Mansfield Amendment

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Buruji Kashamu

Case No.:16-1004

Officials: POSNER and KANNE, Circuit Judges

Focus: Mansfield Amendment

Buruji Kashamu, a fugitive for nearly two decades and the alleged leader of a heroinimporting conspiracy that inspired the hit show “Orange is the New Black,” appears before us for a third time not in person but through counsel because he is unwilling to risk being present in the United States, and in fact has never in his life been in the United States. See “Man Who Inspired Orange is the New Black Elected Senator in Nigeria” The Guardian, Apr. 16, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/ world/2015/apr/16/alleged-drug-kingpin-wanted-us-electedsenator-nigeria (visited Jan. 20, 2017). In 1998 a grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois had charged him and thirteen others with conspiracy to import heroin, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 963. Eleven coconspirators pleaded guilty, and one other was convicted after trial. But Kashamu, refusing to appear (which would have required his presence in the United States), insisted that the authorities were trying to pin crimes committed by his dead brother—who he said bore a striking resemblance to him—on him. The present suit is Kashamu’s latest attempt to avoid answering the still-pending charges that the Justice Department has brought against him. When he surfaced in England six months after his indictment Justice Department lawyers commenced what turned out to be a four-year legal battle seeking his extradition to the United States—unsuccessfully. Later Kashamu moved to dismiss the American indictment on the ground that the doctrine of collateral estoppel barred his prosecution by the United States. We denied that motion, explaining that the English magistrate’s refusal to authorize his extradition to the United States had been based simply on the Justice Department’s inability to convince the judge that the person it was seeking to extradite was indeed Kashamu. United States v. Kashamu, 656 F.3d 679 (7th Cir. 2011). Because the magistrate had not ruled on Kashamu’s guilt or innocence of the U.S. charges, the refusal to extradite him did not preclude further efforts to prosecute him. Id. at 688.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.