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Bench Book - 4.2.2 Uniform Extradition Act Considerations

An offender who absconds from a receiving state is a fugitive from justice. The procedures for returning a fugitive to a demanding state can be affected by the Uniform Extradition and Rendition Act (UERA). Under that act, a fugitive may waive all procedural rights incidental to the extradition, for example the issuance of a Governor’s warrant, and consent to return to the state demanding the fugitive. To be valid, the waiver must be in writing, in the presence of a judge, and after the judge has informed the fugitive of his rights under the statute. Nothing in the UERA prevents a person from voluntarily returning to a state. Several courts have recognized that an interstate Compact governing supervision of out-of-state offenders provides an alternative procedure by which a person can be returned to the demanding state without complying with the formalities of the UERA. See In re Klock, 133 Cal App 3d 726 (Cal. Ct. App. 1982); People v. Bynul, 524 N.Y.S.2d 321 (N.Y. Crim. Ct. 1987).  See also, Todd v. Florida Parole and Probation Commission, 410 So.2d 584 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982) (“[W]hen a person is paroled to another state pursuant to an interstate Compact, all requirements to obtain extradition are waived.”) An interstate Compact has been held to displace the UERA as to certain offenders and requires only minimal formalities as to the return of those offenders. Id. Furthermore, the offender’s agreement to waive extradition as a condition of relocating waives the need for formal extradition proceedings at the request of the sending state for the offender’s return.

PRACTICE NOTE: The ICAOS benefits offenders by permitting them to reside and receive supervision in a state where they have family and community ties. In consideration of this privilege, the terms of the ICAOS that includes Rule 3.109 regarding waiver of extradition binds an offender. Therefore, an offender subject to ICAOS is subject to the “alternative procedures” provided in the Compact and its rules, not the provisions of the UERA.

References

Definitions

Click terms below to reveal definitions used in this rule.

Abscond – means to be absent from the offender’s approved place of residence and employment; and failing to comply with reporting requirements;

Behavior Requiring Retaking – means an act or pattern of non-compliance with conditions of supervision that could not be successfully addressed through the use of documented corrective action or graduated responses and would result in a request for revocation of supervision in the receiving state.

Extradition – means the return of a fugitive to a state in which the offender is accused, or has been convicted of, committing a criminal offense, by order of the governor of the state to which the fugitive has fled to evade justice or escape prosecution. 

Retaking – means the act of a sending state in physically removing an offender, or causing to have an offender removed, from a receiving state.

Waiver – means the voluntary relinquishment, in writing, of a known constitutional right or other right, claim or privilege by an offender.