Recent news reports have told of a recent court decision requiring the rehearing of a Texas murder case because the Mexican national had not been advised of his right to contact the Mexican Consul when he was arrested.
It was interesting to watch this play out in the media. No doubt about it..the guy deserves to be held accountable for the ugly, brutal slaying of two female teens. It was unfortunate; however that the Media- mostly cable news networks – seemed to be fueling the emotion and not providing a fair and balanced analysis of the relevant court decisions.
The international treaty of which the United Stated participated, allowed for a foreign visitor to contact their consulate if they were detained by police or government officials. This was an effort to protect US citizens while traveling and working overseas. The fact the US has now pulled out of the treaty puts every US citizen traveling outside the US at greater peril.
It’s unfortunate that the emotion of the error of local law enforcement officers inTexas to adhere to the State Department guidelines has now created the consequence of US citizens not having access to US assistance when traveling overseas. Literally, US citizens can and most likely will be detailed and imprisoned and no one will even know, let alone be able to assist.
I’ve been in law enforcement since 1981 and the jails and agencies of which I’ve been associated always had a posted list or reference guide of which countries required notification of detention of their citizens.
It might have been more useful to concentrate efforts on making sure law enforcement and jail officials were aware of the notification requirements rather than expend all the energy on bashing the treaty and government officials under the label of “states rights.”