Belizean Deon Bruce, who is wanted by the US Government for murder and attempted murder, went back to the Supreme Court today after 2 and a half months.
Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith has already ruled that he should be sent back to the US to face trial for the 2010 shooting of Americans Aaron Carter and Bryan Rodgers, which happened in Chicago on July 28, 2010. Normally, the next stage would have been to take the matter to the Supreme Court where a Habeas Corpus application would have been made. That's in the works, but Bruce's new attorney, Audrey Matura-Shepherd, is challenging it by a second means. She wants Justice Courtney Abel to grant a judicial review of the Chief Magistrate's ruling.
As far as we know, that legal avenue has not been explored before, and today, Matura-Shepherd explained it to us outside of court:
Audrey Matura Shepherd, attorney
"When you are brought before the magistrate court for an extradition matter, once that decision is made there is no appeal, but you can get a writ of habeas corpus saying that you are being wrongly held, but that s very difficult barrier to cross. However there is always the option is law generally that you can seek judicial review of a decision of a magistrate and when you seek judicial review, you are not reviewing the decision per say, but how the magistrate arrived at that decision and that is why we are taking all the technical points and all the legal points possible to show that there were errors in law, there were irregularities, there were procedural impropriety, there were unreasonable things considered and irrelevant things and there were relevant information that should have been considered."
In court, Matura-Shepherd laid out 6 grounds for judicial review for Justice Abel to consider. Arguments continued well into the afternoon session, and tomorrow, the Government Crown Counsel will be given a chance to respond to Matura-Shepherd's submissions.
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