Texas Ignores World Court

Because of our dual track system, the President of the United States lacks the legal authority to tell officials in the state government what to do about prison sentences.

Acting on a claim by Mexico’s government that the U.S. government has not done enough to assure the treaty rights of Mexican nationals facing execution for murders in the U.S., the World Court on Wednesday ordered the U.S. — by a 7-5 vote — to stop five imminent executions in Texas.
Leaving it up to the U.S. to choose the way to carry out the order, the international tribunal — formally, the International Court of Justice that sits in The Hague, Netherlands — told the U.S. only to “take all measures necessary to ensure” that Texas does not execute five individuals on its death row.

In March the United States Supreme Court ruled in Medellin v. Texas by 6-3 that a ruling by the World Court could not be enforced against Texas nor by direct intervention of the President of the United States.

The United States Congress would have to make the Vienna Convention binding on the United States which has not been done so far.
A bill to do so was offered in the House but has not been acted upon.

The basic issue revolves around the fact that these men on death row were not told that they had the right to confer with Mexican consulate officials.

The article is quite informative and has links to the actual world court decision as well as a summary of the decision. A four countries supported the United States, but seven did not.