Mandamus – dismissal — extradition

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Criminal

Mandamus – dismissal — extradition

The government’s failure to extradite an international fugitive does not entitle him to dismissal of the charges.

“It’s not as if he wants to be extradited to stand trial in the United States on the very serious criminal charges against him but hasn’t just so he won’t have to pay for his plane ticket to Chicago. One of his codefendants was sentenced to 10 years in prison. If Kashamu was indeed the ringleader of the drug conspiracy, as he may have been, he might if convicted be given an even heavier sentence–quite possibly a life sentence; 21 U.S.C. § 960(b)(1)(A), authorizes a life sentence for a conspiracy to import at least a kilogram of heroin. If he wants to fight the charges, he has only to fly from Lagos to Chicago; there are loads of reasonably priced flights. See Priceline.com, ‘Cheap Flights from Lagos, Nigeria, to Chicago, IL,’ www.priceline.com/insideTrack/flights/Lagos-LOS-Chicago-CHI.html (visited Sept. 9, 2014).”

“How then can he argue with a straight face that the failure of the United States to extradite him entitles him to dismissal of the charges? He can’t; and the petition for a writ of mandamus is therefore DENIED.”

Petition Denied.

14-2093 In re: Kashamu

Petition for Writ of Mandamus to the Northern District of Illinois, Norgle, J., Posner, J.