U.S. Quits Pact Used in Capitol Cases

[Bonnie]

U.S. Quits Pact Used in Capital Cases
Foes of Death Penalty Cite Access to Envoys

By Charles Lane

The Bush administration has decided to pull out of an international agreement that opponents of the death penalty have used to fight the sentences of foreigners on death row in the United States, officials said yesterday.

In a two-paragraph letter dated March 7, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice informed U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan that the United States "hereby withdraws" from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The United States proposed the protocol in 1963 and ratified it -- along with the rest of the Vienna Convention -- in 1969.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan about the U.S. withdrawal. (Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)

The protocol requires signatories to let the International Court of Justice (ICJ) make the final decision when their citizens say they have been illegally denied the right to see a home-country diplomat when jailed abroad.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21981-2005Mar9.html

 

[Annie]

U.S. Quits Pact Used in Capital Cases
Foes of Death Penalty Cite Access to Envoys

By Charles Lane



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21981-2005Mar9.html

Bully is going to have a field day with this!

 

[Bonnie]

Bully is going to have a field day with this!

LOL I posted with him in mind.......Should retitle it "This will make Bully's Day"