United States Ninth Circuit

The district court's denial of habeas relief from a magistrate judge's order certifying petitioner's extradition to Mexico on kidnapping charges is affirmed, where: 1) the magistrate judge, serving as the extradition court, properly excluded from its probable cause determination evidence that two witnesses, who had provided key inculpatory statements, later recanted and stated their statements were obtained by torture; 2) when torture allegations are intertwined with the witnesses' recantations, the evidence was properly excluded because its consideration would have required a mini-trial on whether the initial statements were procured by torture; and 3) the extradition court's probable cause determination was supported by competent evidence.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/09/2015
• Published 03/09/2015

Judges

• Nguyen

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel