re: #260 jamesfirecat

This is an idea that comes up a lot, but has there ever been an example of one state refusing to extradite someone to another state where they will be charged with crimes for no other reason then because the state the person in question currently resides in “doesn’t want to…”?

As ironic as it is, couldn’t Dread Scott be used as a precedent that Florida has to turn Trump over to New York?

There was a case in Utah in the 1980s:

Gov. Scott M. Matheson has refused to extradite a Utah businessman accused of first-degree murder and reckless conduct in connection with a fatal industrial accident in a factory he partly owned.

Matheson refused to send Michael T. MacKay to Illinois to stand trial for the Feb. 10, 1983, death of Stefan Golab, an employe of Film Recovery Systems Inc., who died of “acute cyanide toxicity,” according to a coroner. The now-defunct company used a cyanide process to recover silver from photographic film.

(from 1984) washingtonpost.com

The trial went on without MacKay, but the decision was later overturned in 1990 on appeal. Apparently Illinois tried three times to get this guy extradited:

A fifth defendant, Utah businessman and former Film Recovery vice president Michael MacKay, has been the subject of three unsuccessful extradition requests by Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson. Utah officials said they questioned whether he could receive a fair trial.

apnews.com

So yeah, it’s a thing that very occasionally happens.