Superior Court Associate Judge Ramona V. Manglona will preside the bail hearing.
California is awaiting Miura’s return to Los Angeles, where his then 28-year-old wife Kazumi was fatally shot in the head by an unknown assailant.
His defense team said Miura should be released pending his extradition because it violates his right to liberty under the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment.
Bruce Berline, Miura’s lead defense attorney, argued in court papers he submitted yesterday that although there are many courts that deny bail mainly due to the perception that releasing extraditee on bail jeopardizes the government’s ability to produce an extraditee at the time it becomes obligated, there are other factors to be considered.
Citing the case of People v. Ruiz, one of the three case laws that Manglona asked the prosecution and the defense to review, Berline said: “The Ruiz opinion is distinguishable from the case at bar as the CNMI does not have a statute which explicitly prohibits bail and mandates incarceration after a warrant is issued, a point that Ruiz court acknowledges unique to California.”
The prosecution team of Assistant Attorneys General Mike Nisperos and Jeffery Warfield Sr., countered that although California appears unique in denying bail to extradition subjects by statute, “it must be acknowledged that the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act does not provide for bail, adding that the majority of American jurisdictions deny bail in extradition procedures.”
They added, “As that decision points out, ‘The rationale of these decisions is that because the fugitive is being held for another state he should be readily available to be turned over to those who arrive to return him. A presumption exists that the demanding state will accord the fugitive all his legal rights, including that of bail.’ ”
The prosecution said Miura has a documented history of felonious activities.
At 18, the Tomisaka Police Station arrested Miura for arson.
When he turned 19 in 1966, Miura was again arrested, this time by the Harajuku Police Station, for theft and forgery.
Two months later, the Yamada Police Station arrested him for theft and the Hodogaya Police Station also came after him amid complaints of arson, intimidation, wounding through robbery and theft, court documents showed.
In 1979, Miura’s girlfriend, whom he had insured, mysteriously disappeared in California. Her decomposing body was later found in a vacant field.
L.A. Police Department Detective Rick Jackson said in his affidavit that Miura traveled to California at the time his girlfriend disappeared.
During the 1990s Miura was held responsible for the death of his wife Kazumi but Japan’s high court acquitted him of the offense and set him free in 2003.
California wants him to be tried for the same crime.
But his defense team argued this would subject him to double jeopardy.
“Mr. Miura’s main defense revolves around the application of California’s double jeopardy statute to this extradition matter which precludes California from prosecuting Mr. Miura on criminal charges involving an alleged murder stemming from an incident which occurred over 26 years ago in 1981,” said Berline.
“California has provided no explanation for its delay of over 26 years in extraditing Mr. Miura. California consented to and allowed Japan to prosecute Mr. Miura rather than extradite him from Japan in the 1980s,” he added.
