If a Mexican citizen faces capital charges in the United States, the Mexican government will extradite him only on the condition that – if convicted – the suspect will not be sentenced to death or even life in prison without parole, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Police in Denver believe that Raul Garcia-Gomez, wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of a police officer, may be heading to Mexico. Garcia-Gomez is from Mexico and has ties to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, according to authorities.
The district attorney’s office in Denver has not said whether it would seek the death penalty in the case.
The Mexican Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that the death penalty and life-without-parole sentences are unconstitutional.
The Mexican government’s stance angered some Americans after Armando Garcia, a Mexican citizen suspected of killing Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff David March on April 29, 2002, fled to Mexico to avoid prosecution. He is presumed to be living in Mexico.
A year later, the U.S. House of Representatives, with the Senate concurring, passed a resolution urging President Bush to renegotiate the 1978 extradition treaty with Mexico to remove the exclusions involving the death penalty and life in prison without parole.
Mexico has a death-penalty statute on its books but does not enforce it. The last execution by the Mexican government occurred in 1937.
