18 U.S.C. § 4100
Section 4100 · Scope and limitation of chapter
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 34 court decisions — leading case Scalise v. Thornburgh (1989)
Most recently applied in United States v. Escovio Rios (December 2022)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) The provisions of this chapter relating to the transfer of offenders shall be applicable only when a treaty providing for such a transfer is in force, and shall only be applicable to transfers of offenders to and from a foreign country pursuant to such a treaty. A sentence imposed by a foreign country upon an offender who is subsequently transferred to the United States pursuant to a treaty shall be subject to being fully executed in the United States even though the treaty under which the offender was transferred is no longer in force.
(b) An offender may be transferred from the United States pursuant to this chapter only to a country of which the offender is a citizen or national. Only an offender who is a citizen or national of the United States may be transferred to the United States. An offender may be transferred to or from the United States only with the offender's consent, and only if the offense for which the offender was sentenced satisfies the requirement of double criminality as defined in this chapter. Once an offender's consent to transfer has been verified by a verifying officer, that consent shall be irrevocable. If at the time of transfer the offender is under eighteen years of age, or is deemed by the verifying officer to be mentally incompetent or otherwise incapable of knowingly and voluntarily consenting to the transfer, the transfer shall not be accomplished unless consent to the transfer be given by a parent or guardian, guardian ad litem, or by an appropriate court of the sentencing country. The appointment of a guardian ad litem shall be independent of the appointment of counsel under section 4109 of this title.
(c) An offender shall not be transferred to or from the United States if a proceeding by way of appeal or of collateral attack upon the conviction or sentence be pending.
(d) The United States upon receiving notice from the country which imposed the sentence that the offender has been granted a pardon, commutation, or amnesty, or that there has been an ameliorating modification or a revocation of the sentence shall give the offender the benefit of the action taken by the sentencing country.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1988—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 100–690 inserted “, or is deemed by the verifying officer to be mentally incompetent or otherwise incapable of knowingly and voluntarily consenting to the transfer,” after “under eighteen years of age”, “, guardian ad litem,” after “guardian”, and “The appointment of a guardian ad litem shall be independent of the appointment of counsel under section 4109 of this title.”
Authorization of Appropriations
Section 5(a) of Pub. L. 95–144 provided that: “There is authorized to be appropriated such funds as may be required to carry out the purposes of this Act [which enacted this chapter and sections 955 of Title 10, Armed Forces, and 2256 of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure, amended section 636 of Title 28, and enacted provisions set out as notes under sections 3006A, 4100, and 4102 of this title]”.