High Court stays Miura extradition

The CNMI Supreme Court yesterday afternoon granted Kazuyoshi Miura’s request to hold off the Superior Court’s order for his extradition to Los Angeles, California, while his appeal is pending.

This developed as Attorney General Matthew Gregory, assistant attorney general Jeffery Warfield Sr., and press secretary Charles Reyes Jr. disclosed during a press briefing that four members of the Los Angeles Police Department were set to arrive on Saipan last night (Monday).

The LAPD officers were supposed to pick up the 61-year-old Miura from the Department of Corrections and escort him back to L.A. to face charges that he conspired to have his wife killed in 1981.

The judiciary’s spokesperson, Gin Gridley, and Supreme Court clerk Jonathan Grayson announced the high court’s decision during a press conference attended by many Japanese journalists.

Gridley and Grayson said that arguments will be held on Sept. 23, 2008, at 2pm before chief justice Miguel S. Demapan, associate justice Alexandro Castro, and a yet to be appointed associate justice pro tempore.

Associate justice John Manglona had recused himself from the case because the judge who is handling the Miura case, Superior Court associate judge Ramona V. Manglona, is his wife, Grayson said.

In his two-page order, Demapan said he granted the motion to stay the extradition and removal pending appeal, after reviewing Miura’s arguments.

Demapan promised to treat the appeal in an expedited fashion. He ordered the parties in the case to file their briefs no later than 9am Sept. 22, 2008.

In addition to issues the parties believe relevant to the resolution of the appeal, the chief justice also directed the parties to address the following questions:

Would extradition during pendency of the appeal effectively deny Miura his right of appeal under Commonwealth law?

Under California v. Superior Court of California, 482 U.S. 400 (1987), or other relevant precedent, is this court precluded from considering the effect of California’s double jeopardy statutes on the legality of appellant’s incarceration in the Commonwealth and potential extradition to California?

On Friday, Judge Manglona in an oral decision denied Miura’s petition for habeas corpus and ordered his extradition to L.A.

Manglona issued the written decision yesterday. In that order, she ruled that Miura’s concurrent legal challenge in California does not affect the matters to be considered and the established standard for considering them in his extradition proceeding.

“In this case, this court cannot protract this summary process proceeding upon speculations as to what the California court will decide,” said Manglona in the order denying the for habeas corpus and motion to stay extradition.

Manglona said she must make a decision based on the evidence as it exists at the time of the hearing on the writ of habeas corpus.