US trial ‘risks killer Scot’s human rights’
European Court to rule on extradition battle
A SCOTS killer is using European human rights legislation to dodge extradition to the US.
Phillip Harkins argues that sending him to America, where he would face a ‘life means life’ jail term, would be ‘inhuman and degrading’.
He is wanted for allegedly shooting dead Joshua Hayes in Florida in 1999 during a bungled armed robbery.
He has been battling extradition since being captured in the UK in 2003 after killing a woman while driving in his home town of Greenock, Renfrewshire – making it the longest-running case of its kind.
Harkins, 37, has just learned the powerful Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights will hear his case on January 11 next year.
Cases are only referred there if they ‘raise a serious question affecting the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) or if there is a risk of inconsistency with a previous judgment of the Court’.
The Tories want to repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights, aiming to prevent criminals exploiting human rights laws to avoid being thrown out of the country.
Last night, Scottish Tory justice spokesman Douglas Ross said: ‘People who have concerns about the Human Rights Act often cite cases such as this, where criminals try to use the legislation to circumvent the law and save their own skin.
‘When it seems legislation supports the criminals rather than the victims, something is wrong and it’s clear people like Phillip Harkins will latch on to any hope to avoid serving their sentence.’
Harkins was arrested and charged over the US shooting, but jumped bail and returned to Britain.
In 2003, he was arrested over the death of 62-year-old Jean O’Neill. He was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving and sentenced to five years.
Last night, Mrs O’Neill’s family declined to comment.
Extradition proceedings began in March 2003. Harkins remains in jail in London, despite launching a series of legal challenges.
He has already made an unsuccessful appeal to Strasbourg on another aspect of the case.
In the latest appeal, Harkins claims the prospect of ‘life imprisonment without parole’ in the US would breach his Article 3 rights because, in 2013, European judges ruled ‘whole life’ tariffs were unlawful.
His new claim hinges on the victory by Jeremy Bamber, who was jailed for murdering five members of his family in Essex in 1985.
He was joined in the appeal by two other convicted murderers – Douglas Vinter, of Middlesbrough, who killed his wife, Anne, in 2008, and Peter Moore, who slaughtered four gay men in North Wales in 1995.
The killers won their case after Strasbourg said jailing an offender for life without the possibility of parole was ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’ under the ECHR.
In February last year, the European judges backtracked. But the case covered by that decision has also been referred to the Grand Chamber, raising the prospect ‘life means life’ sentences could again be ruled illegal.
Whole life tariffs do not exist in Scottish courts, though the Tories have called for them to be introduced.
Instead, judges can impose a ‘punishment part’ on criminals sentenced to life terms, which would exceed their estimated life expectancy.
In 2012, European judges said ‘diplomatic assurances’ from the US that the death penalty would not be sought ‘were clear and sufficient to remove any risk’ to Harkins if he was extradited.
‘Save their own skin’