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U.S. officials eventually guaranteed that Soering would not face the death penalty; he was returned to the U.S. last year and sentenced to life in prison. Last November a similar commitment was made in the case of Charles Donald Short, a U.S. Air Force sergeant stationed in the Netherlands, who had allegedly murdered and dismembered his wife in 1988. Dutch justices cited the same convention before Short was handed over to U.S. authorities.
In Canada groups such as Amnesty International have been arguing against Ng's return, but 100,000 Canadians have written to the government to insist that he be sent home. Says George Bears, a director of Victims of Violence, an advocacy group: "If Canada doesn't return Ng to the U.S. unconditionally, then Canada's status as a haven for capital-murder cases will be guaranteed." Concurs Bill Domm, a Member of Parliament: "We should not be judging the American justice system." In the U.S., argues Ward Campbell, a California deputy attorney general, "we have a system for capital punishment that gives the defendant unparalleled procedural protection." In fact, California has not executed anyone for 24 years. Mass murderers Charles Manson and Juan Corona were sentenced to death, but their sentences were commuted to life in prison.
Some countries, on the other hand, have shown that they can overlook the death penalty even while they officially decry it. Mexico and the U.S., for example, have an extradition treaty similar to the U.S.-Canada pact. But in 1989, Mexican authorities received no guarantees of mercy from the U.S. before swiftly deporting Ramon Salcido, 29, who had escaped to Mexico after a killing spree in California. Last December, Salcido was convicted on seven counts of murder and sentenced to death. He has appealed and is in San Quentin Prison. In his case, Mexican officials felt that good cross-border relations were more important than worries about one man's possible fate.