The U.S. Justice Department indi­cat­ed that it may no longer feel bound by extra­di­tion orders from oth­er coun­tries against the seek­ing of the death penal­ty in the U.S., a sig­nif­i­cant pol­i­cy shift that experts feel could hin­der inter­na­tion­al rela­tions. In a pre­lim­i­nary case memo by fed­er­al District Court Judge Jack Weinstein, it was not­ed that a fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor had stat­ed that offi­cials in Washington believe a Dominican judge’s order to not seek the death penal­ty for an extra­dit­ed man is ​“not bind­ing.” Weinstein’s memo stat­ed that he believes the U.S. should hon­or the extra­di­tion order to not seek a cap­i­tal con­vic­tion, as it has in all pre­vi­ous orders issued by extra­dit­ing nations. Although the Justice Department lat­er announced that it would not seek the death penal­ty against the defen­dant, Weinstein has insist­ed that fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors pro­vide fur­ther expla­na­tion of their asser­tion. A Justice Department spokes­woman said that ​“as a mat­ter of pro­ce­dure” all fed­er­al death penal­ty deci­sions are reviewed by depart­ment offi­cials in Washington and that ​“in this spe­cif­ic case” offi­cials decid­ed not to seek the death penal­ty. Hofstra University law pro­fes­sor Eric Freedman not­ed: ​“If the coun­tries of the world are to be left in doubt on this point, I would expect you are not going to see extra­di­tions until that doubt is removed.” (New York Times, June 19, 2004) See International Death Penalty.

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