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A criminal defendant cannot use an extradition as a defense to the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts.
I fully agree with the United States Supreme Court decision on the Alvarez-Machain. The fact of Alvarez-Machain’s forcible abduction from a state with which the United States has a deportation agreement does not forbid his trial in a U.S court of law for desecrations of the felonious laws in the United States. There were no express provisions regarding requirements to refrain from forcible abductions or the outcomes under the agreement if such kidnapping happened (Jacques, 811). I agree that the language of the treaty, in the framework of its history, did not back up the finding of the treaty prohibited abductions outside of its terms. I support the court refusing to imply a term prohibiting international abductions in the treaty because the violations of any principle of international law did not constitute a violation of the treaty. The authority of the law court to try an individual for delinquency is not lessened by the reality that he had been taken in the court’s jurisdiction by reason of a “forcible abduction.” (Jacques, 811). The fact of the defendant’s forcible abduction does not forbid his trial in the U.S. court for violations of this nation’s felonious laws.
I support Rehnquist’s View More
Justice Rehnquist’s decision is a critical view that remains in the record if similar cases come up in the future. This Chief Justice delivered the opinion of the court. In this case, he gave an opinion on whether a criminal respondent, abducted to the United States from a state with which it has a repatriation agreement, in so doing gets a defense to the jurisdiction of this nation’s courts. Justice Rehnquist delivered an opinion of the court in which White, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, and Thomas joined. According to him, a criminal defendant does not, and he might be tried in federal district court for violations of the United States’ criminal law.
Work Cited
Semmelman, Jacques. “United States v. Alvarez-Machain.” American Journal of International Law (1992): 811-820.
