EVERY Extradition Treaty Means The Same Thing: We Trust Your System, and You Trust Ours.

[Fred Sanders]

107. Agreed, the final step is approval by the State Department, then the politics begin, but I thought

we were talking legalities, not the politics of the matter.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/02/01/269546798/knox-case-could-put-u-s-in-an-extradition-quandry

A Decision For The State Department

When a country makes a valid extradition request, it's ultimately up to the State Department to decide whether or not to follow through.

Now, the U.S. has an extradition treaty with Italy, and politics shouldn't make a difference in the process, according to Clive Nicholls, a barrister in the U.K. who works on extradition cases and co-authored a book on the subject.

"You have a treaty, you apply it, and you are meant to do so dispassionately," Nicholls says.

That sounds pretty simple, but in reality, political considerations often call the shots.

"It certainly has happened where the secretary of state has decided not to extradite, even though there was no legal hurdle," says Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association.

"In making that decision, the secretary of state doesn't even have to give any reason for doing it," he says. "Under U.S. law, he or she can just make the decision."