The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area before US courts for review and reconsideration of the imposition of the death penalty. On 13 May 2004, the governor of Oklahoma commuted the death sentence of a Mexican national, whose case was one of those before the ICJ, to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. On 6 September 2005, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals found that the appellant had actually suffered prejudice by the failure to inform him of his rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, but only in the context of his capital sentence. In light of the governor’s granting of clemency and limitation of the appellant’s sentence to life without the possibility of parole, the court found that no further relief was required.123 A final judgement is still expected in Medellin v. Texas, another death-penalty case mentioned in the ICJ decision. On 30 April 2007, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal in this case. The US Government’s amicus brief urged the Court to overturn the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision barring reconsideration of the appellant’s conviction and sentence. The United States argued that the Texas court must follow the president’s determination and thereby fulfil the United States’ international obligation to comply with the ICJ decision. On 28 June 2006, the US Supreme Court issued a decision in the cases of Sanchez Llamas and Bustillo involving breaches of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations in the cases of two individuals sentenced to the death penalty. These cases were not covered by any of the existing ICJ decisions. Both cases involved failures to inform arrested or detained foreign nationals that they may request consular notification and access. The Court did not decide whether Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations was justiciable upon an individual complaint, but stated that, even if it was, exclusion of evidence was not an appropriate remedy for any failure to inform the detainee of his right to notify and request access to consular authorities. The Court pointed out that defendants have other alternatives for breaches of Article 36, such as diplomatic remedies. The Court also decided that the defendants could be procedurally barred from making Article 36 claims if they did not raise them at trial. As of March 2007, there were 124 foreign nationals from 33 countries who had been sentenced to death in the United States. 123  Torres v. State, 2005 OK CR 17, 120 P.3d 1184. 38