After an extradited defendant arrives in the USA, how much time can pass before the court decides his case?
It could be months or even years, depending on what the defendant wants to do. If he wants to cooperate with the United States government then he will stay there for as long as his cooperation takes. But generally it should take between six months to a year for the case to be completed.
Can a defendant’s minor child visit him if he or she has a tourist visa?
I think so. Perhaps the minor could be required to be accompanied by an adult. I just don’t know if there is a minimum age they have to be in order to be allowed to go into the jail alone.
If a defendant has an adult child who does not have a visa, can that child apply for a visa to go visit him?
Sure, they can apply. Whether they get it is another story, but it does not hurt to apply. The worst that can happen is that the application gets denied.
From the time a defendant arrives in the U.S., how long will it be before he can communicate with his family and inform them where he is being held?
It should take about a week to ten days. The telephone numbers must be submitted to jail officials in order to be checked, which is not a big deal. The inmate gets 300 minutes worth of calls per month, and the “month” begins based on the date of the inmate’s arrival at the prison.
I believe the inmate has to pay for his minutes. What the inmate should do is when he gets there, have his public defender call his family with information including how to send him money.
What is the process to send him money?
It is done through Western Union. There is a procedure and most of the Western Unions in Colombia know about it. You have to put his name down, his inmate number, a certain address, perhaps a certain code, but he will tell you how to go about doing it. Another suggestion is to buy a phone number from Vonage, which will be a local Miami number (people who have had relatives extradited can help you) that he can call, thus saving him money on long distance calls. He will dial locally but you in Colombia will get the call.
Will the inmate be able to work, study, or do other activities in prison?
Yes. He can work and perhaps study, but it is very limited until he gets to the regular jail, assuming he is convicted and sentenced. He will be at FDC-Miami now as his case is in Miami. FDC is an all right prison but the correction officers are grumpy and not friendly. It is one of the worst pre-trial facilities I have been in, but relative to state prisons, it is a five star hotel. But few corrections officers there can be called nice. They treat their inmates as criminals, and that is not their job.
If the inmate is elderly and has health problems, will he have medical care and medicine?
Absolutely. His lawyer should ask the judge immediately upon his arrival for “MEDICAL ATTENTION.” This is routinely granted and an order is issued.
If the extradition request is from Miami authorities, will the defendant be located there?
Yes, while he is waiting for his case to finish. But if he is convicted and sentenced, he can be sent to any federal prison in or outside of Florida.
Could you please explain the three requirements in order to be extradited?
I have written a few articles about extradition. I suggest you read them. They are at HYPERLINK “https://davidzapp.com/”davidzapp.com and you can search for the articles using the key word “extradition.”
Courts have limited jurisdiction in extradition cases. Courts cannot determine guilt or innocence or assess the sufficiency of the evidence. They are only concerned with three things: 1) is the requesting country’s indictment valid in its own country? 2) is the crime recognized as a crime in Colombia? and 3) has the defendant already been convicted of the same crime in Colombia? If so, he cannot be extradited because Colombian law does not allow a citizen to be prosecuted twice for the same charge. However, that rule can always be evaded by the courts interpreting the crimes as not exactly the same because the language is slightly different.