Wanted Fugitive Deon Bruce, who the US Government is seeking for grand jury charges of murder and attempted murder, has been taking major losses in his fight to resist his extradition to the United States.
He failed in his initial attempt when the Chief Magistrate, Ann Marie Smith, ordered that he should be extradited. Then, Justice Courtney Abel rejected his attorney's 6 grounds that Abel should allow a judicial review of the Chief Magistrate's decision to extradite him.
That means that the Chief Magistrate's decision is the only significant one on record; which means that he should be extradited. Realizing that dangers of leaving that as the status quo, his attorney, Audrey Matura-Shepherd, applied for a stay of execution, and it was granted. So, he's safe in Belize for now, at least for now, but he remains on remand.
His attorney spoke to us about today's minor victory:
Audrey Matura-Shepherd, Attorney for Deon Bruce
"We had applied for a stay of execution of the order of the magistrate in the case of Deon Bruce and we were able to get that application heard today before Justice Abel. The persecution, in this case the office of the attorney general or solicitor general did not object to the application we made. Basically what that application means is that we are saying that while we are taking the matter now to the supreme court on Deon's behalf that we are asking that they be a stay so that the order of the magistrate and the decision of the foreign minister to extradite him be stayed until there is the appeal otherwise we would just be going through an academic exercise at the Court of Appeal. That's the gist of it."
Mike Rudon, Ch5
"And that stay was granted?"
Audrey Matura-Shepherd
"Yes, that stay was granted, now we have to wait to see when we will have the matter heard on appeal. When you apply for a stay it's important because if you don't do that the process could have been continued, he could have been extradited and when you go to the Court of Appeal you are just going through an exercise arguing which there is no need for. The thing is now it does take some time to get on the Court of Appeal listing. I don't know how quick we will get this one but I hope by the need of the year it will be in the October session or if not it will be until next year's first session."
So, Bruce's case will now go to the Court of Appeal, and if he fails there, he can then make a final appeal to the Caribbean Court of Justice. And if he fails at that level also, he gets to make a last-ditch effort to appeal to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to try convince him that Bruce shouldn't be sent to stand trial in Chicago. As we've reported, he's accused the 2010 shooting of Americans Aaron Carter and Bryan Rodgers, which happened on July 28, 2010.
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