Due to the expedited hearing schedule that the court faced when Miura was still on Saipan, it issued an order in 2008 allowing for Miura’s extradition. This opinion provides the legal reasoning behind the order that allowed Miura to be extradited.
In Nov. 1981, Miura and his wife Kazumi were vacationing in Los Angeles, California when they were attacked by an unknown assailant. Miura’s wife later died as a result of her injuries. California and Japan both charged Miura in connection with her death. Miura was initially convicted in Japan, but in 1998, his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Japan.
On Feb. 22, 2008, Miura came to Saipan, and upon his arrival he was detained by commonwealth law enforcement acting on an outstanding felony arrest warrant issued in California in 1988.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger subsequently signed a formal requisition requesting Miura’s extradition to California to face murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges.
In response to the extradition request, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial issued a arrest warrant on March 12, 2008, which ordered commonwealth law enforcement officials to detain Miura and make him available for extradition.
Miura challenged the extradition by petitioning the CNMI Superior Court for a writ of habeas corpus.
A writ of habeas corpus forces the government to release a prisoner if the issuing court believes that the prisoner is wrongly held.
Miura argued that because Japan already found him innocent, he could not be charged for the same crime in California because California does not allow a person to be tried twice for the same offense.
Miura believed that because he could not be tried in California, the commonwealth courts must release him.
The Superior Court held that whether Miura could not be tried in California because he was already tried in Japan was a question for the California courts and not the commonwealth courts.
Miura then filed an emergency appeal to the CNMI Supreme Court, which granted a stay of extradition while they heard his arguments.
The Supreme Court held that a stay of extradition is proper when a petitioner may lose their right to appeal their extradition by being removed from the court’s jurisdiction while the appeal is being heard.
The Supreme Court also held that pursuant to binding U.S. Supreme Court precedent the only matters a commonwealth court may review when considering a petition for writ of habeas corpus are that the documents are in order, the prisoner is correctly identified, that he is a fugitive, and that he is charged with a crime in the demanding state.
Any question concerning the merits of the charges against an individual must be examined by the courts of the state seeking extradition.
The CNMI Supreme Court lifted the stay of extradition and affirmed the Superior Court’s order allowing Miura’s extradition to California.
On Oct. 10, 2008, he committed suicide by hanging himself in his Los Angeles jail cell, Los Angeles police said.
The Supreme Court’s full opinion is Government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands v. Kazuyoshi Miura, 2010 MP 12, and can be found at http://www.justice.gov.mp/.
