[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H7777-H7779]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




EXPRESSING SENSE OF THE CONGRESS THAT THE PRESIDENT SHOULD RENEGOTIATE 
                     EXTRADITION TREATY WITH MEXICO

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the 
resolution (H. Res. 381) expressing the sense of the Congress that the 
President should renegotiate the extradition treaty with Mexico so that 
the possibility of capital punishment will not interfere with the 
timely extradition of criminal suspects from Mexico the United States.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                              H. Res. 381

       Whereas under the Extradition Treaty Between the United 
     States of America and the United Mexican States, Mexico 
     refused to extradite murder suspect and U.S. citizen Jose 
     Luis Del Toro to the United States until the State of Florida 
     agreed not to exercise its right to seek capital punishment 
     in its criminal prosecution of him;
       Whereas under the Extradition Treaty Mexico has refused to 
     extradite other suspects of capital crimes; and
       Whereas the Extradition Treaty interferes with the justice 
     system of the United States and encourages criminals to flee 
     to Mexico: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of 
     Representatives that the President should renegotiate the 
     Extradition Treaty Between the United States of America and 
     the United Mexican States, signed in Mexico City in 1978 (31 
     U.S.T. 5059), so that the possibility of capital punishment 
     will not interfere with the timely extradition of criminal 
     suspects from Mexico to the United States.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Gilman) and the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hamilton) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman).
  (Mr. GILMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)


                             General Leave

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
on H. Res. 381.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller) appealed to me 
some time ago to move this resolution which he sponsored in response to 
a heinous murder which occurred in his district in the State of 
Florida.
  I recently received a letter from James Bellush whose wife Sheila was 
a victim of this brutal slaying, in which he wrote as follows, and I 
quote:

       On November 7, 1997, Jose Luis Del Toro, Jr., entered my 
     home in Sarasota, Florida and murdered my wife, the mother of 
     6 children. Jose Luis Del Toro murdered her in front of my 23 
     month-old quadruplets who watched their mother bleed to 
     death. They were in the house with her dead bloody body for 
     well over 3 hours until my 14 year-old stepdaughter came home 
     from school and found this macabre scene.

  Mr. Del Toro is a natural born American citizen wanted in context 
with this murder, and after confessing to his crimes, he fled to Mexico 
where he has taken refuge within the Mexican Government's 
interpretations of the provisions of our bilateral extradition treaty 
and now within Mexico's judicial system.

                              {time}  1815

  The United States-Mexico extradition treaty establishes the Mexican 
Government may, may refuse to extradite persons for crimes punishable 
by the death penalty. The words ``extradition may be refused'' in 
article 8 of the treaty, these nonmandatory words suggest that the 
Mexican Government could have returned Mr. Del Toro without delay.
  Although the State of Florida, clearly for good reason, wished to 
seek the death penalty, the prosecutors in the case agreed to waive the 
death penalty at the Mexican Government's insistence. Now Mr. Del Toro 
still sits in Mexico, appealing the extradition ruling, while Sheila 
Bellush's family is grieving, deprived of the justice they truly 
deserve.
  Mexico's insistence of not returning United States citizens to face 
the death penalty creates a safe haven for the worst criminal elements 
and clearly interferes with the timely extradition of these criminal 
suspects to our own Nation. I cannot understand the Mexican 
authorities' fastidiousness. In this case, they chose to refuse to 
return one of our own citizens to face justice for a horrific capital 
crime.
  Mr. Speaker, let us send a message to the Mexican Government that 
Jose Luis Del Toro belongs before a jury of his peers under the laws of 
the State of Florida where he is alleged to have committed his crimes.
  Accordingly, I urge my colleagues to join in strongly supporting this 
resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I commend the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller) and 
other members of the Florida Delegation for bringing this issue to our 
attention. The murder on November 7, 1997 was a brutal and unspeakable 
crime. We are certainly right to want to find a way to ease the 
suffering of the family of the victim.
  While I have reservations about the approach taken by this 
resolution, which I will state in a moment, I do not plan to oppose the 
resolution.
  Mexico is one of a number of countries that demands that criminals 
they extradite to the United States not be

