Mexico's Fox to insist US honor World Court ruling on Death Row Inmates

Mexican President Vicente Fox said on Sunday he would insist to U.S. President George W. Bush that the United States respect a World Court order to review the cases of 51 Mexicans on death row in U.S. prisons.

The International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, last Wednesday ordered the United States to review the convictions and sentences of the Mexican defendants.

Texas snubbed the World Court, saying the international tribunal's order to review the cases did not apply in the nation's busiest death penalty state.

"We haven't spoken to him (Bush) up to now. We will do so in good time, to him and to the governor, to insist on this act of elemental justice," Fox told reporters as he left Sunday mass near his ranch in Guanajuato.

The international court sided in its ruling with Mexico, finding that the condemned men, held in 10 different states, were not apprised of their right under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to seek help from the Mexican consulate after their arrests.

On several occasions, Texas' executions of foreign nationals have angered close U.S. allies, including Canada, Britain and Mexico, which complained that their citizens were not apprised of their consular rights.

Texas leads all other U.S. states in terms of the number of executions -- 321 -- since resuming capital punishment in 1982, six years after a national death penalty ban was lifted.

Texas Gov. Perry Says Kiss My Ass.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office said the decision would have no effect on the 16 affected cases in his state unless they are ordered to review the cases by the federal government.