Thread: Tancredo: U.S. should stand by famed bounty hunter

Tancredo: U.S. should stand by famed bounty hunter
By Chris Good

March 28, 2007
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) is questioning the legality of the ongoing extradition of bounty hunter and cable TV personality Duane “Dog” Chapman to Mexico. The lawmaker Wednesday contacted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the case.
“News reports have come to light showing that the extradition agreement between the U.S. and Mexico may be nothing more than a wink and a nod between governments,” said Tancredo, who is running for president. “I hope that Secretary Rice looks into whether this agreement has the legal force before extraditing a man who put away a serial rapist.”

Mexican authorities arrested Chapman in June 2003 for capturing fugitive rape convict Andrew Luster in Puerto Vallarta. Bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico.

Chapman made his $1,300 bail, left Mexico, and has been fighting extradition ever since.

The ex-con-turned-bounty hunter, who is featured in a TV show on A&E, was arrested again last September in Hawaii and charged with deprivation of liberty for the capture of Luster.

Tancredo based his inquiry on the congressional testimony of Alan J. Kreczko, deputy legal adviser to then-Secretary of State James Baker, who said the U.S. and Mexico had “exchanged letters” approving the extradition of bounty hunters for trans-border captures.

The lawmaker also cites a 1992 Supreme Court decision in which former Chief Justice William Rehnquist writes that the U.S.-Mexico extradition treaty “says nothing about the obligations of the United States and Mexico to refrain from forcible abductions of people from the territory of the other nation, or the consequences under the treaty if such an abduction occurs.”

Chapman has captured American TV audiences with his straightforward, blue-collar approach to capturing criminals, and has described himself as “the poster child for rehabilitation in America.”

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“News reports have come to light showing that the extradition agreement between the U.S. and Mexico may be nothing more than a wink and a nod between governments,” said Tancredo, who is running for president. “I hope that Secretary Rice looks into whether this agreement has the legal force before extraditing a man who put away a serial rapist

Way to speak out Tom!