Thursday 21 May 2009

Kindler Still Alive (and Well?)

Students of international law on the death penalty will know the name Joseph Kindler. His application to the United Nations Human Rights Committee was dismissed (http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/a442324952271a678025673000413d76?Opendocument), back in 1993, after he failed to fight extradition from Canada to the United States, where he had already been sentenced to death. Kindler was in the news last week, because the United States Supreme Court has just granted leave to appeal a ruling from the Pennsylvania Court of Appeal concerning a challenge brought by Kindler. It is now 18 years since he was extradited from Canada! Here is the application, which was granted by the Court: http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/08-992_pet.pdf.
By the way, the Human Rights Committee ruling has since been reversed: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,HRC,,CAN,4562d94e2,404887ef3,0.html. Moreover, the Supreme Court of Canada ruling that led to his extradition has also been reversed: http://csc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/2001/2001scc7/2001scc7.html.
Thanks to Mark Warren.

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