If a Canadian committed a crime, killing in Texas, any idea how and upon what process they are trialed? Can they be sent back to Canada to spent the time in jail or must stay for some time first in a US prison? Thanks a lot everyone,
Beingin the US, he’d be under US jurisdiction and tried like anyone else who’d commit a crime in Texas. The Canadian gov’t might try using diplomacy if he risked the death penalty. After the prison sentence, I believe he would be deported to Canada but I’m not sure.
Have fun in Texas.
One of the two people on death row here in Montana is a Canadian. At first the Canadian government was petitioning for clemency, which was at the time their policy for any Canadian citizen sentenced to death abroad. But they’ve since revised that policy so that they don’t automatically petition on behalf of citizens sentenced to death in democracies with functioning rule of law, which Montana arguably is. See: Ronald Allen Smith - Wikipedia
(Although this case is somewhat complicated by the fact that Montana currently does not have an execution apparatus and has been toying with abolishing the death penalty, so the chances of Smith actually being executed are becoming increasingly slim.)
For more minor stuff, if the government requests it sometimes they will hand over prisoners to serve time back in their own countries, but it isn’t automatic. The rationale is that since rehabilitation is the goal, having the prisoner serve time in the community where he will eventually be released is beneficial, particularly if there are work release programs, etc. But that wouldn’t really apply for serious crimes where the person isn’t going to be released any time soon if ever.
Watch Dear Zachary for a shocking(and depressing) look at one case where it was very difficult to get an obvious criminal back from Canada into the US.
This may or may not be of interest to the OP:
It’s possible that things would shake out differently if the Canadian had diplomatic immunity of some kind. If Canada didn’t waive immunity, the suspect would be declared “persona non grata” by the U.S., deported to Canada, and Canada would be responsible for trying him for the crime. An example along these lines happened about 10 years ago with a Russian diplomat serving in Canada, Andrei Knyazev. He killed a woman in Ottawa while driving drunk, invoked diplomatic immunity, was shipped back to Russia, and was sentenced to four years in Siberia for the crime.
That said, the U.S. could probably bring a lot more pressure to bear on the Canadian government to waive immunity than Canada was able to bring on Russia in the Knyazev case. And if you don’t have diplomatic immunity, the Canadian government’s involvement is probably not going to go much farther than helping you find a lawyer.
It does not matter who commits a crime in the USA, if they do not hav diplomatic immunity (almost nobody does except someembassy and consulate employees), then they are tried and convicted and sentenced and imprisoned like anyone else- US citizen, illegal alien, etc.
As mentioned, the government used to argue strenuously against a death sentence for any Canadian being tried abroad, but the recent government is less interested in protecting capital criminals.
Recall the case of Charles Ng (?) an American complicit in the deaths of several women in California. He was arrested in Calgary, and the Canadian government refused to deport him unless California promised not to execute him. Eventually, California called their bluff and said “if you aren’t going to deport him, I guess you’ll have to set him free to roam Canada.” The Canadian government eventually relented and deported him. neither Canada nor the USA has the right to charge and convict someone of crimes in other countries, except for certain special ones like war crimes and piracy.
Depending on the sentence and the crime, it may be simpler to deport the guy than pay to keep him in jail for a year or more - but for serious crimes like murder, the US state will probably want to make a point by holding the perp the full sentence or whatever. Once elgible for parole/release, they may be (they WILL be) deported. AFAIK time in jail does not count toward naturalization and anyone with green card or not loses it when convicted of a crime.
The only odd part of this is Canada has arrangements with a number of countries - USA, Mexico, etc. - that inmates can be transferred back to Canada to finish their sentence. This is what is happening with Omar Kahdr, he will come back to Canada after a year to finish his sentence.
md2000, this is not correct. Ng was arrested in Calgary. The American government requested his extradition and the Canadian federal government began the extradition process. Ng opposed the Canadian government’s attempts to deport him, unless Canada sought an assurance that the American prosecutor would not seek the death penalty. The Canadian federal government opposed Ng’s argument and did not want to place any restrictions on the extradition.
The matter went to the Supreme Court of Canada, with the Canadian federal government arguing that no restriction need be placed on the extradition: Reference Re Ng Extradition (Can.), [1991] 2 S.C.R. 858. The Supreme Court agreed with the position of the federal government and greenlighted the extradition without any restrictions.