Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon

Supreme Court of the United States · 2006 · Federal Courts

Federal CourtsTreatiesVienna ConventionProcedural DefaultExclusionary RuleVienna Convention on Consular RelationsArticle 36consular notification

Facts

Sanchez-Llamas, a Mexican national, was arrested after a shootout with police, given Miranda warnings in English and Spanish, interrogated with an interpreter, and made incriminating statements, but officers never told him he could request notice to the Mexican Consulate. Before trial he moved to suppress those statements partly on the ground of an Article 36 violation, but the motion was denied. Bustillo, a Honduran national convicted of murder, likewise was never told he could request notice to the Honduran Consulate. He raised the Article 36 claim for the first time in a state habeas petition, asserting that the consulate could have helped his defense, but the state court held the claim procedurally barred.

Issue

Assuming Article 36 of the Vienna Convention creates rights enforceable by individuals, does a violation require suppression of a defendant's statements to police, and may a State apply its ordinary procedural default rules to bar an Article 36 claim not raised at trial? The Court also confronted whether it needed to decide definitively that Article 36 creates individually enforceable rights.

Rule

Even assuming Article 36 creates judicially enforceable individual rights, the Vienna Convention does not require suppression of evidence as a remedy for its violation, and States may apply their regular procedural default rules to Article 36 claims. Federal courts may not impose suppression on state courts through supervisory power, and absent express or implicit treaty authority for a specific remedy, courts may not create one for the States.

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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

Police in Phoenix arrest Diego Maren, a citizen of Peru, on state burglary charges. Officers give proper Miranda warnings, Diego waives them, and he gives a voluntary confession, but no one tells him he may request notice to the Peruvian consulate.

At trial, Diego moves to suppress the confession solely because officers violated Article 36 by failing to inform him of his consular-notification rights. How should the court rule?

Explanation. Suppression is not an appropriate remedy for an Article 36 violation absent treaty authority. The majority assumed without deciding that Article 36 may create enforceable individual rights, but held that the Convention does not prescribe suppression and leaves implementation to domestic law. Because exclusion is a costly remedy used mainly for certain Fourth and Fifth Amendment violations, and consular notice is only remotely connected to evidence gathering, the confession should not be suppressed on that basis alone. (Derived from Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon (2006).)