When the FBI Comes Calling…®
February 10, 2006
By Ellen Tumposky and Kimberly Atkins
Extradition process could take years
LONDON - It could be months, or even years, before Neil Entwistle returns to U.S. soil to face murder charges, legal experts said.
Entwistle appeared for barely five minutes at a preliminary extradition hearing yesterday in Bow Street Magistrates' Court here. Appearing composed and even relaxed alongside his attorney, Ben Brandon, Entwistle said he would not consent to be extradited to the United States "at this stage" - an indication that he is likely to contest the warrant. He will be held at a London police station until he returns to court today for a fuller hearing at which a bail application is likely to be heard.
Robert Roscoe, an extradition specialist with the London law firm Victor Lissack, Roscoe and Coleman, said Entwistle's lawyers - Brandon and Judith Seddon - will likely advise him to contest the extradition to stop U.S. prosecutors from later bringing additional charges against him.
If he challenges the order, "it will certainly be weeks, probably months, it could be longer" before he is shipped to Massachusetts, Roscoe said.
Though the burden of proof at an extradition hearing is similar to a U.S. probable cause hearing, several U.S. legal analysts said the case may be more complicated than it seems. Elaine Whitfield Sharp, a Marblehead attorney who defended English nanny Louise Woodward, said the U.K. judge hearing the case should consider his ability to get a fair trial after worldwide news coverage of the case.
"Where are you going to find a juror who doesn't know about this case from the media?" she said. "This case is getting more attention in the early days than (Woodward) got."
The complexity of the case means the hearing that begins today could go on for days, said extradition law expert Douglas McNabb from the Washington firm McNabb Associates.
And if Britain's home secretary Charles Clarke rules against Entwistle at the end of the hearing, Entwistle has a right to appeal all the way up to the Law Lords, Britain's highest court - a process that could take two to three years if he can afford it. "If he has any chance at winning the extradition case, he has got to have the money to do it," McNabb said, noting that the defendant would have to pay for all expenses - including court reporters' fees - on each appeal.