EXTRADITION

EXTRADITION is the surrendering by one state to another or by one nation to another of an individual accused of a crime in the state or nation demanding the surrender of the accused. The accused who has fled to an asylum state or nation is deemed a fugitive of the law. A state or nation makes an extradition demand in order to put the accused on trial within its jurisdiction. In the United States extradition of an accused is either interstate or international. States and nations are not required automatically to surrender a fugitive because of the sovereignty of the states and nations. Sovereignty of the states and world nations necessitates extradition laws and treaties and extradition proceedings.

Interstate extradition or interstate rendition within the United States is authorized by Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution, which states, "A Person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime." Interstate extradition is also codified in U.S. federal law. A state, acting under authority of the Constitution or federal law, may only demand the surrender of a person who is accused of committing a crime within the requesting state.

A demand from a state for the surrender of a fugitive begins extradition proceedings. Extradition proceedings are not part of the legal trial to determine the fugitive's guilt or innocence of the crime. An extradition proceeding occurs, if at all, in the asylum state to consider the merit of the demanding state's charge against the accused. After receiving a written demand and examining the facts of the charge against the accused, the governor of the asylum state may grant or deny the demand to surrender the fugitive. If denying the demand, the governor may decide to bring the accused to trial within the asylum state's jurisdiction.

If a demanding state wants to try a fugitive within the state's jurisdiction for a crime committed in the asylum state or a third state, the demanding state must rely on the authority of state legislation rather than the Constitution and federal law. Extradition of a fugitive juvenile, as opposed to a fugitive adult, from an asylum state to a requesting state occurs only if it is determined that extradition of the fugitive juvenile is in the best interests of the United States and in the best interests of the juvenile.

International extradition exists only by authority of an international treaty. The United States has the right to make an extradition demand only if a treaty with the nation providing a fugitive with asylum includes an extradition agreement. The United States has a duty to surrender an accused only if the United States has a treaty containing an extradition agreement with the nation demanding the surrender of a fugitive. Absent a treaty, neither the United States government nor the foreign government has the right to demand or the duty to deliver a criminal fugitive.

Even with a treaty, the United States and the demanding or asylum nation may place restrictions on the duty to surrender a fugitive. The use of the death penalty in many states gives reason, as authorized in the governing treaty, for a foreign asylum nation to refuse to extradite a fugitive to the United States. The foreign asylum nation may refuse to extradite a fugitive unless the United States assures the asylum country that the death penalty will not be used if the fugitive is found guilty. The United States has a "political offense exception" to extradition, which provides that the United States will not extradite to a foreign nation a fugitive accused of revolutionary activity that the offended government deems a crime. Thomas Jefferson, credited with first putting the political offense exception into international treaties, wanted to protect revolutionaries from oppressive political systems. During the 1980s U.S. courts, attempting to exempt terrorists from the political offense exception, created "wanton crimes" and "war crimes" exceptions to the U.S. political offense exception to international extradition. By 2001 the United States had treaties containing extradition agreements with 107 of the 190 nations in the world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pyle, Christopher H. Extradition, Politics, and Human Rights. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001.

United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network. Available http://www.uncjin.org/Laws/extradit/extindx.htm. Provides updated extradition information by country.

Akiba J.Covitz

Esa LianneSferra

Meredith L.Stewart

See alsoSovereignty, Doctrine of .