There is a further point to consider. We are bound, by the Constitution, to give preeminence to treaties. However, the passion underlying the Torres case really has nothing to do with procedural protocols; it is a question of life and death. The Mexican government abolished capital punishment some time before it apprehended, in 1940, Trotsky's assassin, who was free 20 years later. It is a tendency of countries that have abolished capital punishment to think themselves wardens of a moral afflatus that entitles them to treat with contempt those who still believe in the ultimate penalty. What can be thought of as moral encirclement is in progress. The International Court at The Hague is the judicial enforcer of a pretty extensive list of human rights, which includes the right of children not to be spanked by their mother.

The act of courtesy by the State of Oklahoma has the very direct effect of putting off the execution of Osbaldo Torres and of American justice. It has the further effect, psychologically, of superordinating the international court's idea of justice over that of Americans, who wish to make their own laws, which call, this time around, for the execution of Osbaldo Torres.