08 December 2020 :
The Nevada Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence imposed on Mexican foreign national Carlos Gutierrez. In a 4-3 ruling, the court held that Nevada had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations when police and prosecutors failed to notify Gutierrez of his rights to consular assistance by his government. The court further held, based upon extensive mitigating evidence presented with the assistance of the Mexican government in his post-conviction proceedings, that the denial of consular assistance had been prejudicial.
Gutierrez, of Mexico, was sentenced to death in 1995 by a three-judge panel after pleading guilty to beating to death his three-year-old stepdaughter, Mailin Stafford, in Reno in June 1994.
