Extradition in Boca case turns on parole
N. Ireland judge wants clarity about Jonah Horne’s parole chance.
British diplomats might become involved in the case of Jonah Horne, the 23-year-old Palm Beach Gardens man who’s been in a Northern Ireland jail awaiting possible extradition on murder charges.
Boca Raton police allege Horne and Matthew Lewis, now 25, of Jensen Beach, fatally shot Jacob Walsh, 25, of Jupiter, on June 7, 2016. Police say the three struggled during a drug deal at the San Marco at Broken Sound apartment complex at Military Trail and Yamato Road in Boca Raton.
Lewis pleaded guilty in May in Palm Beach County and awaits
sentencing. But Horne has been in a Belfast-area jail while two
nations wrestle over his fate. Jacob Walsh’s mother, Pat Walsh, has said she wants Horne returned to Florida.
On June 29, a judge in Belfast ruled she is in no hurry to send Horne back unless authorities in Palm Beach County can clarify whether he faces the possibility of a life sentence without parole.
The judge said if she doesn’t get a satisfactory answer she will ask the British Home Office — the counterpart of the U.S. State Department — to intervene.
Press officials of the Home Office in London didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry. A call to Sean Doherty, the defense barrister, was referred to a spokesperson for the Bar of Northern Ireland, who said attorneys and barristers there are not permitted to discuss ongoing cases.
There’s no hard and fast time limit for extradition cases, and 15 months certainly isn’t unusually long, said Joshua L. Dratel, a New York attorney who’s handled numerous extradition cases. He said last week he’s seen cases drag for seven or eight years, and in one case, 12 years.
Extradition disputes
He wasn’t familiar with the Horne case, and couldn’t comment on it specifically, but he did say the United States and United Kingdom try to work out extradition disputes. But not always.
“That’s one of the things the governments rely on, is the notion that there’s going to be this reciprocity. If it happened here and we were sending someone back there, they wouldn’t want us to make a decision that would deprive the right to prosecute,” Dratel said.
But, in the case of the United Kingdom, “If you were trying to do it from a country in which the relations with the U.S. were much more arm’s length and not as inter dependent, you might get a different kind of evaluation. On the other hand, the UK has a very strong civil rights record.”
At the June 29 hearing in Belfast, defense barrister Doherty read a letter by a Palm Beach County assistant public defender.
In the letter — independently obtained Tuesday from the public defender’s office by The Palm Beach Post — Scott T. Pribble told the Belfast judge that if Horne is convicted in Florida, a judge is required to sentence him to between 25 years and life.
“If the judge imposed a life sentence (which is not at all uncommon in second-degree murder cases), then Mr. Horne would live out the rest of his life in prison without any eligibility for parole or early release of any kind,” Pribble wrote.
Judge seeks clarity
He said the only exceptions were either a gubernatorial pardon or a compassion-based parole for a dying prisoner.
“The bottom line is that a life sentence in Florida actually means life,” Pribble wrote. “Inmates sentenced to life sentences will die in prison.”
The judge also received two letters from Palm Beach County Assistant State Attorney Lauren Godden. She contended a life sentence is not mandatory in a conviction, and Horne may appeal or seek a pardon and that he could receive some medical-related clemency. She did not elaborate.
Those letters were not made available in Belfast. In West Palm Beach on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County State Attorney said Tuesday the letters are exempt from disclosure because the investigation remains open until and unless Horne returns to Palm Beach County.
The Belfast judge, Patricia Smyth, said the letters from the Palm Beach County prosecutor weren’t clear enough for her satisfaction.
“I am also anxious that there should be complete clarity, and that I understand exactly what the requesting state is saying. And in the repeated correspondence I have been unable to have that sense of reassurance,” Smyth told lawyers.
No date for hearing
Barrister Stephen Ritchie,
Should extradition be denied, the judge could set Jonah Horne free, a lawyer says.
representing U.S. interests, said the letters were clear that, even if sentenced to life without parole, Horne had the opportunity to petition for a reduced sentence. The judge said that wasn’t the same as an assurance and asked Ritchie to say so to authorities in Palm Beach County.
Ritchie suggested Smyth instead ask the Home Office to step in, saying, “It may carry much more weight if your honor has a list of concerns that you feel could be answered.’’
Smyth adjourned the hearing to await more correspondence from Palm Beach County. She did not set a date for a new hearing.
Horne’s lawyers in Northern Ireland earlier had tried to block extradition by citing a United Kingdom-U.S. treaty ratified in 2007 that says British courts “may refuse extradition unless the Requesting State provides an assurance that the death penalty will not be imposed or, if imposed, will not be carried out.” It likely won’t be an issue.
Boca Raton police said in March they would charge Horne and Lewis with second-degree murder, which could mean life sentences but precludes the death penalty. Another lawyer for Horne said in March 2017 in a Belfast Court that Horne fled across the ocean for love, not to escape justice. A lawyer representing U.S. interests challenged that assertion.
Horne could go free
The fact that potential sentences of death and life without parole have held up the extradition is not unusual, New York lawyer Dratel said. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if prosecutors agree to preclude both in order to satisfy the Belfast judge and get Horne back to Florida.
Dratel also said denials of extradition can be appealed, although “that doesn’t mean you’re going to get a different result,” But he also said that, should extradition be denied, the judge could set Horne free. But he’d be free only in Northern Ireland, or perhaps just the U.K., unable to leave because once he set foot in another country, he could be seized and put through extradition all over again.
Authorities detain ed Horne on March 13, 2017, in nearby Lisburn at the home of a woman he’d met while she was working in America and who was pregnant with their child, since born. He has been housed in Maghaberry Prison, 20 miles southwest of Belfast.
Efforts to locate Horne’s parents for comment have been unsuccessful.