“Extradition” from Africa to the United States—Oliver Travis O’Quinn

A couple of months ago, we mentioned that Oliver Travis O’Quinn was accused of murdering a woman in Florida with a lethal dose of anesthesia. At the time, it was believed that Mr. O’Quinn had fled to the Republic of Ireland, and US authorities prepared to file an extradition request with that country.

After arriving in Ireland at the end of December, and last being seen at a youth hostel in February, it seems that Mr. O’Quinn left the Republic of Ireland and ended up in Africa.^[1] Late last week, “he turned up at the U.S. embassy in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania” as he attempted to have money sent to him.^[2] “A records check by embassy officials led to his capture”; the US Marshals had entered Mr. O’Quinn’s name into a “warrant entry network after Gainesville Police contacted about the case.”^[3] That database, which showed him as a fugitive, was accessible to the U.S. embassy, and the embassy staff immediately “began efforts to revoke O’Quinn’s passport.”^[4]

Mr. O’Quinn was not captured in Mauritania, however; instead, he was captured in Senegal, to which he fled after visiting the US embassy.^[5] He was chased by the Senegalese military and eventually hospitalized for heat exhaustion; after being released from the hospital, he was detained in Dakar, where Senegalese authorities are preparing deportation hearings.^[6]

Deportation is being discussed because Senegal does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, and neither does Mauritania. Relatives of the alleged murder victim believe that Mr. O’Quinn “was trying to reach an African country near Mauritania and Senegal that doesn’t recognize extradition requests from the U.S. That would seem unnecessary, unless he was trying to get to Liberia, which has at least one judge which has claimed that the US-Liberia extradition treaty is no longer in force.

Authorities think that the deportation process will take a couple of weeks. They caution, however. “that these processes can be complicated.”^[7]

It seems that Mr. O’Quinn left Ireland “because too many people knew his whereabouts after news reports alerted them” about the allegations against Mr. O’Quinn.^[8] He has not been formally charged in Florida.^[9]

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[1] Lise Fisher, Suspect in UF Student’s Death Caught in Africa, Gainesville Sun, Jun. 27, 2006.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.