Could You Be Extradited From Florida To Another Jurisdiction?

South Florida is a gateway to the world.  Just look at the array of languages and national flags in Sawgrass Mills mall.  While we are on the subject of Sawgrass Mills, South Florida is where people go to be seen and to bend the rules; it is also where people have close encounters with a nearly endless variety of terrifying reptiles, however rare these might be.  It is no accident that one of the settings of the Gzuniga handbag case is Florida, the home of the only native population of American crocodiles; for that matter, Florida is the only place on Earth that is within the native range of both an alligator species and a crocodile species.  The handbags, which ended up at a Gzuniga retail store in New York, were made from the skin of endangered South American species of pythons and caimans.  At least four people faced criminal charges for smuggling the handbags into the United States by packing them in their luggage on flights from Colombia to Miami.  Three of them were extradited from Colombia to face trial or sentencing in the United States.  If you are facing criminal charges in a case where extradition is a possibility, contact a West Palm Beach criminal defense lawyer.

What If Guilty in Florida Is Better Than an Uncertain Fate Somewhere Else?

Moving defendants from one jurisdiction to another, that is between states or countries, during the criminal process or the sentence of a convicted defendant, is called extradition.  Extradition within the United States is a fairly simple process; if you get arrested in Florida for a warrant issued in another state, it is easy for the authorities to return you to the state where the original alleged crime happened.

International extradition is more complicated.  It is only possible between two countries that have an extradition treaty with each other.  If you are under criminal investigation and you research which countries extradite defendants to the United States and then travel to a country that does not, the prosecution can use this evidence against you.  Countries that have an extradition treaty with each other do not extradite defendants without due process of law.  Before extraditing you from the U.S., the courts will make sure that you will get a fair trial in the country that has requested extradition.  Some extradition treaties are dual criminality treaties, which means that extradition is a possibility for all criminal charges that are felonies in both countries that signed the extradition treaty.  Other extradition treaties are list treaties, which means that they list the offenses for which the courts may extradite defendants from one country to another.  As a rule, you are safe from extradition if you are being accused of a political crime, even if you are in a country that has signed a dual criminality treaty with the U.S.

Contact a West Palm Beach Criminal Defense Lawyer Today

Attorney William Wallshein has more than 38 years of experience, including five years as a prosecutor in Palm Beach County.  Contact William Wallshein P.A. in West Palm Beach, Florida to discuss your case.

Sources:

justice.gov/opa/pr/luxury-handbag-company-founder-and-co-conspirator-sentenced-smuggling-handbags-made-caiman

2009-2017.state.gov/s/l/16164.htm#:~:text=A%20new%20U.S.%2DColombia%20extradition,trafficking%20and%20other%20transnational%20crimes.