Judgment extradition in USA also with murder suspicion

Cologne Higher Regional Court: US assurances and lived pardon practice rich
Cologne (jur). An impending charge of murder does not exclude extradition to the US. It is permissible if the US authorities make a binding waiver of the death penalty and if there are realistic chances of early release even in the case of life imprisonment, as the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Cologne decided in a decision announced on Friday, June 3, 2016 ( Az .: 6 AuslA 134/15 - 102). In the case of a Honduran woman, US assurances and a pardon practice were sufficient for the Higher Regional Court.

Image: Brian Jackson - fotolia

US law enforcement officials accuse the woman of killing two people in April 2014 along with an accomplice. The competent court in the US state of Louisiana has issued a warrant.

In November 2015, the woman was arrested at a police station in the Cologne area when she wanted to file a complaint in another case. She fights against her extradition by pointing out that she is threatened with the death penalty or at least an "excessively harsh punishment" in the US.

The background is, on the one hand, the abolition of the death penalty by the Basic Law. In addition, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe had considered extradition inadmissible if imprisonment without a chance of re-socialization is imminent (decision of 13 January 2010, ref .: 2 BvR 2299/09). The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg had also decided that even serious offenders should always have the chance of release and rehabilitation (see ECtHR judgment and JurAgentur report of 9 July 2013, Ref .: 66069/09, 130) / 10 and 3896/10).

In the case now decided by the Higher Regional Court of Cologne, the responsible prosecutor had sworn that he would not apply for a death sentence; according to US law, it may not impose the court then. The Department of Justice in Washington also pledged that in the event of extradition, the death penalty would not be imposed or at least not executed. The Cologne Higher Regional Court therefore assumed that the Honduran woman would not face the death penalty.

Furthermore, the US authorities had referred to the possibility of a pardon for "complaint-free execution and good work performance". This is actually applied, says the Higher Regional Court. Lifelong imprisoned offenders served an average of 20 years in Louisiana. That is not excluded in two murders in Germany. Overall, the delivery is therefore permissible.

The OLG emphasized that it had not examined the murder charge itself. According to the court in its decision of 30 May 2016, it is bound by "the conclusive findings of the American court". Mwo / fle