Arizona republican., 1910-07-17
International County and Extradition

ICA ONi tAAi dutNAOIl lItdlitS anu DTdS- tice that has been little understood When Charlton was captured in this country. following the murder of his
 wife in Italy. it was generally as- Sumed that he would be turned over to the Italian government at once for trial and punishment And if Grip pen, the Los Angeles dentist who pre- sumably murdered his wife in Lon don, is captured, any hesitation by our government in delivering him to the English authorities will provoke inquiry as to why there should be any hesitation at all.
 It is all a matter of treaty, and of l established custom under our extra dition treaties. As a general thing it is the rule in making extradition treaties for the two contracting DOW CTS respectively to reserve the liberty of refusing to deliver their own citi- zens into the hands of the other power Thus, our eXtradition treaty with Mexico provides that each gov ernment may" surrender it's own citi- zens for trial and punishment in the other country. If an American com mits crime in Mexico and escapes back into the United States, our gov ernment is at liberty to surrender him or mt aS if chooSaS. and Ma~ico has the same right in the case of MeXiCans who commit crimes on this side of the line and escape into Mex ico. It is well understood between the two governments that while as mat ter of comity each is supposed to waive its right to stand on the treaty, and that each will surrender its citi- zens to the other for trial, under due eXtraditiOn process, in practice each government is very slow to surrender its own citizens. Mexico. in fact, while always protesting her eager willing Mexican who has committed a crime on this side and sought asylum in his home country, always throws so many obstacles in the way of suc- cessful eXtradition that it is recog- nized as practically impossible to bring a fugitive Mexican across the line for trial in this country.
 The treaty with Mexico provides that. before eXtradition is granted, there must be complete identification of the fugitive. and such proof of his guilt must accompany the requistion papers as will establish. according to the Mexican forms and procedure in criminal trials, prima facie proof of his guilt In recent years the several efforts by the government of Arizona to secure the eXtradition of fugitive Mexican citizens have uniformly re- suited in failure. It rests with the Mexican judge in the proceedings to decide whether the identity of the fu- gitive has been established, and wheth- CT the proofs offered as to his guilt are sufficient, and somehow it always happens that the proofs are uncon- vincing in one form or another. Sc that, while protesting an anxious de- sire to aid our authorities in bringing the fugitive to justice, the Mexican authorities manage to find, to their polite and extreme regret, that the papers are defective. Extradition of Mexican fugitives has been successful only when the Arizona authorities could clearly establish that the fugi- tive had taken out naturalization pa pers in this country-in those cases the interest of the Mexican govern ment in the fugitive has usually been weak enough for the courts over there to find that the papers were in satis- factory form. Our own government has not been so technical in protect ing American criminals; but demands for the extradition of American citi- NSiiS hoNC DNti SO iuAS lioI ib NeliiiOb be said that a clear line of procedure has been developed. All the time, however, the two governments take care to preserve the pleasing fiction that they stand ready to waive treaty rights and to surrender their own citizens upon proper demand of the other power.
 In the Charlton case it would be practically impossible for the Ameri- can government to surrender the pris- oner to Italy, even were the question of his sanity not involved. Italy is bound by her own laws to refuse to surrender her citizens to any foreign power for punishment, and so long as this is her attitude in protecting Italians who commit crimes here and flee to the home country for protec- tion, Uncle Sam cannot very consis- tently surrender an American citizen for trial and punishment in Italy. A very pleasing solution of the diff culty, therefore. is the contention that Charlton is insane.