Matt Yglesias reports that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has removed its postings of death row inmates last meals from its website. As Matt says, it was the ultimate in morbid voyeurism.

Avena and Other Mexican Nationals (Mexico v. USA) is being argued this week in the International Court of Justice in the Hague. This is the lawsuit that Mexico has brought against the US over its failure to advise 52 Mexican nationals on death rows in the U.S. of their Vienna Convention rights, specifically, their right to consular help after arrest.

The case is the result of a long-running dispute between the United States and its southern neighbor and underlines deep concern among some of Washington's closest allies over its capital punishment laws.

"We are asking the court to tell the United States to retry these nationals, but this time with the consular assistance they are entitled to," said Juan Manuel Gomez Robledo, chief legal representative for Mexico. "Consular help could have meant the difference between life and death," lawyer Sandra Babcock told the judges as the Mexican side made its opening arguments.

Mexico accuses U.S. authorities of breaching the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by failing to tell the Mexicans -- subsequently sentenced to death in 10 U.S. states -- of their right to assistance from their national representatives.....Mexico went to The Hague-based International Court of Justice or World Court because all other legal and diplomatic efforts to solve the issue had been exhausted, an official said.

According to Amnesty International statistics, a total of 71 prisoners were executed in the United States last year, bringing to 820 the total number of prisoners put to death since the resumption of capital punishment there in 1977. The death penalty has not been applied in Mexico for at least four decades.

The court's history of the case is here. The oral arguments started today and will continue on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Transcripts can be accessed here.

By T Chris

Mexico will argue before the International Court of Justice (also known as the World Court) that the lives of 54 Mexican citizens on death row in the United States should be spared because they were refused their right to legal assistance from the Mexican Consulate. While Mexican newspapers view the lawyers representing the United States as a "dream team," they are confident of success.

"This is a very important case for Mexico, and we will not fail. Not one Mexican who has been denied his consular rights (in the United States) will be executed," [Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto] Derbez said during a news conference.

... "It is not the quantity but the quality of the lawyers that counts," he said. "And we have right on our side."

Right or wrong, success before the World Court may not be enough, given the lack of respect that the United States has accorded the Court's rulings.

In 2001, German citizen Walter LaGrand was executed in Arizona, despite the court's order to postpone his punishment until it had heard Germany's case that he had been denied his right to consular assistance.

Although the World Court has no power to enforce its decisions, the United States will not score points with countries whose help it seeks in Iraq if it continues to regard international tribunals as irrelevant. Accepting the World Court's ruling in this case will not endanger Americans -- those convicted will remain incarcerated for their crimes -- but would help the United States regain respect in the international community.

The Supreme Court hears the Delma Banks case today. The issues: prosecutorial misconduct and bad defense lawyering. There's a good article on it in today's Christian Science Monitor:

It took Delma Banks and his lawyers 19 years to discover the truth. State prosecutors at his 1980 murder trial allowed two key witnesses to lie to the jury that sentenced Mr. Banks to death. But even after the deception was uncovered, a federal appeals court said it didn't matter.

On March 12, 2003, Texas corrections officers strapped Banks to a gurney and prepared a lethal injection. Then, with 10 minutes to go, word of a stay came from the US Supreme Court. Monday, the justices take up the Banks case to determine whether the misconduct of prosecutors and the ineffectiveness of Banks's own lawyer were so significant as to require the invalidation of his death sentence.

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert discussed the Delma Banks case in Pull the Plug in April, 2003, concluding:

Lying witnesses. Lousy lawyers. Corrupt prosecutors. Racism. The death penalty is broken and can't be fixed. Get rid of it. "

Herbert notes there is an issue in the Banks case that the Supreme Court refuses to address: race

A study on race and the death penalty in the U.S. that is being released today by Amnesty International notes the following: "Since 1976, blacks have been 6 to 7 times more likely to be murdered than whites, with the result that blacks and whites are the victims of murder in about equal numbers. Yet 80 of the more than 840 people put to death in the U.S.A. since 1976 were convicted of crimes involving white victims, compared to the 13 who were convicted of killing blacks."

The Amnesty report asserts, correctly, that studies have consistently found that the criminal justice system "places a higher value on white life than on black life."

Our Delma Banks coverage is here.

The Fulton County Daily Report has named Stephen Bright as 2003 Newsmaker of the Year. Stephen heads up the Southern Center for Human Rights and is a legend among capital defenders. This is a well-deserved honor. From the article (subscription only):

Stephen B. Bright - Angry Man of Indigent Defense
By Trisha Renaud

While powerful State Bar leaders and politicians worked the Capitol this spring to help pass a historic indigent defense bill, activist Stephen B. Bright worked the courthouses. As committees debated the details of a bill that would establish a statewide public defender system, Bright filed another suit-the sixth in which he and other prominent defense attorneys have demanded sweeping
changes in how counties provide legal representation for the poor.

