| The information on this webpage was compiled by the CCADP without the previous knowledge or consent of the prisoner. The CCADP is refusing to remove any Arizona prisoner materials from the internet until the law banning prisoners from the internet has been challenged and defeated, to ensure ALL Arizona death row prisoners are allowed to have their voices heard... Prisoners contacting the CCADP for removal under threats from the DOC receive a copy of the following: CLICK HERE |
| Under,
the Vienna Convention on Consular Rights, the U.S. government has the obligation
of informing any foreign citizen arrested on U.S. soil of their consular rights, but often violates the convention. The arresting Arizona authorities violated US obligations under international law in their failure to comply with the notification provisions of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Vienna Convention on Consular Relations adopted by the U.N. |
| International
Court of Justice Condemns the U.S. For past Vienna Convention violations
in Arizona The International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has its seat in The Hague, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. LAGRAND CASE (GERMANY v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA) " The Court finds that the United States has breached its obligations to Germany and to the LaGrand brothers under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations The Court finds, for the first time in its history, that orders indicating provisional measures are legally binding." - Judgment of June 27, 2001 Regarding the Execution of the LaGrand Brothers in Arizona |
| Foreign national/mental retardation
issues in Apelt case "The German-born man (Rudi) didn't speak until he was 7 or 8, and attended school for the mentally retarded." |
Photos of Rudi Apelt
Mentally retarded on death row given hope
Rudi
Apelt's father tried to kill him before he was even born.
He slammed an iron rod into his malnourished, drug-addicted
wife's womb in a botched abortion attempt, but Rudi
survived - barely.
It was the beginning of an abusive childhood for Rudi, whose alcoholic
father bruised and bloodied his seven children almost daily.
The German-born man didn't speak until he was 7 or
8, and attended school for the mentally retarded.
Now Apelt's federal public defender will try to use his tortured life and
mental retardation to save his life.
Apelt is one of Arizona's 126 death row prisoners, some of whom were
handed new hope this week when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
in a divided opinion that executing the mentally retarded
amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Arizona Assistant Attorney General Kent Cattani called the ruling
"significant" and expects a number of appeals from inmates
asking that their death sentences be commuted to
life.
While Arizona joined 17 other states last year when it outlawed the
execution of the mentally retarded, the measure did not extend
to already condemned prisoners. Now, buoyed by the
weight of the high court decision, a judge's finding
of mental retardation will automatically exempt them
from the death penalty.
Death row inmates who want to use this claim will have to rely on their
lawyers to raise the issue. The state isn't going to go looking
for them.
"I'm very excited," said Apelt's federal public defender Dale Baich.
Defense experts agree that Apelt's IQ is only 55, far below
the generally accepted standard of 70 in states that
already ban such executions, he said.
No one knows how many of the state's death row inmates are mentally
retarded, but Cattani and Baich believe there are several.
Since 1997, Baich said he has argued that his client's tortured childhood
shows both psychological scars and mental retardation as
a way to spare his life.
He and his brother Michael Apelt were convicted in the 1990 stabbing
death of Michael's wife to collect her $400,000 life insurance
policy. They came to the United States from Germany
in 1988.
The high court shied away from setting an exact IQ standard, leaving that
up to the other 20 death penalty states that don't ban executions
of the mentally retarded to decide who fits that description.
The decision isn't easy.
Judges use IQ tests and expert testimony to rule on whether
a defendant facing the death penalty is mentally
retarded. But defense attorneys say prosecutors often
argue that retardation can be feigned.
"Prosecutors said Rudi was faking it," Baich said, adding, however, that
his client's condition is verified by medical records, and
school and social service reports.
However, Cattani said the courts didn't ignore mental retardation even
before Arizona passed the 2001 law. It was among other mitigating
factors considered at sentencing.
"The planning and carrying out of a murder tends to weigh against the
fact that (a defendant) was mentally retarded," he said.
Cattani is among those who say it isn't unusual for defendants to pretend
to be mentally retarded when taking IQ tests.
But Susan Cannata, a lobbyist for the Association for Retarded Citizens,
said the opposite is more likely true.
Mentally retarded people want to fit in, she said.
"They've been conditioned over the course of their lives
to hide mental retardation," she said. "A lot of
them try to cover it up."
(source: Arizona Republic)
| Rudi Apelt's CCADP Page | Michael Apelt's CCADP Page |
