THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE OSCE AREA ously been ruled incompetent to be executed on the grounds of insanity. In February 2003, the United States Court of Appeals ruled it was permissible to forcibly medicate Charles Singleton even if that would result in making him sane enough to be executed. The court ruled that: “Singleton presents the court with a choice between involuntary medication followed by an execution and no medication followed by psychosis and imprisonment. Eligibility for execution is the only unwanted consequence of the medication.”131 Foreign nationals The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations provides that the authorities must inform foreign nationals without delay of their right to have their consulate notified of their detention.132 On 31 March 2003, the International Court of Justice ruled that the United States had violated its obligation to inform foreign nationals without delay of their right to have their consulate notified of their detention in 51 of the 52 cases of Mexican nationals brought before it by Mexico.133 The International Court of Justice held that the United States should review the convictions and sentences in each case and determine whether the failure to provide consular notification caused actual prejudice to the defendant in the process of administration of criminal justice. On 14 May 2002, Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma commuted the death sentence of Osvaldo Torres, whose case was one of those before the International Court of Justice, to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The Governor noted that Torres had been denied his consular rights under the Vienna Convention. Fair-trial guarantees Racial prejudices In its Concluding Observations on the periodic report of the United States in 2001, the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination noted with concern that, according to the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, there is a disturbing correlation between race, both of the victim and the defendant, and the imposition of the death penalty, particularly in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The Committee urged the state party to ensure, 131 132 133 No. 00-1492, United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, 10 February 2003. Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963. Avena and other Mexican Nationals (Mexico v. United States of America), 31 March 2004. The International Court of Justice made a similar ruling in La Grande (Germany v. United States), 27 June 2001. 42