Overcoming the Constitutional Barriers to Extradition Via Strategic Interpretation Sample Clauses

Overcoming the Constitutional Barriers to Extradition Via Strategic Interpretation. While the Organized Crime Convention may provide a means to smooth out the structural kinks in the 1911 Treaty, overcoming the life imprisonment stalemate requires strategic interpretation of Article 27 of El Salvador’s Constitution and Article 45 of El Salvador’s Criminal Code.214 It appears as though the seventy-five-year maximum sentence, established in Article 45 of the Criminal Code, would act as a de facto life sentence for virtually all defendants.215 The fact that the Supreme Court of Justice has yet to invalidate the statutory maximum, however, suggests that the Court may not consider de facto life imprisonment to be a violation of El Salvador’s Constitution. Thus, it appears the United States can request that El Salvador extradite a suspect charged with murder, for example, based on a promise not to pursue a sentence in excess of seventy-five years.216 While not officially termed a “life sentence,” seventy-five- years imprisonment, from a pragmatic standpoint, should still promote the goals of specific deterrence and crime prevention in both countries. Potential complications with this practical approach to extradition may, however, lie in a split among Salvadoran courts as to whether a seventy-five-year sentence is, in fact, compliant under all circumstances with Article 27 of El Salvador’s Constitution. In 2007, the Tribunal 4° de Setencia sentenced Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxx to thirty-five years in prison for two counts of aggravated murder.217 In ignoring the prosecutor’s request for the court to impose the seventy-five-year maximum,218 the Tribunal 4° de Setencia held that a sentence in excess of fifty years would violate Article 27 of El Salvador’s 213. Id. art. 16(3). 214. See supra Part III.B.iii. 215. Codigo Penal, art. 45. According to the UN Statistics Division, the average life expectancy of a man in El Salvador is 66.5 years. Country Profile: El Salvador, U.N. STATISTICS DIV., xxxx://xxxx.xx.xxx/CountryProfile.aspx?crName=EL%20SALVADOR (last visited Jan. 9, 2011). For females in El Salvador, the average life expectancy is seventy-six years. Id. Thus, the chances of a seventy-five-year sentence falling short of a defendant’s life span seem relatively low. 216. See supra note 143 (discussing tactical fixes). 217. Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx, Condenan a 35 años de cárcel a Xxxxx Xxxxxxx, DIARIO CO LATINO (San Salvador), Aug. 16, 2007, xxxx://xxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx/es/20070816/ nacionales/46124/. 218. Id. Constitution.219 Conversely, in 2009, the Tribunal 6°...