[[Page H7778]]

subject to the death penalty. Notwithstanding this restriction, Mexico 
regularly extradites criminals to the United States, including suspects 
of capital crimes.
  It is my understanding in this case that the Florida prosecutor has 
given the necessary assurances that Mr. Del Toro will not be subject to 
the death penalty. It is also my understanding that the Government of 
Mexico has made clear that they want to extradite Mr. Del Toro to 
Florida, but that the appeals process in the Mexican judicial system, 
not the requirement regarding the death penalty in the extradition 
treaty, is holding up his reckoning with the U.S. judicial system. We 
would all like to see him before a jury in Florida sooner, not later. 
Reopening the extradition treaty will not I think hasten the arrival of 
that moment and will likely, more than likely further complicate this 
and other extraditions that we would like to see from Mexico.
  Mr. Speaker, I might just say that it is my understanding that the 
administration opposes the resolution. Given the constitutional 
restrictions on the death penalty in Mexico, there is no flexibility 
for the Government of Mexico to renegotiate a treaty that will not 
require reassurances against the death penalty. The administration I 
think also opposes reopening the negotiations on the treaty for fear of 
losing what it considers important concessions that we won when the 
treaty was first negotiated in the 1970s. For these reasons, while I do 
have some reservations about H. Res. 381, I do not oppose it.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Miller), the sponsor of this resolution.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding me this time.
  I thank the gentleman for bringing this issue before the Committee on 
International Relations and having it passed, and that it be brought 
under suspension of the rules here today and be debated and voted on. 
It is a very critical and very important issue to my constituents back 
in Sarasota, Florida, because it was a horrible, horrible crime that 
was committed last November.
  What we are concerned with in this legislation is not so much the 
case of the murder of Sheila Bellush, but for the great concern we have 
for the future cases that happen in the future, and we would like to be 
able to answer that problem now.
  I would also like to thank Jamie Bellush, the widower of the murder 
victim in this case, for his determination and his desire to protect 
other families from living through this judicial nightmare. It is a sad 
reality of life that sometimes a tragedy must occur to point out a 
problem that urgently needs correcting. In this case, that tragedy was 
the murder of Sheila Bellush, a mother of 6 from Sarasota, Florida.
  On November 7 of last year, her 14-year-old daughter returned home to 
find her mother's body on the kitchen floor. Sheila Bellush had been 
shot in the face, her throat slashed, and her 2-year-old quadruplets 
were found crawling in her blood beside her body. It was certainly one 
of the most gruesome and disturbing murder scenes in Sarasota history.
  Overwhelming evidence immediately pointed to Jose Luis Del Toro, a 
U.S. citizen born and raised in Texas. Del Toro, who had fled to 
Mexico, was apprehended on November 20 of last year. Sheriff Geoffrey 
Monge and local law enforcement did an outstanding job in conducting a 
thorough and expeditious investigation of this case.
  This is where the horrifying international saga began. First, Del 
Toro was scheduled for deportation from Mexico as an illegal alien. 
Then the Mexican Government, under the authority of Section 8 of the 
U.S.-Mexico Extradition Treaty of 1978, made a calculated decision to 
make the death penalty an issue in this case by choosing to switch 
midstream to lengthy extradition procedures, rather than proceed with 
the appropriate deportation procedures that were already underway. More 
than 10 months after the murder occurred, and more than 8 months after 
our local prosecutor waived the death penalty in this case, Del Toro 
still remains in Mexico, and the Mexican Government refuses to give us 
even a broad time frame as to when he will be returned.

  Mr. Speaker, this resolution, House Resolution 381, is intended to 
send a clear and resounding message to both the administration and the 
Mexican Government: a U.S. citizen who commits a crime on U.S. soil 
must be subject to U.S. justice.
  Mr. Speaker, I wrote letters to Attorney General Reno and I wrote 
letters to Secretary Albright and no one could do anything to help. By 
signing the U.S.-Mexico Extradition Treaty of 1978, the U.S. tied our 
hands behind our back and gave Mexico the right to interfere in our 
judicial process. This is a loophole that the administration must act 
to close immediately.
  Allow me to share with my colleagues a quote from a district 
attorney:

       To allow a vicious killer to avoid the most severe 
     punishment by merely crossing the border into Mexico would 
     encourage other murderers to seek refuge there, creating an 
     easily accessible sanctuary for the very worst criminals.

