Briefly Resuscitating the Great Writ: The International Court of Justice and the US Death Penalty

A single judgment of a non-U.S. court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, tackled troubling aspects of the post-conviction death penalty process in the United States. The ICJ decision, Avena,¹ had altered U.S. death penalty jurisprudence beyond what even the U.S. Supreme Court seemed willing to do.² The ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations that sits thousands of miles from the U.S. coast, took direct aim at procedural hurdles in the U.S. system that have denied meaningful review of arguably meritorious claims. In addition to exposing flaws, the ICJ’s judgment in Avena required the United States to take corrective measures. The reach of Avena ran from state trial courts to the U.S. Supreme Court, from the office of state governors to the office of the U.S. President.