McNabb in the News (2-10-06) 2

Senior Principal Douglas McNabb has been quoted in a Milford Daily News article about the extradition process Neil Entwistle would have had to go through had Mr. Entwistle not consented to extradition this morning.

Entwistle may not have volunteered to return to the U.S. yesterday, but fighting extradition to the end would force him to make that decision several more times throughout the process, said Douglas McNabb, a Washington, D.C.-based expert on extradition cases.

"It could take several months, certainly, if not years," McNabb said. It would also cost Entwistle a great deal of money to exhaust extradition appeals, he said. "We’re talking probably several hundreds of thousands of dollars."
…
If Entwistle decided not to fight extradition, McNabb said, he could be back here as quickly as authorities could arrange the plane trip. But if he again refuses to return voluntarily, and U.S. authorities pursue the matter, an extradition judge makes a recommendation to the British home secretary, McNabb said. The home secretary has up to 60 days to decide.

If the home secretary supports extradition, the defendant can appeal to the U.K. High Court, and then to the House of Lords. If all else fails, a defendant can appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in France, McNabb said. It could take a defendant a year even to get through the British process, and the human rights court has a backlog of two to three years, he said.
…
Despite the high emotions of the case, and the trans-Atlantic media frenzy surrounding it, McNabb said he would expect British authorities to make by-the-books decisions on the matter, relying on the 2003 law and the extradition agreements it already had with the United States.

“This is not a case where politics would play into it," McNabb said. "I don’t see that at all."

The fact Massachusetts does not have the death penalty also could speed along a decision to send Entwistle back to the United States, McNabb said. Death-penalty states have a more difficult time getting suspects out of countries where opposition to executions runs strong.

"It would complicate things," McNabb said. "It would be a very big deal."^[1]

---

[1] Jennifer Kavanaugh, Fighting Extradition Would be Costly for Entwistle, Milford Daily News, Feb. 10, 2006.