  This is not a quote from our State's Attorney in Sarasota, this is a 
quote from Gil Garcetti, the district attorney of Los Angeles. That 
statement was made in reference to the extradition case of David 
Alvarez, who fled to Mexico after allegedly committing multiple murders 
in California. As in the Del Toro case, Mexico demanded that Garcetti 
waive the death penalty. An important point to be made about this 
situation is that it occurred 2 months before the Del Toro case, 
proving that this is not an isolated situation, and that it can happen 
again.
  Mexico might as well post a sign at the border that says, ``Murderers 
Welcome,'' and I do not think that is the type of tourist industry 
Mexico wants to encourage.
  Florida State Attorney Earl Moreland and Charlie Roberts, his 
Assistant State's Attorney, also need to be recognized and commended 
for their outstanding job on this case, and they have worked 
professionally and diligently to bring Del Toro to justice in spite of 
these frustrating and difficult circumstances that we have today.
  The people of Florida should have decided whether or not Jose Luis 
Del Toro's crime warranted the death penalty, not the Mexican 
Government. As a Member of Congress, I cannot and I will not stand by 
quietly as Mexico deprives my congressional district of the right to 
pursue justice. This is an outrage. It is a violation of U.S. 
sovereignty, and we cannot allow it to happen again.
  Mr. Speaker, this resolution sends a clear signal: Eliminate the 
loophole in this treaty that allows the most dangerous of criminals to 
escape justice. Sheila Bellush will not have died in vain if we can 
learn from our lesson with this experience and prevent this situation 
from happening again.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for bringing this resolution to 
the floor.
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I commend the gentleman for his eloquent 
remarks and his strong support for this resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Brady), a member of our Committee on International Relations.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished chairman 
of the Committee on International Relations for yielding me this time.
  Today I rise in strong support of House Resolution 381, and I am 
pleased to be a cosponsor of this resolution introduced by the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller).
  Mr. Speaker, this resolution is not a debate about the use of the 
death penalty. Officially United States policy supports the use of the 
death penalty, and therefore, our agreements ought to reflect it. This 
does not mean supporters of the death penalty, which I am one of, 
relish it, but believe that, in fact, in our country, in our criminal 
justice system, it is in some parts the only measure of justice many 
victims of violent crime will ever receive. Our extradition agreements 
ought to reflect that measure of justice.
  We have a constitutional responsibility to renegotiate our 
extradition treaties for our constituents who have to deal with the 
tragic loss of a friend or family member. As Mr. Bellush writes,

[[Page H7779]]

and as the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller) talked about earlier 
today, Mexico unfortunately is setting itself up as a safe harbor for 
murders and capital criminals that commit crimes in the United States. 
Mr. Del Toro is an American citizen who killed another American citizen 
on American soil. Mexico has no business holding on to him any longer.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not an isolated case. We find this an obstacle 
in our efforts to stop violence, money laundering, and drug trafficking 
across our borders, and the extradition treaty becomes an obstacle to 
justice in those areas as well. I am proud as a representative from 
Texas to share a common border with Mexico, and we share many 
commonalities, but we ought to respect each other's criminal justice 
system enough to allow the laws and the justice of each country to 
prevail.
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Dreier).
  (Mr. DREIER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished chairman of the 
Committee on International Relations for yielding me this time. I rise 
in support of this resolution.
  I will say that I am a little concerned about the prospect of our 
engaging in the idea of singling out one country, but I will say that 
in light of that, it is important for us to recognize that this has 
happened in other instances in other countries, and it is a problem, it 
is a very serious problem.
  As has been said by several of my colleagues, I just heard the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady) say that this is not an isolated case; 
there are several instances. I know that the gentleman from Florida 
(Mr. Miller), with whom I have been privileged to work on this issue 
for quite a while, did raise the southern California incident of David 
Spooky Alvarez where we had small children murdered, and again, he fled 
across the border, and it has been a long and very difficult, painful 
struggle for many people in southern California.
  So we have had instances, as was said in Florida and Texas and other 
places, and there are other countries too that have been difficult to 
work with on this.

