The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area Foreign nationals The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations provides that state authorities must inform foreign nationals without delay of their right to have their consulate notified of their detention.68 On 31 March 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) 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 cases of Mexican nationals brought before it by Mexico.69 On 28 February 2005, the US president issued a memorandum to the US attorney general affirming that the United States would comply with the ICJ judgement. As a result, a number of cases have gone before US courts for review and reconsideration of the imposition of the death penalty. In its ruling in Medellin v. Texas,70 a death-penalty case mentioned in the ICJ decision, the Supreme Court found that the president does not have the authority to order states to follow the decision of the ICJ to reconsider the cases it found to violate consular rights. The US position was that the Texas court must follow the president’s memo, which told states to “give effect” to the ICJ’s decision and thereby fulfil the United States’ international obligation to comply with the ICJ decision. The reliance of Texas on the Medellin v. Texas decision to continue to fail to authorize state courts to review cases of foreign nationals on death row who did not have the opportunity to contact their consulates was criticized by the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. According to the special rapporteur, it would be extremely easy for the United States to fulfil its obligations under international law, as each state would simply need to pass “legislation permitting courts to review claims related to consular notification”.71 As of 29 February 2008, there were 122 foreign nationals from 34 countries who had been sentenced to death in the United States.72 Pardon or commutation For federal death-row inmates and death-row inmates under the UCMJ, the president alone has the power to grant clemency. The clemency process at the state level varies 68  Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963. 69  Case concerning Avena and other Mexican nationals (Mexico v. United States of America), 31 March 2004. The International Court of Justice made a similar ruling in the LaGrand case (Federal Republic of Germany v. United States of America), 27 June 2001. 70  See Medellin v. Texas, United States Supreme Court, 25 March 2008. 71  See Alston’s press statement, op. cit., note 65. 72  US response, op. cit., note 38. 13