If an American citizen gets convicted of a felony in another country, are they considered a felon in the U.S.?
How would authorities here know?
If I go to Canada on vacation, rob a bank, get 5 years, and then return here, am I a felon here? Would it matter what country I comitted the offense in? I use Canada because it’s the one place I can go without a passport and hence, no record that I went. Would they call Uncle Sam & tell him I’ve been a bad boy and their keeping me after school?
If the answer is “yes”, how can that be, when the other nation might not afford me the same constitutional rights as I get here (right to lawyer, etc.). How could a person lose some of their rights (voting, guns, etc) here, for what they did there?
If the answer is no, then what exact status does an American who commits a crime in another nation and then returns hold?
There is this unabashed neo-Nazi in my town, who at one time was themajor exporter of neo-Nazi propaganda to Germany (quite illegal, but he was here and they are there, so…). Like a dumbass he went to Holland or something and was extradicted (right word?) to Germany where he served time, or maybe it was in Holland that he served time, whatever: the jist was that he served time overseas as a ‘felon’ or whatever for distributing Nazi propaganda. whew.
He came back here and hung out for a while, and then applied for a gun permit. They denied it, because he was a convicted felon. He had never been convicted of anything *here,*and he planned to contest the thing, but I don’t believe he ended up with his permit. I’ve not heard much about it since, but it seems that felony convicitions in other countries dohave some force here. I wonder if they allowed him to register to vote…
Considering the fact that Canada, like all other countries worth visiting, considers the commission of a felony by a visiting foreign national to be grounds for deportation, it would be pretty hard to keep the US State Department unaware of your dilemna.
Keep in mind that Canada probably won’t deport you until after you’ve paid your debt to society.
This reminds me of the story where Bush wouldn’t be able to visit Canada, since DWI is a felony there and they don’t allow felons to enter the country. So on that basis… it seems as if all that matters is whether the crime you commmitted was a felony in the country in question, not whether it was a felony in the country where it was committed. (Although I’m sure it depends on the country.)
Even if the foreign country doesn’t want to deport you, as Russia doesn’t want to deport the US citizen accused of espionage, you have the right to contact the US embassy. The foreign country would notify the embassy of your arrest. In the recent case of the US citizen accused of spying, assume there’s a kangaroo court and he is convicted erroneously. All too probable, and it has happened numerous times to our citizens. I don’t know the procedure, but I’m sure there is some mechanism wherein he can show that the conviction was erroneous and he is not a felon. He can probably, as one course of action, bring a suit when he gets back, against the country that convicted him for false arrest and imprisonment.
Wouldn’t the act have to be a felony in Canada for the person to be arrested in Canada? I can’t see the federal police taking requests from foreign police forces to arrest people, even foreigners, doing things that are legal in Canada…
I seem to remember that there was a case in Canada where people were putting up satellite dishes and receiving without subscription certain US television programs. No agreement had been made to distribute these programs in Canada; they were just spilling down. A complaint was made by the US originators of the programs, that they were stealing the reception without paying.
A court said, in effect, that the people were doing something completely legal, so lay off. If the originators of the programs had made a distribution agreement for Canada, and the viewers had not gotten their access to the signals in the approved way, yes, they would have been stealing. But since no distribution agreement existed, and the reception occurred in Canada, and the people were Canadians, no crime had been committed.
I believe there was an appeal to this, and the final outcome may have been different.
And I wonder what would have happened if any of those people subsequently went to the States…
I’m sure that as a high-ranking diplomat he’d have diplomatic immunity.
