Enforcement of Human Rights in U.S. Courts: The Trial of Persons Kidnapped Abroad (From World Justice? U.S. Courts and International Human Rights, P 59-80, 1991, Mark Gibney, ed. -- See NCJ-129558)

• NCJ Number: 129561
• Author(s): J Quigley
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 22 pages
• Sale Source: Westview Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

U.S. courts should not accept jurisdiction over a criminal case when the defendant has been abducted abroad by agents of the U.S. government and brought forcibly to the United States for trial.

Abstract

Forcible abduction is prohibited by human rights law. When U.S. authorities determine that a person residing in a foreign country has violated U.S. law, the lawful approach is to request that the police of the country in which the person is residing make the arrest and extradite the person to the U.S. for adjudication. Regarding forcible abduction of a defendant for prosecution, however, the U.S. courts have not developed a body of protective law. Only in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and then only when the abductee was given particularly harsh physical treatment, has a constitutional protection been found to protect a person abducted abroad. Under the exclusionary rule as applied to unlawful police actions in the United States, the courts do not permit the prosecution to use against the accused any product of unlawful police action. Similarly, U.S. courts should refuse to try cases in which defendants have been unlawfully abducted for the purpose of prosecution. 116 notes