In U.S. v. Valencia-Trujillo, No. 07-10524 (July 7, 2009), the Court affirmed the conviction and sentence of a defendant extradited from Colombia for cocaine trafficking.
The Court rejected the defendant’s "rule of specialty" argument, which claimed that he had been prosecuted in the United States for crimes outside the scope of Colombia’s extradition. The Court found that the defendant lacked "standing" to make this argument, because standing depended on the text of an extradition treaty, and the defendant was not extradited under an extradition treaty, but merely pursuant to an "extradition agreement."
The Court also rejected the argument that the jury convicted Valencia-Trujillo of predicate acts for a CCE conspiracy that were not charged in the indictment. The original indictment included "including, but not limited to" language with respect to the predicate acts, language which was broad enough to cover the predicate acts which were later added at trial.
The Court also rejected the defendant’s Franks challenge to the validity of the affidavit used by the FBI to support his extradition from Colombia. The Court found that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to improper seizures in Colombia.
Finally, the Court found no Batson violation in the government’s striking of the only Colombian-American member of the venire, noting that the person might fear retaliation against his family in the event of a guilty verdict, even though the family lived in Bogota and the defendant was from Cali.