                              {time}  1830

  But I would just like to say that I believe that this resolution is 
in order, and it is a very appropriate thing for us to pursue.
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the vice chairman of the 
Committee on Rules, the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) for his 
supportive remarks with regard to this measure.
  Mr. DAVIS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 381 
expressing the sense of the Congress that the President should 
renegotiate the Extradition Treaty with Mexico so that the possibility 
of punishment by the death penalty does not interfere with the timely 
extradition of criminal suspects from Mexico to the United States.
  At this time, I would like to commend my fellow Floridian, Mr. 
Miller, for introducing this legislation. As you have all heard, this 
legislation was introduced after the brutal murder of a mother in 
Sarasota, Florida. The evidence in this case immediately led to the 
accusal of Jose Luis Del Toro, a citizen of the United States from 
Texas. However, when the warrant was issued, Del Toro had already 
illegally fled the country into Mexico.
  Mexican officials captured Del Toro and should have extradited him to 
Florida immediately to stand trial for the murder of Ms. Bellush. Under 
the Treaty with the United States, however, they do not have to return 
individuals, even those who enter their country illegally like Del 
Toro, when capital punishment remains a possibility.
  This case should be of concern to those of us who represent border 
states. Easy access to Mexico provides the potential of enticing even 
more criminals to flee the United States in an attempt to avoid 
punishment for the crimes they commit.
  Mr. Chairman, the most disturbing point about this case is that it 
tarnishes the integrity of our criminal justice system. At a time, when 
there is a backlog of court cases and our prosecutors are already 
overloaded, this case has resulted in the unnecessary delay in what 
prosecutors believe would have been an open and shut case. In addition, 
our current treaty allows foreign countries to flagrantly disregard the 
laws of a state because it does not agree with the punishment provided 
in that state. I was appalled to learn that the United States actually 
allows Mexico to interfere with our state judicial systems through the 
Extradition Treaty signed in 1978.
  Allowing Mexico the right to continue to deny extradition if the 
suspect in question is subject to the death penalty is wrong. Our 
states' laws must prevail in these cases, particularly in murder cases. 
I strongly encourage the President to renegotiate our Extradition 
Treaty with Mexico so that more criminals are not allowed to escape the 
laws of our states.
  I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 381.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to insert into the Record information 
compiled by the Congressional Research Service illustrating that many 
of the United States' bilateral prisoner extradition treaties include 
this same exception for fugitives who face the death penalty in the 
United States.
                                   Congressional Research Service,


                                          Library of Congress,

                                   Washington, DC, March 19, 1998.
     To: Honorable David Dreier; Attention: Brian Faughnan.
     From: Larry M. Eig, Legislative Attorney, American Law 
         Division.
     Subject: Capital Punishment Provisions in Extradition 
         Treaties.

       We are sending this memorandum in response to a March 12, 
     1998, telephone conversation with Brian Faughnan of your 
     staff.
       The United States is party to over 100 bilateral 
     extradition treaties.\1\ Except for our extradition treaty 
     with Venezuela, those extradition treaties that were signed 
     before 1960 were silent on capital punishment. However, as 
     more countries have barred capital punishment,\2\ there has 
     been a concomitant trend toward including capital punishment 
     restrictions in new extradition agreements.\3\ Except for 
     recently negotiated agreements with certain eastern Carribean 
     nations \4\--none of which appears to have barred the death 
     penalty under its domestic law--the inclusion of capital 
     punishment restrictions has become standard. We have yet to 
     find a restricted treaty that has been replaced by an 
     unrestricted agreement.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
     \1\See 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3181 note.
     \2\ Amnesty International, The Death Penalty: List of 
     Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries (August 1997), 
     retrieved March 17, 1998, through <www.amnesty.org>.
     \3\ Not all treaties with death penalty restrictions are with 
     countries that bar capital punishment. For example, our 
     recent treaty with Malaysia has a death penalty restriction 
     even though both Malaysia and the United States retain the 
     death penalty.
     \4\ These countries include Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, 
     St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the 
     Grenadines, Dominica, and Antigua and Barbuda.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
       Treaties that include death penalty restrictions \5\ 
     include agreements with the following: Argentina; Australia; 
     Bahamas; Belgium; Bolivia; Brazil; Canada; Colombia; Denmark; 
     Finland; Hong Kong; Hungary; Ireland; Israel; Italy; 
     Malaysia; Mexico; Netherlands; New Zealand; Norway; Paraguay; 
     Philippines; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; United Kingdom; and 
     Uruguay.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
     \5\ Capital punishment provisions in extradition treaties do 
     not outright bar extradition for capital offenses from 
     countries without the death penalty. Instead, the provisions 
     generally authorize the requested State to withhold 
     extradition for an offense that is not punishable by death 
     under its domestic law until the requesting State gives 
     adequate assurances that the death penalty will not be 
     imposed and executed if extradition proceeds.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
       We have not exhaustively examined each of our extradition 
     treaties, and the foregoing list is illustrative only. Other 
     extradition treaties also may contain death penalty 
     restrictions. Also, the authorities of a requested State 
     potentially may refuse extradition on humanitarian or similar 
     grounds even absent any specific treaty provision. Finally, 
     there are many countries with which we have no extradition 
     treaty, and those countries are not under any obligation to 
     extradite an individual to the U.S. under any circumstances.

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hefley). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman) that the House 
suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res 381.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________