This latest litigation targeted the four-county Cordele Judicial Circuit. The message was hard for legislators to ignore. Bright had spelled it out for them time and again: If the system doesn't change, he warned, he would keep filing such suits around the state. Or, as he said about indigent defense litigation at a symposium in 2002, "Coming to a courthouse near you."

....For his unrelenting efforts over the years to expose Georgia's shortfalls in indigent defense, Bright is the Daily Report's 2003Newsmaker of the Year.... At first, Bright may seem an odd choice for our Newsmaker of the Year. Others played equal, if not more prominent, roles in passing the legislation this year. ....But Bright's prodding over the years-some would say unrelenting agitation -was critical in bringing the issue to the fore. Sometimes with lectures, other times with pleas, threats or impassioned speeches, Bright was the most implacable and visible crusader for better legal defense for the poor. He brought a sense of urgency to the fight for reform, railing in speeches, letters and reports against inaction. To Bright, it was a battle to fulfill a promise made 40 years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court in Gideon v. Wainright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), that the right to counsel is fundamental to a just system. And he has fought to ensure that right over the years, with little tolerance for compromise. As he put it in a recent interview, "So many people talk about the minimum. Shoot for the stars, not the floor."

A new poll shows support for the death penalty in America is at it's lowest since 1978.

According to the latest Gallup Poll in October 2003, support for the death penalty has dropped to 64%, its lowest level since 1978. The 32% of Americans opposed to the death penalty represented the most opposition since 1972. (2003 poll: CNN.com, November 25, 2003; Fox News, November 26, 2003) This finding is particularly noteworthy given the extensive media coverage leading to the trials of John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo in Virginia. Two other polls this year also recorded a drop in death penalty support to 64%: ABC News poll and Pew Research Center Poll.

According to Magnus Ranstorp, head of St. Andrews University's Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, America's death penalty is hindering the war on terror. From America's Eager Executioners:

Europe has been described as the jumping-off place for Islamic terrorists bent on infiltrating and harming the United States. European cities are ringed by Muslim slums where clerics preach violence to the impressionable. Many of the 9/11 bombers spent time in Europe before they entered the United States. Americans badly need Europe's full cooperation in helping to foil terrorists and bring them to justice. But the death penalty stands in the way.

I asked Magnus Ranstorp, head of St. Andrews University's Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, if he thought capital punishment was hurting America's war on terror. "Without question," he said. The argument that the death penalty deters crime doesn't apply to terrorists who seek death. "As a matter of fact, it does the opposite," he said. "It creates martyrs."

"You have to measure justice with effectiveness," he continued, "and justice is served by life in prison without parole."

If capital punishment is actually hurting the United States in the war on terror, it ought to be abandoned for no other reason than enlightened self-interest. But try telling that to John Ashcroft.

From the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty:

Eight executions are scheduled to take place in the next 16 days, including the executions of at least three people with severe mental illness and three people whose lawyers performed abysmally at trial. Five are scheduled during a nine-day period in Texas, and two are set for Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day.

"The scheduled executions in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia follow a disturbing but familiar pattern," said Brian Roberts, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "At a time when Americans are beginning to take a hard look at who is sentenced to death, these states are failing to meet even the lowest constitutional bar in carrying out executions.

Simply put, people with severe mental illness or ineffective lawyers should not be eligible for execution in any humane and civilized society."

The National Law Journal has an article today on the refusal of two of the fifty states, Georgia and Alabama, to provide lawyers to inmates on death row for their habeas petitions.

While all states provide counsel in direct appeals, it is the federal courts inmates must turn to when those are exhausted. The habeas petition allows them to argue that their conviction was obtained in violation of a constitutional right--like effective assistance of counsel.

The result, according to critics, is that legitimate claims can go unheard, and post-conviction petitions are generally denied on procedural grounds-an action that ends their effort in state courts and blocks the route to the federal courts.

Examples are numerous, because Alabama makes liberal use of the death penalty. Since 1998, it has sentenced more people to death per capita than any other state. One hundred ninety-four are presently on death row, about 30 without counsel.

These petitions typically require intense investigation of potential claims that are outside of the trial record, investigations that can't be conducted from inside a prison. They require expert knowledge of substantive criminal law and often arcane criminal procedure.

Lilith at LegalWrites has more.

Yesterday was International Day Against the Death Penalty, capping off a week long campaign called Cities for Life - Against the Death Penalty.

ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome Date: 2003-11-30
John Paul II Backs Campaign Against Death Penalty

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 30, 2003 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II added his voice in support of the renewal of the international campaign against the death penalty.

Before bidding farewell to the pilgrims gathered today in St. Peter's Square to pray the Angelus, the Pope greeted members of the Community of Sant'Egidio, an ecclesial movement involved in the struggle against capital punishment.

