05-17-2005, 07:55 PM
Greetings fellow IDUists --
I think everybody has good points here. I voted for this proposal (framed by somebody I tried to recruit and whose flag I designed) for a combination of the reasons listed above:
(1) Possession is 9/10ths of the law, even for people. If a criminal suspect is apprehended in my country, I get to decide whether to send the person back or not because they are in my custody.
(2) Crime should not go unpunished. A criminal suspect who escapes the country in which that crime was committed should not evade punishment by a blanket refusal to extradite.
(3) Extraterritoriality is wrong. Just because the penalty for a particular crime in another country is death doesn't mean I have to accept that decision in my country.
(4) Conditional extradition is a reasonable compromise for two countries who have different laws regarding capital punishment. In RL, my country has refused extradition to a neighbouring country without guarantees against the death penalty, and at other times it has not asked for such guarantees. A bilateral agreement allows this. In previous decades, it was the neighbouring country which was protected by this because my country still had the death penalty on the books while parts of the neighbouring country did not.
I think it balances the issues well, and even as a narrow supporter of the death penalty, I think it is valid. Is there already an NS UN resolution on not executing minors or insane persons? If not, that's a natural proposal to make which even pro-execution countries can often support.
I think everybody has good points here. I voted for this proposal (framed by somebody I tried to recruit and whose flag I designed) for a combination of the reasons listed above:
(1) Possession is 9/10ths of the law, even for people. If a criminal suspect is apprehended in my country, I get to decide whether to send the person back or not because they are in my custody.
(2) Crime should not go unpunished. A criminal suspect who escapes the country in which that crime was committed should not evade punishment by a blanket refusal to extradite.
(3) Extraterritoriality is wrong. Just because the penalty for a particular crime in another country is death doesn't mean I have to accept that decision in my country.
(4) Conditional extradition is a reasonable compromise for two countries who have different laws regarding capital punishment. In RL, my country has refused extradition to a neighbouring country without guarantees against the death penalty, and at other times it has not asked for such guarantees. A bilateral agreement allows this. In previous decades, it was the neighbouring country which was protected by this because my country still had the death penalty on the books while parts of the neighbouring country did not.
I think it balances the issues well, and even as a narrow supporter of the death penalty, I think it is valid. Is there already an NS UN resolution on not executing minors or insane persons? If not, that's a natural proposal to make which even pro-execution countries can often support.