Mexico City – Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that suspects facing life in prison can be extradited, overturning a four-year ban that had prevented many of the country’s most notorious criminals from being sent to the United States.
It was a ruling that might have spared Denver’s district attorney some trouble bringing suspected cop killer Raul Gomez- Garcia back from Mexico, but a resolution in that case was reached last week.
A 1978 treaty with the United States allows Mexico to deny extradition if a person faces the death penalty – a restriction that still stands under Tuesday’s ruling. But the ruling overturns a 2001 Supreme Court decision that blocked extradition of suspects facing life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Gomez-Garcia was apprehended in Mexico in June after being accused of killing Denver police Detective Donald Young. Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey brought second-degree murder charges against Gomez-Garcia because a first-degree charge could have blocked the extradition by allowing life imprisonment or the death penalty. With Denver assuring that his sentences would not be for life – but still substantial and perhaps consecutive – Gomez-Garcia’s extradition was approved on Thanksgiving Day.
The change comes as no surprise, said Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for Morrissey. She said he was aware that the Mexican Supreme Court was about to rule on the matter, and had spoken with the Mexican Consul General about it.
It’s not clear that if the new criteria had been in effect at the time it would have changed the charges, she said.
The Denver Post contributed to this story.