Today, at the initiative of Sant'Egidio and other non-governmental organizations that make up the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, 300 "Pro-Life Cities" lit up a monument to express their rejection of the death penalty.

Among the cities participating in this 2nd World Day Against the Death Penalty were Amsterdam, Netherlands; New York; Buenos Aires; Berlin; Hiroshima, Japan; Santiago, Chile; Vienna, Austria; Barcelona, Spain; and Paris. Their theme was "No Justice Without Life."

Mario Marazziti, spokesman of Sant'Egidio, explained that 112 countries have abolished the death penalty, in law or in fact, and 83 use it. Armenia, Serbia and Montenegro, Chile and Ivory Coast abolished it in the past two years.

"The judicial system is never infallible," Marazziti said. "The death penalty is an irreversible instrument of justice. And man cannot take what he cannot restore."

The Sant'Egidio campaign is calling for a universal moratorium on executions, an appeal that is supported by 5 million signatures.

How refreshing this is to read:

Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye on Thursday said the result of President Arroyo’s consultation with members of the Senate and the House of Representatives on the issue showed that eight senators and 125 congressmen favor repealing Republic Act 7659, or the Death Penalty Law.

...During President Arroyo’s term, no convict has even been executed, notwithstanding that the President lifted the moratorium in October of 2001 and restored it again after six months.

On Tuesday President Arroyo closed the book on the possibility of lifting the moratorium on the death penalty, saying executions do not guarantee a reduction in crime rates. She said the solution to reducing crime incidents is to overhaul the criminal justice system.

“The President already made a policy statement that capital punishment is not the answer; the better alternative is to strengthen the justice system,” Bunye said.

Actor Richard Gere had some suprise questioning in store for Wesley Clark last week at a fundraiser. We're glad Gere raised the issue, and we agree with him. But, in fairness to Clark, we also point out that Dean, Kerry, Edwards and the rest of the gang, with the exception of Kucinich, Mosely Braun and Sharpton, feel the same way.

Richard Gere ambushed Wesley Clark Thursday night at a presidential campaign fund-raiser. The activist actor asked the retired Army general to state his stance on the death penalty during a Q&A at Diane von Furstenberg's West Village atelier.

"I don't believe in the death penalty, per se, but I do believe we should reserve the right to use it in extreme cases, like that of Osama Bin Laden," the Democratic hopeful responded.

Gere, a devout Tibetan Buddhist, countered, "How can you not believe in the death penalty, but reserve that right for certain cases?"

An uncomfortable silence settled on the big-ticket crowd, which included Alexander von Furstenberg, writer Brad Gooch, producer Sandy Gallin, Hamilton South and Anne Dexter Jones. But Clark soldiered on, again trying to explain his belief that the death penalty should be considered in the face of the most heinous crimes.

"I believe only God has the right to take life," declared the star of "An Officer and a Gentleman." "We as people don't have that right." Clark looked as if he was about to order the actor to drop and give him 20, and wrapped it up. "We could have a philosophical discussion about this for hours," he said, "but I don't think this is the right venue."

The crowd retreated in formation to the bar, where laughter and applause, particularly that of the hostess, dominated the rest of the event. "She finds Wesley Clark very capable," says Jennifer Talbott, Diane Von Furstenberg's rep. "[Von Furstenberg] just became a citizen about two years ago, so it means a lot to her to do what she can."

Update: Wesley Clark hired a new campaign manager today--Paul Johnson--whose last position was manager of Florida Senator Bob Graham's campaign. The position has been vacant since last month when Donnie Fowler left. An interesting aside, one of Graham's daughters works for Dean, another for Clark.

Spaniards have raised $150,000 to pay for the Death Row appeal of Florida prisoner Pablo Ibar, who was convicted in 1994 of a triple homicide.

As Ibar's case reaches the Florida Supreme Court next month, eight Spanish senators will visit Ibar on Death Row and then watch his lawyer argue in Tallahassee. Spanish citizens have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for Florida Death Row defenses, including $150,000 for Ibar's appeal. Florida has become the focus of their passionate opposition to the death penalty.

The fervor of Spanish opposition, and the whole of Europe, is in stark contrast to the American point of view -- where politicians often consider opposition to capital punishment a career-killer. The European Union won't grant membership to countries that execute prisoners.

''It's considered an accomplishment of a higher degree of civilization,'' said Joaquin Roy, a Barcelona native who directs the University of Miami's European Union Center.... If Ibar loses his appeals, Spanish officials will refocus their efforts on Jeb Bush. ''The governor will always listen to input from people he meets as he travels around the state or overseas,'' said spokeswoman Alia Faraj. ``But as governor of Florida, he has the constitutional duty to uphold the laws of our state.''