U.S. Appellate Court Reverses Lower Court, Upholds Specialty in Venezuelan Extradition

On May 23, 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously upheld the condition of a Venezuelan grant of extradition that a relator could not be sentenced to more than thirty years in prison, reversing a district court decision. Cristobal Rodriguez Benitez was arrested in Venezuela and extradited to the U.S., where he was tried and convicted of murder in a California Superior Court (San Diego) and sentenced to an indeterminate sentence of fifteen years to life. He petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus.