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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend November 9, 2005 Medford trial wins review U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear case on rights of foreign nationals Staff and wire reports WASHINGTON — The 1999 shooting of a Medford police officer is one of two cases set for Supreme Court review that could win thousands of foreign nationals in U.S. prisons the right to challenge their convictions. The cases, to be heard in March, are the latest to test whether international treaties can carry weight in U.S. criminal courts. The cases won review Monday. Justices agreed to hear the appeal of Moises Sanchez Llamas, a citizen of Mexico convicted in 2001 of shooting at officers Scott Clauson and Mike Strouse. Clauson was wounded in the 1999 gunfight at a duplex on Columbus Avenue and later returned to duty. The other case involves Mario Bustillo, a Honduran national who says he was wrongly convicted of murdering a man in Virginia. Sanchez and Bustillo contend law enforcement officials violated their right to contact their respective consulates under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. As a result, they say, their convictions should be overturned. A ruling in favor of the two men could have a broad and unsettling impact in the court system in states where large numbers of foreign-born prisoners are held. In a Vienna Convention agreed to in 1963, the United States and other signatories pledged to notify each other through their consulates when one of their nationals is arrested. Advertisement Until recently, the treaty was interpreted merely as establishing an agreement between governments, not a set of rights for individuals. State officials largely ignored the treaty when they arrested and prosecuted foreign nationals in their courts. Last year, however, Mexico’s government took the issue to the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands and won an important ruling on behalf of 53 Mexicans awaiting execution in U.S. prisons. Mexican officials said authorities in the states of Texas and California, among others, failed to notify them when their nationals were arrested. They said they would have provided legal help for the Mexican defendants. Medford police officers now must notify foreign citizens of the right to contact their consulate upon being arrested, said Medford police Lt. Mike Moran. The police department revised policies last year to reflect the change and automatically notifies some consulates, Moran said. Medford officers in 1999, however, questioned Sanchez for hours without a lawyer and without notifying the consulate. Therefore, his statements to police should not have been used to convict him, Sanchez’s appeal states. Sanchez was found guilty and sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison. Judge Ray White of Jackson County Circuit Court rejected Sanchez’s argument and said Tuesday that the Mexican consulate was not likely to provide a lawyer in the case. The Oregon Supreme Court and Court of Appeals upheld Sanchez’s conviction. The international court ruled that the Vienna Convention gave "individual rights" to foreign nationals and that domestic courts in the United States must "allow the review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence" handed down in these cases. The Bush administration sidestepped a Supreme Court ruling on these cases earlier this year when it told Texas authorities to reconsider the cases at issue in the International Court of Justice’s decision. Now, however, the Supreme Court said it would decide whether the Vienna Convention "created individually enforceable rights" for the thousands of other foreign nationals held in American prisons. The Constitution says that "all treaties made ... under the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land, and judges in every state shall be bound thereby." Lawyers for the two states say the treaty does not give legal rights to foreign nationals, especially not a right to reopen a final criminal conviction. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker dvd-r Distance Education Computer Security Ztech Media Hosting Sports Equipment Online Casino Salvia Divinorum Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation Online Pharmacy Online Casino Reviews Myspace Home Equity Loans Windermere Van Vleet Rogue Valley Travel Discount Hotel Reservations Southern Oregon Loans Online Casino News Casino Gambling Sites Budget Website Templates Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Advertisement s