The Associated Press
WASHINGTON- The Supreme Court on Monday jumped back into the issue of the rights of foreigners in criminal cases, agreeing to consider the appeal of two citizens from Honduras and Mexico.
Mario Bustillo of Honduras was convicted of killing a Virginia teen with a baseball bat, but was never told of his right to seek legal help from the Honduran consulate. His new lawyers are trying to win another trial.
Moises Sanchez-Llamas of Mexico was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison for wounding an Oregon police officer in a 1999 gunfight.
Sanchez-Llamas claims his pretrial statements to police shouldn’t have been allowed as evidence in his case because he wasn’t told of his right to contact the Mexican consulate.
Under the Vienna Convention, foreigners arrested in the United States are to be told they have a right to get help from their home country. Americans are entitled to the same rights in other countries that signed the treaty.
Earlier this year, justices considered another case involving a Mexican national on death row in Texas, but dismissed the case without a ruling after President Bush ordered a new state court hearing for the man.
Bustillo is serving a 30-year prison sentence in the 1997 slaying of 18-year-old James Merry outside a Virginia restaurant.
Bustillo’s lawyers say that witnesses mistook their client for another Honduran man who committed the crime. The government of Honduras is willing to track down the man, who returned home after the killing, the attorneys said.
“It’s hard to imagine a case where the denial of consular assistance could be more prejudicial,” justices were told by Jeffrey Lamken, one of Bustillo’s lawyers.