602
Procedures For Requesting Extradition From Abroad
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Extradition involves four basic steps:
- contacting the Office of International Affairs;
- making a preliminary determination of extraditability;
- deciding whether to ask for provisional arrest; and
- submitting the required documents in support of the formal request for
extradition.
These steps are described more fully in the following sections.
Some courts have held that the Speedy Trial Clause of the Sixth
Amendment
or the Speedy Trial Act require the government to make a diligent good-faith
effort to bring the defendant to trial promptly; in the context of
extradition,
this means that the government is obligated to seek the extradition of a
fugitive
as soon as his or her location becomes known unless the effort would be
useless.
E.g. United States v. Blanco, 861 F.2d 773 (2d Cir. 1988),
cert.
denied, 489 U.S. 1019 (1989); United States v. Pomeroy, 822 F.2d
718
(8th Cir. 1987); United States v. Walton, 814 F.2d 376 (7th Cir.
1987).
Consequently, the prosecutor should contact the Office of International
Affairs
as soon as the whereabouts of a fugitive or the target of an investigation
is
known. See also USAM
9-15.225.
[cited in USAM 9-15.200] | |