portugal court refuses to extradite us fugitive

[bcbm]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/11/17/portugal_court_refuses_to_send_us_fugitive_home/

this kinda surprised me, but its cool

[rundontwalk]

I don't see what's so cool about this. Unless I read that wrong, he killed an innocent man in cold blood.

Also, I'm pretty sure this breaks treaty obligations.

[tfb]

Whatever he's done, he doesn't deserve to be put in an American prison.

[bcbm]

i meant its cool they decided not to extradite him. he claims he didn't shoot the guy.

[rundontwalk]

i meant its cool they decided not to extradite him. he claims he didn't shoot the guy.
Most criminals claim they didn't do it.

[bcbm]

Also, I'm pretty sure this breaks treaty obligations.

so?


Most criminals claim they didn't do it.

how many people has he murdered since? he seems to be a changed person and (sigh) productive member of society. what is served by sending him back to jail for 30 years?

[rundontwalk]

so?



how many people has he murdered since? he seems to be a changed person and (sigh) productive member of society. what is served by sending him back to jail for 30 years?
So this violates established international norms.

And from reading the wiki page on this guy it appears he didn't shoot the guy, sorry about that. He was charged as an accessory to the murder. Though, he's still guilty of armed robbery and (probably guilty of) later hijacking a plane.

I believe he should be sent back to prison, at least for a time, because it's bad precedent. Help kill someone and hijack a plane, and you can get away with it too if you hide out for long enough.

[bcbm]

So this violates established international norms.

so?


And from reading the wiki page on this guy it appears he didn't shoot the guy, sorry about that. He was charged as an accessory to the murder. Though, he's still guilty of armed robbery and (probably guilty of) later hijacking a plane.

so he already served some time, and living in exile isn't exactly 'fun'


I believe he should be sent back to prison, at least for a time, because it's bad precedent. Help kill someone and hijack a plane, and you can get away with it too if you hide out for long enough.

the conditions that produced those events no longer exist, i don't think there is much of a precedent to set. it isn't the 70's anymore. he isn't a threat to society, why lock him up? its asinine.

[MarxSchmarx]

I don't know if Portugal, like France or Russia, has a carte blanche rule against extraditing its own citizens.

However, what I found curious was the argument that the statute of limitations had expired. There are two interpretations of this. Usually, when somebody flees the law the statute of limitations are put on hold until they are subject to the jurisdiction of being tried. However, maybe here they were counted differently?

Second, it could be that for a comparable charge the Portuguese statute of limitations expired (if he is charged for murder and hijacking a plane in America, I don't believe there are any statute of limitations under American law for those crimes). However, this is not recognized in most extradition treaties as a valid defense. There was a famous case where a Canadian rapist was arrested in America and tried to block his extradition back to Canada on the grounds that the American statute of limitations on rape had expired even though in Canada they had not. The American courts still decided that he should be extradited. IIRC Portugal is bound by the EU wide rules on extradition, at least to the US. It would be an interesting precedent if in fact the Portuguese statute of limitations affected the extradition decision.