US Treaty With Mexico Takes Death Penalty Off Table for Border Patrol Agent Murder Suspect David Codrea - Examiner.com
go to original September 10, 2012

A U.S. Border Patrol agent arrives for a memorial service for slain comrade Brian Terry on Jan. 21, 2011, in Tucson. Terry was killed during a shootout the month before near the U.S.-Mexico Border. (John Moore/Getty Images)

The arrest announced Friday by Mexican federal police of Jesus Leonel Sanchez Meza, a suspect in the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, will bring another perpetrator closer to justice if found guilty, but at the same time hits a legal roadblock that could complicate the prisoner’s extradition from Mexico to the United States. Unless assurance are given that the death penalty will not be sought or imposed, Mexican authorities will refuse to turn Sanchez Meza over for prosecution.

That’s because, by treaty, “When the offense for which extradition is requested is punishable by death under the laws of the requesting Party and the laws of the requested Party do not permit such punishment for that offense, extradition may be refused unless the requesting Party furnishes such assurances as the requested Party considers sufficient that the death penalty shall not be imposed, or, if imposed, shall not be executed.”

“According to the indictment,” the FBI unsealed in July, “ Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga, Ivan Soto-Barraza, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, and Lionel Portillo-Meza [per the BBC, an alias for Jesus Leonel Sanchez Meza] are charged with crimes including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, attempted interference with commerce by robbery, use and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, assault on a federal officer, and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.”

And per U.S. Code, “if the defendant, as determined beyond a reasonable doubt…intentionally killed the victim… intentionally inflicted serious bodily injury that resulted in the death of the victim…intentionally participated in an act, contemplating that the life of a person would be taken or intending that lethal force would be used in connection with a person, other than one of the participants in the offense, and the victim died as a direct result of the act; or…intentionally and specifically engaged in an act of violence, knowing that the act created a grave risk of death to a person, other than one of the participants in the offense, such that participation in the act constituted a reckless disregard for human life and the victim died as a direct result of the act…shall be sentenced to death if… it is determined that imposition of a sentence of death is justified…”

The treaty would appear to take that option away from prosecutors. This has been a source of outrage and contention in the past, when suspects in heinous crimes such as “[a] methamphetamine dealer who gunned down a deputy during a traffic stop in Southern California…[a] man in Arizona who killed his ex-girlfriend's parents and brother and snatched his children [and a] man who suffocated his baby daughter and left her body in a toolbag on an expressway overpass near Chicago” were refused extradition by the Mexican government.

While tentative moves are underway to get the State Department to expand treaty provisions concerning extending the statute of limitations and adding extraditable crimes, capital punishment remains off the table as an option for prosecutors. If they want Sanchez Meza handed over, they’ll need to provide the Mexicans with a guarantee.

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!