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82 F.3d 964

Docket No. 95-6244.

Smith v. United States

Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided April 30, 1996.

Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1996-04-30

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently June 2018

3 federal appellate · 2 district ·

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“[H]abeas corpus is available only to inquire whether the magistrate [judge] had jurisdiction, whether the offense charged is within the treaty and, by a somewhat liberal extension, whether there was any evidence warranting the finding that there was reasonable ground to believe the accused guilty.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Sidali v. Immigration & Naturalization Service

“there [is] any evidence warranting finding that there was a reasonable ground to believe the accused was guilty.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including In re Caro

Applies 18 U.S.C. § 3184 · 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)

Relies on S.S. Zoe Colocotroni v. Puerto Rico · Fernandez v. Phillips · Reading Co. v. CJI Industries, Inc.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1996-04-30

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*965Irven R. Box of Box & Box, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Appellant.

¶2Patrick M. Ryan, United States Attorney, H. Lee Schmidt, Assistant United States Attorney, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Appel-lee.

¶3Before TACHA, BALDOCK, and BRISCOE, Circuit Judges.

¶4TACHA, Circuit Judge.

¶5Appellant appeals1 the district court’s denial of habeas relief, 28 U.S.C. § 2241, from the magistrate judge’s decision certifying appellant’s extraditability, see 18 U.S.C. § 3184, to stand trial for manslaughter in the Republic of Germany.2 This court will review the district court’s legal determinations de novo and its findings of fact for clear error. Theron v. United States Marshal, 832 F.2d 492, 495 (9th Cir.1987), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1059, 108 S.Ct. 2830, 100 L.Ed.2d 930 (1988); see also In re Extradition of Howard, 996 F.2d 1320, 1327-28 (1st Cir.1993). The scope of habeas corpus review of a magistrate judge’s extradition order under a treaty with a foreign country is limited to determining whether the magistrate judge had jurisdiction, whether the offense charged is within the treaty, and, by somewhat liberal construction, whether there was any evidence warranting finding that there was a reasonable ground to believe the accused was guilty. Brauch v. Raiche, 618 F.2d 843, 847 (1st Cir.1980) (citing Fernandez v. Phillips, 268 U.S. 311, 312, 45 S.Ct. 541, 542, 69 L.Ed. 970 (1925)).

¶6Appellant first argues that the evidence presented to the magistrate judge was insufficient to establish probable cause to believe appellant is the individual who committed the crime in question. Upon our careful review of the record, it is clear that there was sufficient evidence to support a “reasonable belief’ that appellant was guilty of the crime charged. See Austin v. Healey, 5 F.3d 598, 605 (2d Cir.1993), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 114 S.Ct. 1192, 127 L.Ed.2d 542 (1994).

¶7Appellant’s next argument, that extradition would violate his constitutional right to equal protection because under the applicable treaty, Germany can refuse to extradite its citizens, while the United States cannot, is unavailing. See Escobedo v. United States, 623 F.2d 1098, 1106-07 & 1107 n. 26 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1036, 101 S.Ct. 612, 66 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980) and 450 U.S. 922, 101 S.Ct. 1371, 67 L.Ed.2d 350 (1981).

¶8Lastly, appellant argues that extradition would violate his constitutional right to a fair trial, in light of the permissible use of hearsay statements in German courts. This court, in reviewing a certification of. extraditability, will not inquire into the fairness of the requesting nation’s justice system. In re Extradition of Howard, 996 F.2d at 1329.

“When an American citizen commits a crime in a foreign country, he cannot complain if required to submit to such modes of trial and to such punishment as the laws of that country prescribe for its own people, unless a different mode be provided by treaty stipulations between that country and the United States.”

¶9Yapp v. Reno, 26 F.3d 1562, 1565 (11th Cir.1994) (quoting Neely v. Henkel, 180 U.S. 109, 123, 21 S.Ct. 302, 307, 45 L.Ed. 448 (1901)). Therefore, when an American citizen is tried in a foreign country, he is entitled only to the procedural protections accorded by the applicable foreign law, subject to whatever additional protections may be available to him under treaty stipulations between that country and the United States. Id.

¶10The judgment of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma is, therefore, AFFIRMED.

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