Do your clients have ties to foreign countries? Could they have a claim to foreign nationality? If so, Reprieve can help…
In 2009 Reprieve launched a three-year project, largely funded by the European Commission, called Reprieve’s EC Project. The Project works with capital defense lawyers to help them fulfill their obligations under the ABA Guidelines to “make appropriate efforts to determine whether any foreign country might consider the client to be one of its nationals.” (Guideline 10.6)
Reprieve
Reprieve has over ten years experience working on the cases of British nationals sentenced to death in the U.S. and around the world. For many years, Reprieve has helped to coordinate timely and effective intervention by the British government, which includes providing assistance from pre-trial to clemency; filing amicus briefs; and making high level diplomatic representations, as well as providing investigation and litigation assistance.
We are now expanding our work to include other foreign nationals.
Nationality laws: Your client may be a foreign national
Many foreign nationality laws are surprisingly flexible, even quirky. A person whose foreign nationality connections go back generations may be able to have their nationality recognized. For example:
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The Spanish memory law
Descendants of Spaniards who fled the country between 1936 and 1955 out of fear of economic hardship or political persecution can apply to have their Spanish citizenship recognized.
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German nationality law
Similarly, descendants of Germans who were deprived of their citizenship on political, racial or religious grounds between 1933 and 1945 can have their German citizenship recognized.
What we do to help
By engaging foreign governments, Reprieve’s EC Project may be able to assist your client in a number of ways. Examples of foreign government assistance include:
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Germany: The German government has, in the past, provided funds to the defense; recognized citizenship during post-conviction proceedings; and assisted with investigation into a defendant’s childhood in Germany. For example, in one case the German Ambassador to the United States and the German Consul-General appeared before the clemency board on the day prior to execution of a German national.
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Great Britain
The British government will write to the relevant authority from whatever level of government is deemed appropriate, from local consular staff right through to the Prime Minister. The letter will express the British government’s position on the death penalty and highlight any particular concerns about the case. As well as this diplomatic assistance, the British government has, in the past, filed amicus briefs on behalf of its nationals.
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Spain
The current Spanish President, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, announced his intention to strive towards an effective global moratorium on executions in 2015. The Spanish government has allocated funds in the national budget to aid the defense of Spanish nationals facing the death penalty abroad.
The questionnaire: How we establish nationality
A brief questionnaire is used to establish any foreign links your client may have. Any information Reprieve acquires from the defense team will be treated as protected work product that is strictly confidential. Information gathered is covered by attorney-client privilege and nothing will be outside of privilege without U.S. counsel’s permission.
Defense counsel will retain complete control over the litigation; decisions will be made by defense counsel, not Reprieve.
To establish how we can help on your client’s case, please contact:
David Sellwood: Reprieve PO Box 52742 London EC4P 4WS United Kingdom +44 (0)207 353 4640 david.sellwood@reprieve.org.uk.
Lucy Larkins: EC Project, The Justice Center, 636 Baronne Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70113 USA +1 (504) 569 8199 lucy.larkins@reprieve-ecproject.org
When dealing with the case of a client who is either a foreign national, or has significant ties to another country, there are some legal texts that could have a significant bearing on the case and may be worth consulting.
The EC Project endeavours to encourage European governments to submit amicus briefs on behalf of their nationals facing imminent execution abroad. There have been several cases in which amicus briefs submitted to the Supreme Court have had a bearing on death penalty cases.
The various issues arising from the cases of foreign nationals facing the death penalty in the US - including consular notification, multigenerational mitigation investigation and international standards on the death penalty - have been written on fairly extensively in recent years.
There are a number of other organisations that can offer a wide range of advice, resources and assistance on death penalty cases, both in a general sense, and specifically in the context of capital punishment in the US. Reprieve has collaborated with many of these organisations in the past and we continue to work with many of them on our EC project cases.
Other websites that may prove helpful include:
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