Coordinated criminal activities that take place in multiple countries make for interesting movies. Who can forget the scenes in The Wolf of Wall Street where Jordan Belfort prepares his friends to smuggle his money out of the country by hiding it inside their clothing or when his lies begin to unravel as he parties on a yacht off the coast of Italy? Of course, some of the most disturbing news that you can receive if you are being accused of drug crimes, money laundering, or receiving stolen property is that your collaborators are connected to a larger network in another country. In some cases, the same person can be wanted for the same crime or for closely related crimes in two different jurisdictions. 

In other words, before they can address the matter of whether you are innocent or guilty of the charges, they must first decide where your criminal case should play out. This could even mean that the court could send you to another state, or even another country, to face trial or sentencing. Moving a defendant to another jurisdiction where he or she is facing charges is called extradition. A Tulsa criminal defense lawyer can help you avoid being extradited from Oklahoma if extradition is a possibility in your case.

Extradition Treaties are Only the Beginning

Whether the court can extradite you and whether it will are two different questions. Within the United States, extradition from one state to another is common. If one state has issued a warrant for your arrest, and police find you in another state, you will likely end up returning to the state that issued the warrant to face your charges.

Extradition from one country to another is only a possibility if the two countries have signed an extradition treaty. The United States has signed extradition treaties with most of the countries in the world, but not all of them. An extradition treaty can be a list treaty or a dual criminality treaty. A list treaty only allows for extradition if the crime is one that the treaty specifically mentions. Dual criminality enables extradition for all major criminal offenses included in the criminal codes of both countries. Establishing the possibility of extradition is only the beginning, though. To extradite a defendant in a particular case, the court must review the details of the case. It will only approve the extradition if it is sure that the defendant will get a fair trial in the destination country. Just because you avoid extradition, it does not mean that your criminal case is over. Your charges still apply in the United States, and there is still a chance that a trial could result in a conviction.

Contact Tracy Tiernan About Criminal Defense Cases

A criminal defense lawyer can help you exercise your rights if you are being charged with a crime where you are in danger of being extradited to another country. Contact Tracy Tiernan in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to discuss your case.