Suspected cop-killer Raul Garcia-Gomez’s arrest in Mexico on Saturday was only one step in bringing him to justice. We urge local and U.S. officials to work with their Mexican counterparts to ensure that he’ll be extradited to Colorado for trial in the killing of Officer Donnie Young.
That may entail considerable diplomacy. A 1978 treaty forbids extradition of Mexican nationals to the U.S. if a death sentence is possible. Then, in 2001, Mexico’s Supreme Court barred extradition if the penalty is life without possibility of parole. During a news conference Monday, Mexican Consul General Juan Marcos Gutierrez Gonzales confirmed that if those penalties are in play, extradition “will be denied for sure.”
Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey wants to try Garcia-Gomez in Colorado and says he will follow Mexican guidelines for extradition. Negotiations would involve the U.S. Departments of State and Justice.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., called U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Mexican Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca on Tuesday to urge Garcia-Gomez’s extradition to Colorado. “If Garcia-Gomez is found guilty of the cold-blooded murder of Officer Young, [he] should never be allowed to ever again walk the streets of our world as a free man,” Salazar said. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., urged U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to intervene with the Mexican government.
Although the number of fugitives extradited from Mexico has increased in recent years, the total is still pitiful: only 34 last year. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley says Mexico has become a refuge for murderers from the United States. A “handful” of California cop-killers have fled to Mexico, he said, and about “two dozen nationally.” More generally, 2,000 or 3,000 murderers have run to Mexico. Cooley wants Washington to determine whether the 2001 court ruling puts Mexico in breach of the 1978 extradition treaty.
Pressure from Washington won’t force Garcia-Gomez’s extradition on first-degree murder charges, said Ved Nanda, law professor at the University of Denver. “No Mexican government will be willing to do that.” He believes it could take years for the case to work through the Mexican judicial system. Also mitigating against any deference to Washington is ongoing resentment in Mexico because of President Bush’s failure to deliver on immigration reform, he said (not that Garcia-Gomez is a poster boy for looser borders).
It is possible that the Mexicans will refuse extradition but put Garcia-Gomez on trial on Mexican soil. But he should not be rewarded for heading across the border to evade arrest. Extraditon may require creative and flexible thinking on both sides of the border to ensure that Garcia-Gomez faces a jury in the jurisdiction where the crime took place. Sheltering him from just punishment would be a badge of dishonor, and frankly we do not expect that from Mexico.
