France Will Not Extradite if Death Penalty Is Possible Essay Example

federal indictment charges Mr. Kopp with violating a 1993 law protecting access to abortion clinics and with using a weapon in a violent crime that resulted in death — the potential death penalty provision.

A separate Erie County indictment charges him with second-degree murder, which is not a capital crime in New York. An official with the Justice Department said efforts had begun to return Mr. Kopp to the United States under a treaty arrangement in which federal prosecutors have 40 days to submit information to persuade French authorities to extradite Mr. Kopp. Louis J. Freeh, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said on Thursday that "we expect he will be extradited." But, Mr. Freeh noted, "There's a lot of restrictions in the treaty with respect to the penalty.

These are diplomatic issues that have to be determined." George P. Fletcher, the Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence at the Columbia Law School and a former prosecutor, suggested that American officials might give assurances to the French that the death penalty would not be invoked. He said such agreements had been made in cases involving extradition from Canada and Mexico. "They don't like it to be known," he said, "but prosecutors agree in advance not to impose the death penalty." Justice Department officials said that there had been no decision on whether to seek the death penalty. A Justice Department official said determining whether to seek the death penalty begins with a recommendation by the local United States attorney.

It is followed by a review by a capital punishment committee in the Justice Department and a final decision by the attorney general. This procedure cannot begin, the official

added, until the defendant is represented by a lawyer. Officials said the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs would be handling discussions with the French. Discussions are also under way in Buffalo between the United States attorney for the Western District of New York, Denise E. O'Donnell, and the Erie County prosecutor, Frank J. Clark, over jurisdiction in the case.

In the Oklahoma City bombing, for example, the federal prosecution went first. But New York's double jeopardy laws mean that an initial federal case would preclude a state trial, a law enforcement official said. A Canadian arrest warrant was issued for Mr. Kopp last year, charging him with the 1995 sniper shooting of an abortion provider in his home in Ancaster, Ontario, wounding him in the elbow. Mr. Kopp is also a suspect in three similar shootings. Kathleen Mehltretter, the first assistant United States attorney in Buffalo who has been supervising the investigation since the shooting of Dr. Slepian, said that "our investigation is definitely continuing to determine whether or not other people assisted him."

On Thursday, F.B.I. agents arrested two other anti-abortion activists, Dennis J. Malvasi and Loretta C. Marra, at what prosecutors called a "safe house" in East New York, Brooklyn, for aiding Mr. Kopp in his flight. Mr. Kopp was seized by French police as he waited in the Dinan post office, officials said, for a money order from the couple to pay for his return to America.

Law enforcement officials became interested in Ms. Marra as they checked the records of Mr. Kopp's many arrests in anti-abortion protests and identified those who had been arrested with him. Ms. Marra was jailed with Mr. Kopp

after protests against Planned Parenthood in Burlington, Vt., in 1990, and they shackled themselves together during a Long Island protest.