EXTRADITION
The transfer of an accused from one state or country to another state or country that seeks to place the accused on trial.
Extradition comes into play when a person charged with a crime under state statutes flees
the state. An individual charged with a federal crime may be moved from one state to another without any extradition procedures.
Article IV, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution
provides that upon the demand of the governor
of the prosecuting state, a state to which a per-
son charged with a crime has fled must remove
the accused “to the State having Jurisdiction of
the Crime.” When extraditing an accused from
one state to another, most states follow the pro-
cedures set forth in the Uniform Criminal
Extradition Act, which has been adopted by
most jurisdictions. A newer uniform act, the
Uniform Extradition and Rendition Act, is
designed to streamline the extradition process
and provide additional protections for the per-
son sought, but by 1995, it had been adopted by
only one state.
Extradition from one state to another takes
place on the order of the governor of the ASY-
LUM state (the state where the accused is
located). The courts in the asylum state have a
somewhat limited function in extraditing the
accused to the state where she or he is charged
with a crime. They determine only whether the
extradition documents are in order (e.g.,
whether they allege that the accused has com-
mitted a crime and that she or he is a fugitive)
and do not consider the merits of the charge,
since the trial of the accused will take place in
the state demanding extradition.
In some cases, courts considering extradi-
tion from one state to another may go beyond
the procedural formalities and look at the mer-
its of the criminal charge or at allegations by the
accused that extradition will lead to harmful
consequences beyond a prison term. These cases
are rare because under the U.S. Constitution,
