in trouble.
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