The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers will present its Champion of Justice award to Mexican President Vicente Fox at a ceremony tomorrow during its annual Spring Meeting, being held this year in Cancun, Mexico. Subsecretary for Human Rights and Democracy Mariclaire Acosta will travel to Cancun to accept the award on Fox's behalf.

Sandra Babcock, an NACDL member who serves as chief counsel for the Mexican government in cases seeking to convince the United States to honor international due process rights in death penalty cases, said Fox deserves the award. "President Fox has done more than any other world leader to promote respect for international law in the imposition of the death penalty. His most impressive achievement of all was undoubtedly his decision to take the cases of all 51 Mexican nationals on death row to the International Court of Justice."

Lawrence Goldman, president of NACDL, will present the award. The ceremony will take place at 11:30 a.m. local time at the Melia Cancun Beach & Spa Resort, the site of the NACDL conference and seminar. Speakers at the seminar, which continues through Saturday morning, include Todd Foster, who represented Steven and Marlene Aisenberg in criminal and civil cases related to the disappearance of their daughter, and Louis Sirkin, lead counsel in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, decided last term by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Previous recipients of the Champion of Justice award include death penalty activists Bianca Jagger and Sister Helen Prejean, U.S. Representatives Barney Frank and John D. Conyers, Jr., and journalists Molly Ivins, Bob Herbert, and Maurice Possley.

Thanks to NACDL Media Director Dan Dodson for the news.