US: Fighting extradition (1)
01 January 1991
US: Fighting extradition
artdoc August=1991
Joseph Doherty is the longest-held prisoner in the history of the
Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. He has now spent
eight years in confinement. He was arrested and imprisoned in New
York City on 18 June 1983, on an immigration warrant. Request for
his extradition was lodged by the British government in August
1983.
The Extradition request was denied by US District Court Judge
John E Sprizzo in December 1984 on the ground that the acts for
which extradition sought not common crimes but rather offences
of a political character; extradition was therefore barred by the
political offence exception provision of controlling treaty. He
said `the facts of this case present the assertion of the
political offence exception in its most classic form.' [Matter
of Doherty, 599 F.Supp. 270, 276 (S.D.N.Y. 1984)]. In February
1985, the executive branch filed an unprecedented lawsuit against
Mr Doherty, asserting that Judge Sprizzo decided the extradition
case wrongly. In June 1985, US District Court Judge Charles S
Haight, Jr dismissed the government's lawsuit, ruling that Judge
Sprizzo's order denying extradition was not subject to review.
[United States v. Doherty, 615 F.Supp. 755 (S.D.N.Y. 1985)].
In March 1986, the US Court of Appeals termed the executive
branch position `startling' and affirmed Judge Haight's decision
in favour of Mr Doherty in all respects. [United States v
Doherty, 786 F.2d 491 (2d Cir. 1986)].
On 19 September 1986, Immigration Judge Howard I Cohen entered
an order rejecting the claim of the executive branch that Mr.
Doherty should be deported to the United Kingdom. Judge Cohen
ordered Mr Doherty returned to Ireland, the country of which he
is a citizen. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
appealed on the ground that Mr Doherty's deportation to Ireland
would be prejudicial to the interests of the United States. On
11 March 1987, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), in a
unanimous decision, ruled in favour of Mr Doherty and against the
INS. It observed that no such claim of prejudice has ever before
been raised and that the INS presented no evidence to support it.
The INS moved to reopen the BIA decision on the ground that it
wished to submit evidence in support of its claim of prejudice.
On 22 May 1987, the BIA, in a 3-2 decision, reaffirmed the
correctness of the order rejecting the executive branch's
assertion that Mr Doherty should be returned to the United
Kingdom. Unable to prevail in any forum, the Reagan
administration referred the case to Attorney General Edwin Meese
for his personal `review.' By so doing, the Attorney General, the
losing party throughout, was empowered to have the final say on
whether he should have lost. On 9 June 1988, Edwin Meese
reversed his own immigration officials decision and ordered
Joseph Doherty deported to the United Kingdom. The controversial
ruling effectively vitiated six separate decisions in Mr.
Doherty's favour.
Prior to the Attorney General's controversial decision, the
Justice Department's handling of the case necessitated Mr
Doherty's filing, on 3 December 1987, a motion to reopen the
deportation proceeding to permit him to reassert his claims for
political asylum and withholding of deportation, as well as to
enable him to redesignate his country of deportation.
The motion was necessitated by the 1 December 1987,
implementation, in Ireland, of the Extradition (European
Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism) Act, 1987. Subsequent
to its implementation, Mr Doherty's deportation to Ireland would
be the functional equivalent of extradition to the United
Kingdom. On 14 November 1988, the BIA, in a 3-2 decision,
granted Mr Doherty's motion to reopen the deportation
proceedings. This decision, the seventh in his favour, entitled
Mr Doherty to a hearing on his claims for political asylum and/or
withholding of deportati