House Judiciary Committee weighs S.87 changes to extradition waivers and judicial review

The House Judiciary Committee on April 24 examined draft 2.3 of S.87, a bill that would change how Vermont treats out-of-state pre-signed extradition waivers and add a limited role for courts in authenticating those waivers, witnesses and committee members said.

Assistant Attorney General Todd Dalos told the committee the updated draft “clarifies” that an individual may be extradited without a governor’s warrant if three criteria are met and that new language on page 3 “basically says that the following 3 requirements have to be met.” He said the most substantive change is a bifurcated authentication step now placed in subsection 2: when the person has been charged but not convicted the matter “has to go to court and a judge will review it immediately,” and when the person is post-conviction corrections or law enforcement could authenticate the waiver.

The judicial witness — a Vermont Superior Court judge who identified the practical and constitutional issues courts would confront — told the committee the draft leaves unclear what “authenticated” and “immediately” mean in practice. The judge warned that under the draft the court…