Lives on the Line.(foreigners to be executed in the United States)(Brief Article)

In 1988 Javier Suarez Medina, then 19, was convicted for the murder of Larry Cadena, an undercover cop posing as a drug dealer, in a Texas drug bust. At his trial, police witnesses testified that Medina had opened Cadena's car door and shot the officer. Medina, who was in the United States legally, admitted that he killed Cadena. That was enough to get him convicted. He's scheduled to die by lethal injection in Texas this week.

Medina's home country, Mexico, is scrambling to save his life. Mexican officials argue that Medina's consular rights were violated at the time of his arrest. Under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention, foreigners arrested in the United States have the right to see their consular offices without delay. In Medina's case, that did not happen. In fact, the Mexican Consulate claims that after making inquiries, it was told at various times by Texas officials that Medina was not Mexican, but rather Cuban or Colombian. Mexico, which hasn't applied the death penalty in more than 70 years, does not like the fact that it has more foreign nationals on death row in the United States (54) than in any other country. President Vicente Fox is likely to raise the issue with George W. Bush during his visit to the president's ranch later this month. What Mexico wants is simple: full judicial review of any case involving a violation of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention.

Until recently, the Vienna Convention was invoked only as a diplomatic recourse and had no bearing on individual criminal trials. But a series of high-profile cases, some involving Mexicans, has refocused international attention on U.S. capital-punishment policy. Mexico has taken a leading role in opposing it. "The federal government ...