Extradition from Mexico to the United States—Daniel Perez

American prosecutors have been chomping at the bit after Mexico’s Supreme Court invalidated a law prohibiting life imprisonment in November. The first test extradition case, involving Daniel Perez, has begun.^[1] Mr. Perez was arrested in Mazatlan on Monday, “more than six years after his ex-wife, [Anabella Vara,] was kidnapped and shot and her father was killed.”^[2] In a rarity, Mr. Perez was convicted in absentia of attempted murder and sentenced to 33 years in prison.^[3]

After Ms. Vara’s father testified against Mr. Perez, he was killed in his Fontana, California home; L.A. prosecutors have pledged not to seek the death penalty against Mr. Perez.^[4]

The 1978 extradition treaty between the United States and Mexico states that extradition can be had for “person who the competent authorities of the requesting Party have charged with an offense or have found guilty of committing an offense, or are wanted by said authorities to complete a judicially pronounced penalty of deprivation of liberty.”^[5] The treaty contains a hybrid Extraditable Offenses provision; it contains both a laundry list of offenses, as well as a dual-criminality clause.^[6] Furthermore, if the request is “for the execution of a sentence,” there still must be at least six months of the sentence remaining to be served.^[7]

The treaty also contains a non bis in idem clause which states that “[e]xtradition shall not be granted when the person sought has been prosecuted or has been tried and convicted or acquitted by the requested Party for the offense for which extradition is requested.”^[8] The key here is that this clause prevents the suspect from being subject to double jeopardy by being punished both in the requested state and in the requesting state. It does not bar extradition for a person who is convicted in absentia, in the requesting state.

Of course, this may all be moot if Mexico continues to arrest suspects and send them back to the United States extrajudicially, as we have seen with Arthur March and Tongsun Park.

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[1] L.A. Seeks Murder Suspect’s Extradition, Associated Press (via Houston Chronicle), Jan. 25, 2006.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Extradition Treaty, May 4, 1978, U.S.-Mex., art. 1, para. 1, 31 U.S.T. 5059; TIAS 9656.
[6] Id. art. 2.
[7] Id. art 2, para. 2.
[8] Id. art. 6.